REVENUE DEPARTMENTS. (Hansard, 10 June 1892)

§ MR. MORTON
Do the Government desire to take any more Votes to-night? We have done very well, and we are coming to the Post Office Vote, which is very important.

§ MR. A. J. BALFOUR
There are only three more Votes.

§ (12.45.) MR. MORTON
I wanted to ask the Postmaster General a question as to the cost of letter cards, and I 810 certainly do think if the Government desire to press this Post Office Vote tonight they might at least have requested the presence of the right hon. Gentleman to answer such questions as arise on the Vote. I do not desire to occupy the time of the Committee. I simply wish to mention that I find from communications from Vienna that the charge for letter cards there is just half what the charge is in this country; that while in this country the public pay a shilling for ten, in Austria the same number are supplied for sixpence.

§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Sir JOHN GORST,) Chatham
If the hon. Member will allow me to interrupt him, I may say that the question is now under the consideration of the Treasury, and that a decision will be arrived at in a few days.

§ MR. MORTON
If I am assured that this consideration will result in the reduction of the price of these letter cards, that answer is all I can fairly expect to-night; but the right hon. Gentleman does not say that. Certainly, I think that in this country the public should be able to obtain the cards as cheaply as they can be supplied in Austria. Now that the Postmaster General has arrived, I wish to ask him one other question. I do not see the hon. Member for Canterbury (Mr. Henniker Heaton) in his place, but I gather from what has appeared in the newspapers that the hon. Member and a few friends have made an offer to bear for three years the cost that may follow from the adoption of a system of penny ocean postage. So much I gather from the papers, and I am bound to say we are very much indebted to the Press for information which we do not get in this House, and I further understand from the same source that the Government have refused this generous offer from the hon. Member for Canterbury. From a speech of the hon. Member, delivered I think at Manchester, I understand that he did not get a very courteous answer from the Government, or any 811 indication why they refused the offer except that it is not the custom to allow anyone to guarantee losses from a service of this kind. But when we remember how often guarantees are required before telegraph offices are established in many parts of the country, we must allow that the Post Office authorities have recognised the system of guarantees, and why it should not be applied in this case I do not know. At all events, I shall be glad to have some information why it is the Government refuse to allow the experiment to be made. Personally, I think the Government ought to be prepared to adopt a system of penny ocean postage without a guarantee from anybody in the interest of the commercial community; and I think, having in view the large profits derived from the Postal Service, they would be justified in doing this.

§ MR. MORTON
Do I understand that the right hon. Gentleman refuses to give us any information?

§ (12.50.) THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON,) Manchester, N.E.
The hon. Member has referred to an offer made by the hon. Member for Canterbury and some Manchester friends to the Treasury to give a guarantee in respect of a system of ocean postage. That offer did not come before the Post Office, and, of course, the offer could not be entertained without very much consideration both as to the propriety of accepting such an offer, the nature and extent of the guarantee, the position of the guarantors, and, in short, a much more formal consideration than could be given in conversation. I think the Committee will hardly be prepared to enter upon the question as a practical one at the present time. All I can tell the hon. Member is that, as at present advised, the Government are not prepared to entertain the proposal.

§ MR. MORTON
As I understand, the guarantee offered was of an absolute and a substantial character for three years, a guarantee which to use 812 a common expression was "as safe as the Bank of England." I do not know whether the matter is finally dismissed; it would seem that the Government are not far-seeing enough and have not sufficient public spirit to give proper consideration to the offer made.