REVENUE DEPARTMENTS. (Hansard, 12 May 1903)

§ MR. SOARES (Devonshire, Barnstaple)
said the question which he desired to raise on the Report of this Vote was 483 the establishment of an agricultural parcel post, and whether the right hon. the Postmaster-General would appoint a Committee to consider the feasibility of such a post—the Committee to consist of Members of Parliament, farmers, and gentlemen skilled in post office work. This was a question of very considerable importance, for, without doubt it would prove a great boon to the cultivators of small holdings and, indeed, lead to a greater development of small holdings. And that was a matter in which increased interest had been taken in consequence of the introduction of the Irish Land Bill. It was not a matter which would affect to any great extent large farmers who possessed the means of sending their produce to market when they liked. Many small cultivators lived a considerable distance from a market town, because by doing so they paid less rent. What was the reason why the cultivation of perishable produce was not more general than at present? It did not arise from the incapabilities of the soil, because experts declared that the soil of this country was rich in salts and the other fertilising elements capable of producing good crops. The reason was the difficulty of transmission to market and getting into direct touch with the consumers. In most country districts there was only a market on one day of the week and the result was that the small cultivators were compelled to accept a small price for their produce. This was by no means a trumpery question. No less than £60,000,000 worth of perishable produce was annually imported into this country, including £20,000,000 worth of butter, £6,000,000 worth of eggs, and £250,000 worth of flowers. There was a ready market for flowers, and many ladies in reduced circumstances might make a little profit by cultivating their gardens and selling their flowers. He would give an instance of the difference between London and country in regard to the price of perishable produce. At Barnstaple, the town near which he lived, and which he represented, during the most prolific month of the year eggs were frequently sold at twenty-eight for a shilling, while in the West End 484 shops in London the lowest price at which eggs were sold in the same month was from eight to ten for a shilling The difference between eight and twenty-eight was a very wide margin indeed.
There was another question involved in this subject, the health of His Majesty's lieges. Many of the articles which came from abroad were packed by means of chemical preservatives, and it need not be wondered at that there was a steady increase of dyspepsia, not only amongst hon. Members, but in the general community, when one considered the amount of Belgian Borax and French Acid which every dweller in a town was obliged to consume. He knew that there were considerable difficulties in the way of establishing an agricultural parcel post, especially the difficulties of collection and of ascertaining the nature of the contents of the packages. The hon. Member for Canterbury had written a most able article on the subject in the December number of the "Nineteenth Century," in which he dealt with most of the difficulties to be overcome in establishing an agricultural parcel post. As to collection, the hon. Member suggested that depôts should be established along the various country roads, to which the farmers should send their parcels; that postmen should collect the parcels and take them to the market town, from whence they could be distributed by rail. He did not suggest that the rural postmen should themselves carry the parcels. They could not do it, even if they had the strength of Hercules, but they might be provided with a pony and cart, or even with a motor car. As to ascertaining the nature of the contents of the packages, there should be a register of the cultivators of small holdings, and they should undertake, with penalties for breach of the undertaking, to send only articles of a certain specified description. Of course he was fully aware that the whole question of an agricultural parcel post would depend, to a considerable extent, on the hearty goodwill of the farmers; but for his part, he believed that their hearty co-operation would be secured, and that the general result would be very much for the benefit of agriculture. Before he sat down he wished to give the right hon. the Postmaster-General a brief history of this question. In April, 1891, 485 a deputation waited on the late Mr. Raikes, who, in reply to their representation, said he thought that there was a very strong case for the Post Office taking upon itself the especial charge of perishable agricultural produce, the early and speedy conveyance of which was so important; and he promised to go to the Treasury to see if anything could be done generally in the direction of the proposal made. He did not know whether Mr. Raikes went to the Treasury or not, but if he did his efforts were fruitless, and he died shortly afterwards. In 1896 the matter was ventilated in the House, when the late Mr. Hanbury said that there was no objection to an agricultural parcel post, though there might be one to a reduced rate; and, moreover, the Postmaster-General would have no opportunity of ascertaining or judging how far each parcel contained agricultural produce. Again a question was put to the right hon. Gentleman the Postmaster-General in November, 1902, when the right hon. Gentleman said that the subject had been considered on more than one occasion, but the difficulties surrounding it were so great that it had not hitherto been found possible to adopt any such scheme. The right hon. Gentleman proposed, however, to examine afresh the subject as soon as he had leisure to do so. He hoped that the right hon. Gentleman had had the leisure, and that he would give the House a favourable reply that night. He moved to reduce the Vote by £100.

§ THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,) Worcestershire, E.
said the hon. Gentleman who had moved this reduction and called attention to a very important matter hoped that neither he nor the House would treat it as a trumpery one. He did not think there was any danger of the matter being regarded in any quarter in that light. He was fully conscious of the strong belief among a large section of the agricultural community that the Post Office might be much more useful than it was in the carrying of their produce to their customers. 486 It had been his earnest desire to extend the facilities of the Post Office in this direction; but up to the present he had not been able to find a solution of the difficulty. He did not, however, propose to leave matters exactly where they stood; he was making some further inquiries in regard to certain branches, and if he could see his way to produce a satisfactory scheme no one would be more delighted than he. But one or two general considerations must be borne in mind. If they were to have a scheme it must be one which at least paid its way. He did not mean to say that at the initial stage they would not be justified in incurring some loss in order to promote, a trade which they saw a good chance of securing within a reasonable time. But they ought not to undertake a trade under conditions which offered no hope of the avoidance of loss. Then the hon. Member's idea of a post confined to agricultural parcels was not a practical solution; it would neither be fair to other classes of the community nor would it be in harmony with our general Post Office system. If such a post were established, how would it be possible, for instance, to refuse the extension of facilities to the fish industry? The hon. Member spoke of the increased interest which the Irish Members took in this question in consequence of the Irish Land Bill. He was glad to think that there had been a very remarkable and extraordinary development of the Irish fishing industry under the operation of the Congested Districts Board. Surely these fishermen would be entitled to say that what had been done for one section of the community should be done for them. Any arrangement made must, he thought, be of general application.
After all, the reason why the parcel post was not more useful, or not more used by the agricultural community, was not at present a question of rates or weights. The real difficulty was that of getting these parcels from the small producer into the post office. Every Post Office was already a depot for the collection of such parcels. The difficulty was that in country districts they could not have a post office close at hand to every small holding, and that inevitably many of these producers would be separated by a considerable distance from the nearest Post Office. 487 To make this parcel post widely and largely useful it would be necessary in some way to secure greater facilities for collecting parcels. The Post Office could not undertake to send round to every house in the country to inquire whether they had any parcels to despatch or not; but he had been trying to find a way by which the present facilities for collection might be extended, and he would continue to devote his efforts to that end. The hon. Member had suggested a greater use of the horse-and-cart mails or of motor-cars. Hitherto they had not been able to make a great use of motor-cars because they could not afford to run any risk of a breakdown in the mail service; and, whilst motor-cars were useful for many purposes, they could not find a motor-car to run for seven days without liability to occasional breakdown. He should hope, as motor-cars improved, to be able to use them more largely for the parcel post and for the carriage of mails generally, especially in the country districts. He was making inquiries to see to what extent country mails were already carried by horses and carts which would lend themselves to the collection of parcels as well; but these mail carts ran upon main lines of traffic, and they could not divert them to branch lanes and to odd farmhouses without upsetting altogether the present delivery of letters and causing delay and inconvenience to correspondence. He was fully conscious of the great importance attached to this service in every quarter of the House, and he was giving it such attention as he could in the great pressure of other work. He could assure the House that it would not be for want of sympathy or of attention if he was unable to do anything more than was at present done to meet the wishes of the agricultural population and of others who might use the parcel post.

§ MR. NORMAN (Wolverhampton, S.)
asked if it was not a fact that parcels were carried nightly between Liverpool and Manchester by motor-cars, and whether the service was not satisfactory.

§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN
said that there was such a service; but occasionally there was serious inconvenience owing to the breakdown of the 488 motor-cars. They had three motor-cars on the service, one starting from each end nightly, the other being held in reserve. The car in reserve could not of course be on the spot when a breakdown occurred, and there had been very considerable delay, resulting in many complaints to the Post Office. The Post Office could not brook any breakdown, and one breakdown in the year was sufficient to make a bad service.

§ MR. SOARES
asked leave to withdraw his Amendment.