§ MR. D. MACALEESE (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he is aware that on the night of Sunday last a mail van with mails was destroyed by fire at Mount Pleasant Station, on the Great Northern Railway, Ireland, only some of the bags being saved; whether any one was in charge of the van, or are the mails on their transit from Dublin to Belfast left without protection in the vans by which they are conveyed; has the value of the destroyed mails been ascertained, and will the loss involved be made good by the Railway Company or the Post Office; whether any explanation has been given by the manager of the Railway Company as to the origin of the fire: and, what action does he intend to take to secure that the danger of mail vans getting on fire may be as far as possible minimised?
*THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. R. W. HANBUBY,) PrestonThe Postmaster General is aware of the accident to which the hon. Member refers. The fire occurred in a locked van of mails containing about 60 letter bags and 18 parcel baskets. Of these the letter bags were saved without injury to contents, but eight baskets of parcels were destroyed. The locked van was in the charge of the travelling sorters who were in the adjoining carriage. The value of the lost parcels is not yet known, and until the cause of the fire has been ascertained no statement can be made as to the liability for the loss occasioned. The company suggest that the fire may have been due to the dangerous contents of some parcel, but the newspapers surmise that sparks from the engine may have caused the accident. Accidents of this kind are of extremely rare occurrence, but no means in the power of the Department of guarding against them are neglected.