MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN (Kilkenny City)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, will he explain why the guarantors of the Kilmessan telegraph office have been asked to pay £4 6s. 5d. out of a total deficit of £6 in the receipts as compared with the cost of working of that office for the first year of its establishment; and, whether, as this is a departure from the rule requiring payment of only half the deficit, this demand should be reduced to one-half?
§ MR. HANBURYThe rule under which payment of only half the deficit in respect of a guaranteed telegraph office is required, did not come into force until the 22nd June. The Kilmessan office was opened in the previous January, and, therefore, would obtain the benefit of the reduction only after Jubilee Day. In the current year, if there should again be a deficiency, the full reduction of one-half will be allowed.