§ MR. A. M. SULLIVANasked the Postmaster General, If it is true he has refused to allow a post office for Doneycarney and Mornington, county 834 Meath, because the postmaster asked so high a salary as £1 a quarter, or £4 a year; and if he can state the salary Her Majesty's Government were willing to pay?
§ MR. FAWCETT, in reply, said, that some time since he received a Report that it would be desirable on public grounds to open a Money Order Office and Post Office Savings Bank at Mornington; and, considering the great advantage it would be to the people of the district, he gave his consent. When the matter became known to the postmaster, having other business to attend to, he at once absolutely refused to conduct the business of the Post Office Savings Bank and the Money Order Office. The postmaster was pressed to do so, but still refused. It was not a question of salary. Under these circumstances, thinking it very undesirable that the inhabitants of the district generally should be deprived of the advantage of having a Post Office Savings Bank and Money Order Office, and seeing no other alternative, he accepted the postmaster's resignation, and he hoped that before long he would be able to put a suitable person in his place. At any rate, he would do his best to prevent the inhabitants of the district losing the advantage of a Money Order Office and Savings Bank.
§ MR. A. M. SULLIVANThe right hon. Gentleman has apparently misconceived my Question. He has not answered the Question on the Paper; but he has answered one which I did not put. I asked if the Government refused to pay the postmaster so high a salary as £4 a-year, and I will add this—did they not offer him £3 instead of £4?
§ MR. FAWCETTIt will be in the recollection of the House that I explained, on Monday last, that the pay of these small sub-postmasters was partly dependent on salary, and partly on the amount of the Savings Bank and Money Order business transacted. It is estimated that when the Savings Bank and Money Order Office is opened, the emoluments of the postmaster at this place will be more than doubled. This was pointed out to the postmaster, and he still refused to carry on the office if he had to conduct a Savings Bank and Money Order business; and, so far as I can discover, the question of salary had nothing whatever to do with it. He 835 absolutely refused to be worried with the now business.
§ MR. A. M. SULLIVANI must ask the right hon. Gentleman whether it is or is not the fact that the postmaster was offered £3 when he asked £4?
§ MR. FAWCETTNo. What I understand is this—it was not, as I have twice before said, a question as to salary, but of the postmaster absolutely refusing to do this additional work. I understand that he has offered to carry on the Post Office without a Savings Bank or Money Order Office, if we will pay him £4. [Mr. A. M. SULLIVAN: Hear, hear!] Yes; but I am so anxious that the public should have the advantages of a Savings Bank and Money Order Office in this place, that if he had offered to do the other work for nothing, or to pay the Department for doing it, I would not let him do it if the public were in consequence deprived of these additional advantages.