§ MR. MACNEILLI beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is aware that the postmaster of the town of Kilcubbin, County Down. Thomas Shard, trading under the name of Thomas Shard and Co., is engaged as a potato, coal, artificial manure, and general merchant, and that the confidential 754 telegrams of the other business men of the town must go through the telegraphic office which is controlled by Thomas Shard; and whether, having regard to the fact that the merchants of Kilcubbin regard it as a serious grievance that they should be compelled to disclose the secrets of their business to a competing trader, he will see his way to appoint some independent person as telegraphist?
§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONNo such complaint has been received from Kilcubbin, and nothing is known here of the circumstances mentioned. Sub-post-offices are generally held by persons in business, and there must usually be others in the same place engaged in the same trade. The regulations of the Post Office, and the obligations of the persons employed, are very strict, and it is believed that they are generally fulfilled.