SUPPLY (16TH JULY). (Hansard, 19 July 1897)

§ CAPTAIN PIRIE (Aberdeen, N.)
said he would move the reduction of the Vote by £100, in order to call attention to an exceptional state of affairs in his constituency. A new site was required for a Post Office in Aberdeen and this matter had been before the community for some time with great divergence of opinion as to what would be the best site, increased by the fact that the Post Office Department found themselves unable, in spite of the universal opinion in Aberdeen, to provide a sum in any way sufficient to meet the present needs of the town and still less the requirements of the future. The sum proposed by the Post Office was £20,000, and this he represented was quite inadequate. The population of Aberdeen was close upon 150,000 and rapidly augmenting. Last week there appeared in The Times a letter from the hon. Member for the Wells division of Somerset, referring to a town in that constituency, where the circumstances were somewhat similar to those in Aberdeen. A very fair comparison might be drawn between Weston-super-Mare and Aberdeen, showing that the claim for an expenditure of more than £20,000 for the purpose indicated did not err on the side of exaggeration. The population of Weston-super-Mare in 1891 was 15,000, and it was proposed to give £5,000 for the site of a post office there, so that on that proposition an expenditure of £50,000 would not be too much for a population of 150,000. He did not advocate an expenditure so large as that, but he did claim that it should be more than £20,000. He begged the Secretary to the Treasury if he was not able to say at once that the Treasury would give a larger sum, at least, to say that he would postpone a definite settlement as to a site until some further consideration could be given to the matter. The Postmaster General had received deputations on the subject, and the general impression had been that the Department would be prepared to give a larger sum, but last 508 week the Post Office sent an important official to Aberdeen to confer with the Town Council, the Harbour Board, and the Chamber of Commerce, and it was naturally hoped that some decision would be come to. The important official, however, opened proceedings by saying that he was sent there with his hands completely tied and bound by two conditions, that whatever site should be chosen must be handed over to the Post Office without any loss of time, and secondly that nothing more than £20,000 was to be given, whatever representations were made by these important public bodies. They were very much incensed at this, and at the present moment there was great agitation and indignation felt throughout the constituency. Under these circumstances he was sure he would not appeal to the Secretary to the Treasury in vain for further consideration. He begged to move the reduction.

§ MR. BRYCE
said his hon. Friend had taken the only method open to him of calling attention to the mistake which he ventured to think was being made by the Post Office and the Treasury in reference to the site for the Post Office in Aberdeen. He believed the matter had been under consideration for some time and that opinions were divided between two sites. The local authorities expressed a strong view that neither of the sites which the Post Office were disposed to adopt would meet all the needs of the city and a special distaste with the site where the Post Office official informed them the Department was likely to adopt. At any rate he could say with some positiveness that the intimations which he gave as to the intentions of the Post Office were received by the bulk of the community with anything but satisfaction. The local authorities gave the Post Office to understand, through this official, that in their view the sum which the Post Office proposed to spend was quite inadequate to secure a building of the requisite size and in the requisite position. In their view £20,000 would not be sufficient to procure a building which would be of a proper size and in a position convenient to the mercantile community. Under these circumstances he appealed to the Post Office and to the Treasury to reconsider the subject and to endeavour to give better consideration to the 509 representations which had been made. He believed a slight additional expense would be sufficient to procure a site in a really central position which would give general satisfaction. He thought it would be a great pity if, for a very small sum the Post Office and Treasury were to create a sense of hardships and ill-treatment of an important mercantile community when it might with this little additional expense give satisfaction and really provide fur their work in a much more satisfactory way than they would do at the present time. He did not ask the Secretary to the Treasury to express a final opinion at this moment. He would be better satisfied if he would say that he would take the matter into his further consideration.

§ MR. HANBURY
said there would be no objection to the right hon. Gentleman laying before the Post Office any suggestions he had to make, but the matter was by no means finally settled yet. He did not think the difficulty of getting a central site in Aberdeen was as great as the right hon. Gentleman represented.

§ MR. BRYCE
said he did not intend to represent that there was any great difficulty in getting a site, but that neither of the contemplated sites gave satisfaction.

§ MR. HANBURY
said he did not know which two sites the right hon. Gentleman referred to, but as he understood the case the Corporation were anxious for a site in Union Street, which was the principal street of Aberdeen. No site could, he thought, be got there for anything under £40,000, and that was a large sum indeed to pay for the site of a post office.

§ MR. WEIR
pointed out that the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Budget speech had promised that, as a result of the meeting of the Postal Union at Washington, the foreign rate of postage would be reduced from 2½d. to 2d The Post al Union Conference was over and the expected reduction had not been agreed to. He could only attribute this failure to the fact that this country was represented at the meeting of the Postal Union by Mr. Walpole, the Secretary of the Post Office, a man who knew nothing about postal affairs, but was pitchforked into his office over the heads of men who had been many years in the service of the Department. 510 It was curious to find in the Estimates a sum of £1,500 as salary for the Financial Secretary. No such office existed. The gentleman who had filled the office had retired in October '96 long before the Estimates had been issued. He should like to know who was responsible for this blunder, but he could not help thinking that the Secretary to the Post Office was the man. In the Post Office the retiring age was 61, would that apply to the Secretary who was only three years in office? He must condemn this system of bringing in outsiders over the heads of competent men; it looked like a political job. The hon. Member said that though the late Administration was responsible as to the telegraphic guarantees in the Highlands, the right hon. Gentleman's statement had been misleading. He said that the Highlands had been treated generously. Out of 26 applications for telegraphic extensions, only in two cases were the localities able to provide guarantees. £25,000 was voted for telegraphic extensions all over the country; but last year only £15,000 was spent and the rest was returned to the Treasury. Why was not that sum spent in the Highlands? It was not an uncommon thing for a letter to take four and five days to come from the remote parts of Scotland; and a man who wanted to draw half a sovereign for the savings bank, had to wait eight or ten days before he could get it. He urged the right hon. Gentleman to adopt some plan to remedy this state of things.

§ *MR. FLYNN
complained of the practice of taking men from Scotland and England and appointing them to postmasterships in Ireland, to the exclusion of local men who had served the post office well and faithfully.

§ MR. HANBURY
said it was also the case that a great number of men were taken from Ireland and appointed to good postmasterships in England and Scotland. With regard to another point which had been raised, the Post Office undoubtedly had a most valuable public servant in 511 Mr. Walpole, and no country belonging to the Postal Union had a stronger or better informed representative at Washington than the English Post Office. What happened was that we were outvoted. He pointed out that the Estimates were framed some time before any decision was arrived at as to the question raised in regard to the Financial Secretary of the Post Office. He would look into the matter which had been referred to by the hon. Member for North Mayo.