§ MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether, in view of the fact that the Great Southern Railway of Ireland and the Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland have refused to carry Her Majesty's mails over their lines from Newcomen Bridge Junction on the Dublin Junction Railway, on the ground that the junction is unsafe, he will inquire into the nature of the alleged danger?
§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONThe Post Office has not had occasion to make any proposal to the two companies mentioned, but we are expecting to receive from the Loop Line Company a time-table for the through conveyance of the mails. We have heard that the chairmen of the companies named have expressed themselves unfavourably to the use of the line, but as it has only just been passed by the Board of Trade perhaps these objections may be got over. At all events, the Post Office 895 could not intervene in questions of railway engineering and management.
§ MR. T. W. RUSSELLIs it not a fact that owing to the condition of the line the mails are carried from one point to another?
§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONYes that is so, and we shall be exceedingly glad to avail ourselves of the loop line, so that there may be no break of bulk of the mails between Queenstown and Kingstown.