§ MR. BUCHANAN (Edinburgh, W.)asked the Postmaster General whether his attention had been directed to the Inland Revenue regulations under which the halfpenny postcard stamp is affixed to sheets of cardboard for private persons; whether it is a fact that the provisions that these cards shall be stamped in London only, and that with a few specified exceptions a London agent for persons in the country must attend at Somerset House, deter traders and others elsewhere than in London from having their postcards privately printed; and whether he will endeavour to arrange that the stamping and official printing shall be done at Edinburgh, Dublin, and other large towns, and that from the country districts it shall be in all cases allowed to send the sheets direct to the stamping office, payment being made to the local authorities of the Post Office or Inland Revenue?
§ *THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES,) Cambridge UniversityMy attention has not been directed to the subject of the hon. Member's question, and no complaint has reached me. I have made inquiry of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, and am informed by them that the expense of setting up the 1787 machinery requisite to carry out the suggestion of the hon. Member in the various localities he refers to would be out of all proportion to the results to be obtained, and I fear I should not be justified in adopting my hon. Friend's suggestion.