§ MR. O'SHAUGHNESSY (Limerick, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, if he can state the terms of agreement under which the Great Southern and Western Railway Company carried the mails on the Limerick and Kerry Line up to the 1st inst.; what 1550 are the terms they now require for the carrying of mails on the said line to which the Postmaster General will not agree, and owing to which difference the mail service is disarranged.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN, Worcestershire, E.)The payment made to the Great Southern and Western Railway Company for the mail service on the Limerick and Kerry Line up to the first instant was £1,500 a year, and the amount which they demanded for continuing the same service after that date was £7,161 a year. The cost of the postal service throughout the district served by this line is, without including the railway payment, high as compared with the revenue from the correspondence, and even a payment of £1,500 a year was not justified according to the ordinary rule. Under these circumstances the Postmaster General was unable to agree to the terms asked by the Company; and as they would not consent to give a more convenient service than that now in force for a moderate payment, he regrets that he has had no alternative but to modify the mail service in the manner shown in the statement already furnished to the hon. Member.
§ MR. M'GOVERNArising out of that answer, may I ask if the Government has any means of compelling the Railway Companies to carry the mails by proper trains.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe Postmaster General has no such power.