§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, will he explain why the mails are conveyed over Kessock Ferry, Inverness, as passengers' luggage; and will he state whether the mails are conveyed over both public and private ferries throughout the United Kingdom under similar conditions; and under what Act of Parliament this practice is authorised.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe Postmaster General is advised that he is entitled to claim that the postman who crosses Kessock Perry with the mails should be conveyed for the charge applicable to ordinary members of the public and their luggage. The conditions under which mails are conveyed over public and private ferries throughout the United Kingdom are not in all cases identical. In England the Postmaster General has, as a rule, a right to the free use of a ferry not only for his mails, but for any officer in charge of them. The enactment bearing on the conveyance of postmen with mails across ferries is Section 9 of the Post Office (Offences) Act, 1837 (1. Vic. c. 3G); but there are doctrines of the common law of England also bearing on the question.