§ MR. LEWIS (Anglesey)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is a vare that the American mails landed at Queenstown are frequently delayed several hours to wait for the sailing of 1514 the mail steamer at Kingstown; what was the average time that elapsed between the arrival of each mail at Queens-town and the departure of the mails from Kingstown during the month of July in last year; whether the mails from New York to London viâ Southampton are on an average a shorter time in transit than the mails viâ Queenstown, notwithstanding that the sea route to Southampton is considerably longer than the sea route to Queenstown; whether there would be a considerable saving of time if the mails were taken direct from New York to Holyhead, and could he state what would be the average gain per voyage, and whether Her Majesty's Government will take into consideration the advisability of substituting Holyhead for Queenstown as a port of call for embarking and disembarking mails?
§ MR. FLYNN (Cork, N.)Will the light hon. Gentleman say, if the Treasury would consent to give the amount asked for, would not Queenstown be far and away the best port for the landing of the transatlantic mails?
§ SIR J. FERGUSSONI am not prepared to make any comparisons as to the advantages of Queenstown and Southampton. The American mails are not delayed at Queenstown unless it appears that to forward them specially would not accelerate their delivery; the mails from New York for England were only landed in Ireland four times in July, 1891. The average interval on those occasions was twelve hours; the third paragraph would require a voluminous Return and laborious calculation, which I should not be justified in undertaking without the expressed desire of the House. I am informed that there would not probably be any saving of time by taking the Atlantic mail steamers to Holyhead; and there is no accommodation for them there.
§ MR. SEXTON (Belfast, W.)Will the right hon. Gentleman say, is it not the fact that the Treasury are now perfectly satisfied as to the advantages of Queenstown as the port for embarking and disembarking the mails?
§ SIR J. FERGUSSONI have not received any communication from the Treasury on the subject.