HC Deb 24 July 1873 vol 217 cc909-11
MR. MACFIE

asked the Postmaster General, with regard to a Post Office Notice just issued, Whether he really-means after the 31st instant to require letters containing postage stamps to be registered; and if any such letter is not registered, to subject the person to whom it is addressed, before delivery thereof, to a double registration fee of eight-pence; whether this new regulation, or extension of the existing regulation as to coin will be enforced, however small the number or value of the stamps enclosed may be; whether the readiness of the people of Scotland and Ireland to acquiesce in the withdrawal, intended to take place at the same time, of the facility they have long enjoyed and habitually used in the power of remitting small notes by post; if he will lay upon the Table any Report made to him showing necessity for this rigid and novel procedure; if he will lay upon the Table the Correspondence or Minutes alluded to in the following passage from, page 7 of his Nineteenth Report to the Treasury, which has been issued this morning:— The evil to be remedied is still so great that, as you are aware, I have been obliged to ask for the authority adverted to, and, as you have been pleased to grant it, I have now to announce that, as soon as the necessary arrangements can be completed, the measure will be brought into operation; And what is the Act of Parliament on which he relies as his warrant and justification for the intended limitation of the individual convenience of the people?

MR. MONSELL

There is no intention, Sir, to require letters containing postage stamps to be registered, except in cases in which, from bad folding or packing, the contents are obvious. As the object of the regulation is to prevent temptation to theft arising from carelessness, now very common, it will, when applicable, be enforced without reference to the number or value of the stamps enclosed. The reasons for the regulalation having been fully given in the Nineteenth Annual Report on the Post Office, just issued, it is not necessary to lay any other Papers on the Table of the House. The Act of Parliament in which power is given to the Postmaster General, with the consent of the Treasury, to lay down such a regulation as the one in question is 3 & 4 Viet., c. 96. I will undertake, however, that the regulation is not put in force until my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Mr. Monk) has had an opportunity of submitting to the House his Motion on the subject.

MR. MACFIE

asked, Whether he might hope that the discussion on the subject would be taken this Session?

MR. MONSELL

said, that was a question which ought to be addressed to the hon. Member for Glocester.