§ MR. MAURICE HEALY (Cork)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is now prepared to give any figures showing the relative volume of the mails sent from Dublin to Cork, including the American Mails, as compared with the mails from Dublin to Belfast?
§ *SIR JAMES FERGUSSONA Return has now been furnished. It shows the volume and weight of the Inland Mails conveyed to and from Dublin on the Great Northern and Great Southern and Western Railways during one week to be respectively as follows:—Great Northern—Number of bags, 2,439; weight, 28 tons. Great Southern and Western—Number of bags, 2,591; weight, 28½ tons. This is, of course, exclusive of the mails carried viâ Stranraer. During the same week the volume and weight of the American Mails conveyed both ways between Dublin and Queenstown were respectively—Number of bags, 1,117; weight, 35 tons; while the weight and volume of the Canadian Mails carried both ways between Dublin and Londonderry were—Number of bags, 194; weight, 2 tons. The figures as regards the Foreign Mails of course vary much from week to week.
§ MR. MAURICE HEALYI beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether any decision has been come to by the Treasury as regards the sum required by the Post Office Department to improve the mail service between Dublin and Cork; and, if not, when it is likely that a definite reply can be given?
§ *MR. GOSCHENNegotiations are in progress on this subject, and I hope that a definite decision will be given before long.
§ *MR. GOSCHENIn a week's time. Negotiations are now going on, and a decision will probably be given before that time.