§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, if he will state the amount charged for postage in the expenses of management of the Post Office Savings Bank for the year ending 31st December, 1897; and, in view of the fact that a large proportion of the work of sorting correspondence despatched from the Post Office Savings Bank is conducted in that Department by officers paid out of the Savings Bank management, will he consider the expediency of making some reduction in the cost of postage, more especially in regard to acknowledgments of deposits and withdrawal advices?
§ MR. HANBURYThe amount charged for postage in the expenses of management of the Post Office Savings Bank for the year ended 31st December, 1897, is £68,769. If the ordinary postage rates were charged, the amount would exceed £100,000. It is not the fact that a large proportion of the work of sorting the correspondence despatched from the Savings Bank is conducted in that Department by officers paid out of the Savings Bank management. The whole 1525 of the sorting is done by the ordinary sorting staff at the General Post Office. The sum named is believed not to exceed the actual cost to the Department of sorting, conveying, and delivering the correspondence.