§ MR. T. P. O'CONNOROn behalf of the hon. Member for Canterbury (Mr. HENNIKER HEATON), I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, under what authority the transmission of samples of rubber by British firms by pattern post has been absolutely prohibited within the last few days, on the ground that the odour of it is injurious to other correspondence or annoying to the officials, although such samples have been transmitted by post for 30 years without injury to the mails, and are still freely introduced from abroad and delivered in this country by the British postal authorities; is he aware that the rubber trade of Liverpool exceeds six millions sterling per annum, and that the fact that the prohibition of the posting of British samples has been to transfer that trade bodily into the hands of foreign manufacturers; whether he has been informed that by certain processes the odour of crude rubber is now largely got rid of, and that by packing the substance in a tin canister any remaining odour is entirely suppressed; and whether he will at once give directions that the said prohibition shall not apply to samples packed in air-tight canisters?
§ MR. HANBURYThe exclusion of crude rubber from the sample post was decided upon on the ground that it is 172 the duty of the Post Office to protect the contents of the mails. By 47 and 48 Vict. c. 76 articles such as crude rubber which are likely to injure the other contents of the mails cannot be admitted to the Sample post. It is a necessary condition that samples must be packed in such a manner as to be easily withdrawn for examination, and this would of course be impossible in the samples packed in air-tight canisters. The prohibition applies equally to samples of crude rubber received from places abroad as to those posted in this country, and my hon. Friend is mistaken as to his facts. Neither is it the fact that such samples have been transmitted for 30 years without injury to the mails. In 1894 parcels containing crude rubber were forbidden to pass through the post, unless so packed as to render the smell imperceptible, but continued trouble has been given by the dispatch of these substances.