§ MR. SCHWANN (Manchester, N.)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether the minimum pay of postmen in the large provincial towns has been reduced from eighteen shillings—at which it stood previously—to seventeen shillings; and whether he could arrange that postmen in the Manchester Post Office of all classes, not merely the superior officers, should have the same scheme of holidays as is understood to exist in the London General Post Office—namely, that holidays should be taken between the months of March and October, avoiding thus the inclement winter season; and why the issue of the third good conduct stripe is limited to a certain number of recipients, whilst the issue and second good conduct stripes is unlimited?
§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONIn the large provincial towns the minimum of the postman's scale has been reduced from eighteen shillings to seventeen shillings a week. The maximum of his scale has at the same time been raised from twenty-eight shillings to thirty shillings a week; and even at the minimum he receives now much more than he received under the old scale, inasmuch as he has now, what he had not before, a special payment for Sunday duty. In Manchester a postman who has his leave between November and April in one year has it between May and October in the next. Inquiry will be made whether without undue expense any more liberal arrangement can be made. The good conduct badge of three stripes, unlike the badges of one and two stripes, is limited in point of number.