§ MR. W. F. LAWRENCE (Liverpool, Abercromby)asked the Postmaster General, Whether the Tables issued by the Postal Machinery Company, and purporting to be the results of "Official" trials of the Hoster Stamping Machine are rightly so described; whether those trials took place in June, 1884, and March, 1886, in the presence and under the supervision of the Post Office officials, and as to those of March, 1886, under their special endorsement; whether the results there set out are disputed by the Department; and, if the trials were not so conducted, or the alleged results are disputed as aforesaid, whether the Department will permit a trial of the machine to be held in the presence of the officials of the Departments, assisted by other qualified authorities?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES) (Cambridge University)There have been several trials at the General Post Office, including that in June, 1884, of the letter-stamping machines submitted by the Postal Machinery Company, at which officials of the Post Office and the manager of the Company have been present. The trial in March, 1886, appears to have been conducted at the branch office in Bedford Street, W.C., by the manager of the Company, in the absence and without the cognizance of the responsible officers of the Department. The statistics contained in the Tables issued by the Company cannot be accepted as entirely correct. I have, therefore, given instructions for the question to be re-investigated, with the assistance of an engineer to be nominated by the Chief Engineer to the Department, another to be nominated by the Company, and, as another machine has recently been under consideration, by a representative of its proprietors.