§ (6.23.) MR. MAURICE HEALY (Cork)I wish to call attention to the action of the Post Office Department in regard to a matter raised at question time—the postal facilities for the South of Ireland. I have to acknowledge the courtesy of the Postmaster General in receiving a deputation from the South of Ireland about a month ago, and so far as I am able to judge, the course he has taken is one which he has taken against his judgment, and which he would not have taken if the question had been left in his hands to decide. The right hon. Gentleman told us he was quite in favour of reform, but said the matter rested with the Treasury. I would like to show what the Post Office has done in the matter. The day mail arrives at Cork at a quarter to twelve, and it leaves Cork at ten past one. Taking into consideration the interval between arrival and delivery, and between posting and despatch, there is little more than an hour for answering correspondence. The Cork Chamber of Commerce has over and over again called attention to the matter, and some time ago succeeded in getting the right hon. Gentleman to interest himself in the subject. A similar grievance was brought to his notice with regard to the North of Ireland, and I want to call attention to the difference of the attitude of the right hon. Gentleman in the two cases. At that time the North of Ireland was better off than Cork, as there was a longer interval for answering letters. In face of that fact the right hon. Gentleman did not grudge spending £23,000 in improving the postal arrangements. He spent £5,000 in improving the train services between Dublin and Belfast, and Dublin and Londonderry, and the other part of the sum in securing an alternative route not passing through Dublin, and that 1289 for dealing with a volume of letters which the right hon. Gentleman acknowledged did not exceed the volume of local letters passing between Dublin and Cork, and which was less than the volume between Dublin and Cork if the latter included the American mail. The right hon. Gentleman has admitted that the state of things is unsatisfactory, and pointed out that the Department had spent the sum of £23,000 to give in the North of Ireland an interval of five hours between the arrival of the English mail and its dispatch, and yet the Treasury are not willing to spend £3,000 in order to improve the service to the City of Cork. Any improvement in that service would benefit not merely Cork and the whole of the South of Ireland, but the whole commercial community of England. We have been treated in a somewhat unfair manner. The Postmaster General has told us what he has succeeded in doing for the North of Ireland, and we ask the expenditure of £3,000 to secure a better Mail Service for Cork. The right hon. Gentleman tells us that the Treasury, having regard to the expenditure elsewhere, is not willing to grant us this advantage; but I think it is most unfair that the South of Ireland should be sacrificed to the interests of other places. The right hon. Gentleman does not say that the demand is unreasonable, but that the Treasury are unable to consent to it, because money has been spent elsewhere in improving the Mail Service in other parts of Ireland. Not an additional penny will the Treasury consent to spend on the Cork Service, although the benefit would be for the Anglo-American Mail Service as well as for Cork. We know how important this American Mail Service is. We know that other ports are competing with Liverpool for the American mails, and we know the advantages of this service, and what a considerable improvement the expenditure of £3,000 would effect, and the light hon. Gentleman admits the sum is a reasonable one. This is no case in which a Railway Company makes an unreasonable demand for an improvement in a local service, as was said to be the case with the Wexford Mails. Negotiations have taken place with the Great Southern and Western 1290 Railway Company, and the right hon. Gentleman has frankly admitted the Company were reasonable in their demand; and yet, after expectations have been raised, we are met with the unsatisfactory and inconclusive statement that the Treasury will not permit the right hon. Gentleman to do what he considers just and right in this matter. I quite believe that the right hon. Gentleman himself is willing to meet the wishes of the people of Cork in this matter, and I do urge him to use all influence with the Treasury that the Southern Mail Service may be put on as satisfactory a footing as the Service for the North of Ireland.
§ (6.33.) THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Sir J. FERGUSSON,) Manchester, N.E.The time at our disposal will not allow me to do full justice to the Department in relation to this subject. On several occasions I have recognised that hon. Members have a very good case in respect to the imperfect convenience the citizens of Cork now enjoy. We are constantly engaged in levelling up the Post Office Service. It is an agreeable duty when we find ourselves able to effect improvements in the Service and meet the wishes of localities. The Department can claim credit for having done much in recent years in this direction. The accounts show how much has been expended in the last few years in this manner. But everything cannot be done at the same time. We have many demands to meet. Cork does not stand alone in the position of not being satisfied with the Postal Service. There is a largo and important English port in the centre of a great industry now making very similar representations to Cork, and showing that for a few thousand pounds great improvements could be effected. All these matters are considered and noted for attention as soon as circumstances will admit. I recognise that the facilities Cork enjoys are not sufficient, and that the additional sum the Railway company asks for a faster train service, thus allowing a longer interval for the return correspondence to be prepared, is a modest and reasonable request. But the fact is the expenditure upon improvements elsewhere has exhausted the sum we can apply for this purpose 1291 for the present, and so this matter stands over for future consideration, and I shall be glad if my tenure of office should allow me the opportunity of meeting the wishes of hon. Members in this respect.