§ MR. HENNIKER HEATONI beg to ask the Postmaster General, whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that on a gentleman tendering lately for payment, through his bankers, a postal order for 1s. issued in 1886, which he had discovered amongst his papers, it was returned dishonoured; that an official demand for 1s. 6d. as commission, in addition to the halfpenny originally paid for the order, was made before the postal authorities would refund the shilling; and that the owner declined to pay 160 per cent. and preferred to let the matter drop; and whether, as the Post Office has the use of the money at compound interest, and the delay in presenting an order is obviously due to accident, he will in such cases allow payment of the whole, or at least the greater part, of the sum represented by the order, without enforcing the letter of the penal regulation as to delay in presentment?
§ MR. ARNOLD MORLEYMy attention would not be called to such a case, because the course followed is that prescribed by the 1st Section of the Money Orders Act 1880. I have no power to alter the provisions which Parliament has seen fit to make on the subject.