§ MR. EDWARD M'HUGH (Armagh, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he can make some arrangement by which the inhabitants of Poyntzpass and neighbourhood may have greater accommodation in regard to the delivery of mails; whether he is aware of the great inconvenience frequently experienced by gentlemen from England and Scotland, visiting the fair of Poyntzpass, in not having letters with instructions and bank drafts delivered to them in time for the transaction of business, owing to delay caused by nondelivery; whether he is also aware that letters from England, Scotland, and the south and west of Ireland arriving in Newry at seven o'clock in the morning are not delivered till eight o'clock the following morning, while letters for places much further north from Newry are delivered 24 hours earlier; and, as the existing contract for carriage of the mails from Newry to Poyntzpass will expire at the end of the ensuing month of May, will he remove the grievance complained of so long without redress in this case, and have the mails delivered in proper time?
§ MR. HANBURYThe Postmaster General is aware that Poyntzpass has at present only one delivery and collection a day. The correspondence from England, Scotland, and the south and west of Ireland does not arrive at Newry at 7 a.m. as the hon. Member supposes, but at 8.30 a.m., and it would be necessary to keep back the mail car for Poyntzpass for more than three hours if this correspondence were included in the dispatch, which would certainly give rise to much 1245 complaint. The only other way of improving the communication with England, Scotland, &c., would be to establish a second delivery and collection. Upon this point fuller inquiry will be made, and the hon. Member informed of the result.