§ MR. DILLONI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster-General, will he explain why the mails are not delivered in Fintona, County Tyrone, on Sunday mornings before 10 a.m., although they are despatched from Omagh, six miles distant, at 6 a.m.; and whether he is aware that the Great Northern train for Bundoran leaves Fintona on Sundays at 9.10, and that great inconvenience is caused to many inhabitants of Fintona by not receiving their letters before the departure of that train.
§ MR. HANBURYAs stated in answer to the hon. Member's question of the 19th June, the mails are due at Fintona on Sundays about 9 a.m., and the delivery commences at 9.15. There being no early morning train to Fintona on Sundays, the mails have to be forwarded by road from Omagh. They are sent by the mounted postman leaving Omagh at 6 a.m., and reaching Derrabard, about 2¼ miles from Fintona, at 8.10a.m. From Derrabard the mails are conveyed by a foot messenger to Fintona. The train leaving Fintona at 9.10 a.m. on Sundays only runs during the summer, and few passengers go by it. No great or wide spread inconvenience is therefore caused through the letters not being delivered on Sundays before the departure of this train.
§ MR. DILLONIs it not the fact that Omagh is only six miles from Fintona? Can the right hon. Gentleman explain why it takes over three hours to convey the mails that distance?
§ MR. HANBURYI think the distance is nearer eight miles. Letters have to be delivered on the road, and that, I think, sufficiently accounts for the delay.