§ MR. J. WILSON (Falkirk Burghs)On behalf of the honourable Member for Canterbury, I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, (1) whether he is aware 1054 that the postal orders issued before 1st January, 1889, and unclaimed amounted to £39,841, and that the whole of this sum was appropriated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to his revenue without being credited as receipts by the Postal Department; (2) under what regulations as to time, etc., are unclaimed postal orders appropriated to the State; and (3) what is the estimated annual profit from unclaimed postal orders?
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. R. W. HANBURY,) PrestonThe answer to the first paragraph is yes. The amounts unclaimed for the years between 1881 (when postal orders were first issued) and 1889 were treated as extra receipts, because they represented the accumulations of eight years, and could not, therefore, be fairly treated as part of the Post Office revenue for one particular year. But in future, under Treasury sanction, all postal orders issued since 1888 which have been outstanding for six years and one month are credited year by year to Appropriations in Aid of the Post Office Vote. This arrangement does not preclude the amount of an order being paid to the owner at any time, but a new commission, equal to the original poundage, is levied for each three months the order has been in existence since the first three months. The amount to be paid to Appropriations in Aid for the last financial year in respect of unclaimed postal orders is estimated at £10,000.