§ MR. O'SHAUGHNESSYI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he can state whether the rate per mile that the Post Office Department was paying the Great Southern and Western Railway Company, as successors to the Waterford and Limerick Railway Company, for the carriage of the mails on the line between Limerick and Tralee, up to and ending the 1st instant, is the same as the rate per mile the Department is paying the same 714 company for the carriage of the mails on the line between Dublin and Cork and Limerick; and if not, will he explain the cause of the difference, and state the rate paid in each case.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe payments made to railway companies for the mail service are not calculated on a mileage basis; and a comparison such as that which the hon. Member suggests would not afford any reliable information on the subject. In any case it would be impossible to make such a comparison in the present instance, as no specific part of the payment made to the Great Southern and Western Railway Company is assigned to the service between Dublin, Cork, and Limerick.
§ MR. O'SHAUGHNESSYHow much per mile do the Post Office pay the railway company?
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThey are not paid by the mile at all.
§ MR. THOMAS O'DONNELL (Kerry, W.)On what basis is the payment made then?
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINIt is calculated, as far as possible, on the amount carried.