§ MR. LENG (Dundee)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is aware that on each alternate Thursday, from 30th April, 1891, to 26th November, 1891, a steamer not carrying mails by contract left Queenstown at the same time as the mail steamer, and arrived at New York on every passage from 28 to 48 hours earlier; whether the same system of sending the mails every alternate Thursday by a slow steamer has already begun this year with similar results; and whether, in the interest of the public, and especially of the commercial classes, he will endeavour to arrange that Her Majesty's mails from Queenstown shall be sent in all cases by the fastest steamers?
§ * SIR J. FERGUSSONThe contract was approved by Parliament, and was the best obtainable at the time. If the public desire to use exceptionally fast steamers put on the line on the same day as the contract mail steamers, 336 they have only to address their letters accordingly.