HC Deb 02 August 1898 vol 63 cc848-9
* MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN

I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, when the general delivery of letters to every house in rural districts, promised by the Chancellor of the Exchequer last year, will be likely to come into operation in the townlands around Borrigone, county Limerick; will he explain why the rural postman at Borrigone, who delivers letters to certain houses in the district, does not deliver to all houses; and what wages is he receiving; and whether he will have the general house delivery carried out at once in the townlands of Toronslands, Creggs, Hazelfield, Sughinish, Dysart, and Oola, and the postmen paid the regulation scale of wages?

MR. HANBURY

The Postmaster General sanctioned in March last a delivery of letters from Borrigone post office to Dysart, and some other places in the neighbourhood. This delivery only lasts an hour and a half, and the messenger performing it is paid 3s. a week, the correct amount according to the regulation scale of wages. Inquiry was already being made with a view to further extensions of the delivery of letters near Borrigone, and the Postmaster General has just issued instructions for the establishment of a delivery to all unserved places in the district, including the townlands mentioned in the honourable Member's Question, except Toronslands and Oola, which are not at present known as part of the neighbourhood referred to. The postman to be employed on the new delivery will be paid according to the usual scale of wages.