§ MR. SEALE-HAYNE (Devonshire,) AshburtonTo ask the Postmaster General whether, in view of the increase in the cost of living as well as the increase of postal and telegraphic business at Newton Abbot, he will make inquiries with the purpose of placing that town in the next class, and so increasing the possible maximum salary of the staff; and whether he will consider the advisability of raising the scales of pay in the Newton Abbot Post Office to those in existence at Barnstaple and Bridgwater.
(Answered by Mr. Austen Chamberlain.) The question of the wages proper to the postmen at Newton Abbot was examined by me so recently as November last, and I explained in my reply to the right hon. Gentleman in this House on the 21st of that month that it was not considered that there are sufficient grounds for placing the postmen upon the next higher scale of wages. Their present scale is the same as that received by the postmen at Barnstaple.