§ MR. GRIEVEsaid, he would beg to ask the Postmaster General, Whether, having reference to a Memorial from the inhabitants of Stornoway, dated 1st of January, 1867, to his Lordship's predecessor in Office, and one from the Chamber of Commerce at Wick, dated February last, to his Lordship, praying for proper postal accommodation—namely, "A daily steamer in summer and thrice a week in winter, as in the case of the Orkneys "—is to be carried into effect; and whether the Inhabitants of Stornoway have offered to his Lordship to pay the sum required to make up their postal revenue to the same amount as that of the Orkneys, at the period of their obtaining the mail steamer to Thurso, or an alternative proposal of £500 a year for three years, in part of the expense of a mail steamer between Ullapool and Stornoway?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONreplied that the cost of the present postal service to the island of Lewis and the expense connected with the Post Office in the island itself already absorbed the whole of the postal revenue derived from it. Any additional postal, facilities, therefore, which might be given would cause considerable loss to the general revenue of the Department. It was therefore not, under these circumstances, his intention to recommend that "a daily steamer in summer and thrice a week in winter" should be subsidized by the Government. He believed it was true that the inhabitants of Stornoway had made the proposal referred to by the hon. Gentleman in the latter part of his Question, but he could not admit that there was any analogy between the case of the Orkneys and Stornaway, I because the distance in the latter case was much greater, and the expense would, as a consequence, be much I heavier. He had only to add that; there was no intention on the part of the Post Office to make any alteration such as that which the hon. Gentleman: suggested.