*GENERAL LAURTE (Pembroke and Haverfordwest)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether the sum shown as Item F, Vote 4, for Post Office Packet Service, and given in detail as between Great Britain, Canada, Japan and Hong Kong, is really a payment for the carriage of Mails solely between Vancouver on the Pacific Coast of Canada and Japan and China; and, if so, what payment is made for the carriage of the mails from Great Britain to the eastern ports of Canada, and for the land carriage from Halifax or Quebec respectively across Canada to Vancouver; and, where the sum so provided is shown in the Estimates?
§ MR. HANBURYThe contract with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company provides for the conveyance of mails, etc., between Halifax and Quebec and Japan and Hong Kong, and not merely between Vancouver and those countries. From Great Britain to Canada the mails are conveyed by Canadian Packet with Mails for Canada itself, payment being made by the British Post Office, through the accounts with the Canadian Post Office, at the rate prescribed in the Postal Union Convention, namely, five francs per kilogramme of letters and postcards, and 50 centimes per kilogramme of other articles. The amount for 1894–5 is included at page 23 of the Finance Accounts in the total of £98,591 for Postage collected for the credit of Colonial Offices.
§ *GENERAL LAURIEIt does not appear as a separate item.
§ MR. HANBURYNo, it does not.