§ MR. WILLIAM McKILLOP (Sligo, N.)I beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether, in view of the fact that the postal authorities refuse to accept gold goods, manufactured or unmanufactured, for conveyance to the Transvaal by parcels post, although such goods may be sent by parcels post to Natal, Cape Colony, and Orange River Colony, and that this regulation, made by the late Boer Government, was allowed to fall into disuse until recently, he will explain why it has been re-enforced; and whether, seeing that the only other means of sending such goods into the Transvaal is by steamer, the cost of which is almost prohibitive in the case of small parcels, and that all goods sent to South Africa by parcels post are sent at the consignor's or consignee's risk, the Post Office refusing to accept any liability whatever, he will take steps, in view of 719 the inconvenience which these regulations cause both to importers and exporters, to have them altered without delay.
§ THE POSTMASTER - GENERAL (Lord STANLEY,) Lancashire, WesthoughtonThe prohibition to which the hon. Member refers is enforced at the request of the Transvaal Post Office. That Post Office is within its rights in laying down such a prohibition, and I have no ground for interfering in the matter, and no alternative but to accede to its request.