§ MR. G. HARWOOD (Bolton)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, if he is aware that in the Bolton Post Office certain number of postmen, who likewise deliver letters within the town limits, are classed as rural, and therefore receive 2s. per week less wages than the corresponding town postmen, simply because they have to pass beyond the town limits, even though they have to give two attendances daily, returning to the head office after each delivery, and have also to carry the same weight as town postmen; if he is aware that when such postmen are transferred to a town walk, they have to enter at the foot of the town class, and so, though they may have been many years in the service of the Post Office, are made to rank below those who have only just entered it; and if steps will be taken to abolish this distinction?
§ MR. HANBURYThe wages of the postmen named in the Question and of the town postmen at Bolton are the same, except that the maximum of the town postmen is 2s. per week higher. The duties of the postmen in question were in 1894 considered to be lighter, and their attendances shorter than those of their colleagues employed exclusively in the town. Inquiry shall be made to ascertain whether the circumstances have since changed. The transference of a rural postman to town duties does not involve, as the Question appears to imply, any loss of wages. He continues to receive the increments already earned, and has the advantage of rising to a higher maximum. He ranks at the foot of his new class only as regards choice of time of leave and other privileges, which it is only fair not to take away from men who are already enjoying them.