§
Supply [6th June],—Further Proceeding on Report [7th June] resumed.
(23.) "That a sum, not exceeding £580,045, be granted to Her Majesty, to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March 1879, for the Expense of the Post Office Packet Service.
(24.) "That a sum, not exceeding £743,372, be granted to Her Majesty, to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March 1879, for the Salaries and Working Expenses of the Post Office Telegraph Service.
Twenty-third Resolution read a second time,
§
Motion made, and Question proposed,
That a sum, not exceeding £580,045, be granted for the Post Office Packet Service.
§ MR. FRASER-MACKINTOSHsaid, that there was included in the Vote a sum of £260 for conveying the mails betwixt Dunvegan and Lochmaddy, and he regretted to state that the postal service altogether in the Outer Hebrides was most ineffective. The Postmaster General must be aware that the counties of Inverness and Ross, and the town of Inverness, assembled in public meetings, had passed resolutions condemnatory of the service, and remonstrances from other quarters had often been made, as yet without effect. The passage was generally stormy, no sailing packet could make it regularly, and nothing short of a steam service to Lochmaddy would suffice. It was the case that letters were sometimes received in Inverness from America within a shorter period than from parts of the Long Island. There were two banks in the district, which was a populous one, and at certain periods of the year a large business connected with the fisheries was carried on. The answer hitherto given by the Post Office was, that the revenue being so small, no further accommodation could be given. This view of the Post Office, that it was a source of revenue, was only a modern one; and, while he should be glad to see a surplus, it ought to be after the requirements of the public were fully satisfied. The people in the district in question paid taxes like others of the Queen's subjects; and he thought their case, so remote, and in many respects hard, was one peculiarly calling for the consideration of Government. Here he might rest, having stated the grievance, leaving it for the postal authorities to remedy it. But he would suggest that, as the Highland Railway and its connections carried the Northern Scottish mails, and had lately contracted for the mails to the Orkney Isles, performing all the services to the satisfaction of the Post Office, the Postmaster General should put himself in communication with the Railway Company, so as to have steam service betwixt Strome Ferry and Lochmaddy. To put himself in Order, he would now move the reduction of the Vote by the sum of £260.
§ Amendment proposed, to leave out "£580,845," in order to insert "£579,085."—(Mr. Fraser-Mackintosh.)
§ Question proposed, "That £580,045 stand part of the Resolution."
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSsaid, he was not aware that the hon. Member was going to bring forward this subject, or he would have refreshed his memory upon it. But he was quite aware of the importance of the subject; and he ventured to point out to the hon. Member that if he omitted from the Vote the small sum he proposed, there would be no postal service at all with these Islands—a result that the hon. Member would be the first to deprecate. He would be glad to confer with him, and see if some arrangement could be made to meet his views.
§ Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
§ Original Question put, and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Resolution agreed to.