MR. PATRICK O'BRIENI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he is aware that an important business telegram sent by Mr. T. Harrington, a leading merchant in Johnstown, Kilkenny, to a firm of stockbrokers, Messrs. Goodbody and Webb, Dublin, on 9th June last, was so incorrectly wired from the Johnstown office as to cause serious loss to the sender, Mr. Harrington, and that the stamps were affixed to the message by the telegraphist contrary to the Post Office regulations; whether he is aware that the postmaster, Mr. White, and the assistant postmaster of Johnstown are father and son, that both are police pensioners drawing pensions of £93 and £45 per year respectively, and that their conduct of the post office has frequently given grave dissatisfaction to some of the people of Johnstown having the largest business relations with the office; whether he proposes to take any notice of the unsatisfactory conduct of the Messrs. White; and whether, in the interest of 834 the public service, he will supersede one or other of them by a properly-trained telegraphist and postal officer?
§ MR. HANBURYThe error in the telegram to which the hon. Member refers did not take place at the Johnstown office, but during its subsequent transmission. Of this error serious notice has been taken. The assistant at Johnstown has also been told that he committed an irregularity in not requiring the sender himself to affix the stamps to the message form handed in. The Johnstown office is reported to be well managed, and the sub-postmaster violates no rule of the Department by employing his son as his assistant. Nor is a police pensioner ineligible for the service of the Department.