§ MR. MOOREasked the Postmaster General, What regulations exist as to posting letters in travelling Post Offices in trains and steamers; and, whether he would consider the advisability of extending to the public such facilities as already exist in several Continental countries, by which letters may be posted at any point of the journey without additional fees being charged?
§ MR. FAWCETT,in reply, said, that letters might be posted at stations where mail trains stopped by payment of an extra ½d. The charge was analogous to the extra ½d. on letters posted after the usual time. It was advantageous to discourage the practice as far as possible, in order to delay the trains as little as possible. With regard to the second part of the Question, as to having letter-boxes fixed to the mail trains, the opinion of the Department, so he was informed, had hitherto been that it was safer to continue the practice which was now followed of giving the letters in charge of the guard or some responsible person in the letter-sorting carriage. He had no objection, however, to trying the letter-boxes; and he would give instructions that letter-boxes should be attached to one or two of the most important mail trains, on the understanding that if the experiment did not succeed 1189 the practice would be dropped. He might add that letter-boxes were kept on the decks of the steamers belonging to the Caledonian Canal Company, the Holyhead and Dublin line, and the Indian Mail Steamship line. He would see whether the system could be extended.