§ SIR FREDERICK MAPPIN (York, W.R., Hallamshire)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he can furnish to the House any instance (other than that of Bradfield, near Sheffield) where a district situated six or seven miles from a town with more than 300,000 inhabitants is restricted to a postal delivery only on three days per week; whether it is laid down as a principle in the Post Office that a daily delivery is never extended to any district where the revenue does not exceed the cost of distribution; whether any district in which there is an excess of expenditure over receipts enjoys a more frequent delivery than three days a week; and whether he will consider if the small cost involved may be incurred, in order to give better postal facilities to Bradfield?
§ MR. RAIKESI am unable to say whether there exists a precisely similar case to that mentioned by the hon. Member. It is laid down as a principle that the cost of a delivery must be covered by the revenue from the letters delivered, but no doubt there are deliveries in existence which have ceased to be remunerative. I can scarcely regard as relatively small the expense involved in improving the delivery in question, the cost of which is already 87 per cent. in excess of the revenue, and that cost would be doubled if the delivery were increased in frequency from three to six days a week.