§ MR. HENNIKER HEATONI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether the examination and testing of the Canadian and American postmarking machines by the experts of the Department are concluded; and, if so, when the public may expect to see the general adoption of such a machine throughout the United Kingdom, and the consequent substitution of a clear and legible record of the day, hour, and minute of sorting on each letter or packet for the indistinct postmarks now in use for British correspondence?
§ MR. HANBURYI stated to the hon. Member on the 5th instant that two American postmarking machines had been tried experimentally, and it is understood that two more are still to be submitted. The examination, therefore, has not yet been concluded; but I may state at once that in any case there is no probability of a general adoption of such machines at the smaller offices. Even a limited use of them at some of the largest offices must depend upon considerations of speed and cost, which have yet to be settled. As a matter of fact they do not do the work as speedily is it can be done by hand.