§ MR W. REDMOND (Clare, E.)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is aware that a letter posted at Miltown Malbay at 7 o'clock a.m. on any day takes over two full days (52 hours) to be delivered at Lisdoonvarna, a distance of 15 miles; that a letter posted at Lisdoonvarna at 4 p.m. will not reach Ballyvaughan until two days afterwards, a distance of eight miles; and that nearly five days must elapse between the date of writing a letter from one of these places to the other and the delivery of a reply; and whether, considering the importance of these places as health resorts, he will make better postal arrangements for the convenience of the public visiting them?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. A. MORLEY,) Nottingham, E.The hon. Member is under a misapprehension in thinking that the course of post between Miltown Malbay and Lisdoonvarna occupies two days. If posted at Miltown Malbay at any time before 5.5 p.m. a letter for Lisdoonvarna would be delivered next morning, and in the other direction a letter posted at Lisdoonvarna at any time before 4.20 p.m. would be delivered at Miltown Malbay next morning. As regards Ballyvaughan, the circumstances are different, the two places concerned being in different districts and served from different main lines of railway. During the summer months, however, beginning, as a rule, on the 1st of June, the communication is so far improved as to admit of a letter posted at Lisdoonvarna in the forenoon being delivered at Ballyvaughan the next morning. I hope it will be practicable to begin the Summer Service very shortly, but in the direction from Ballyvaughan to Lisdoonvarna no better arrangement than the present one can be made without incurring additional expense which the Revenue would not warrant.