§ COLONEL LOCKWOODI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he can state what progress has been made with the scheme for interchanging postal orders with the Colonies.
LORD STANLEYProposals for facilitating the remittance of money throughout the Empire by means of British postal orders were made to all the Colonies and Dependencies in August last. Those proposals have been already accepted in the j ease of twenty-six Colonial Administrations; and the services will be established very shortly. There is reason to hope that notification of additional adhesions will be received before long. As matters stand at present, British postal orders are procurable for remittances to this country in India, New Zealand, Sierra Leone, Malta, Gibraltar, the Straits Settlements, Hong Kong, British Guiana, Newfoundland, and at the British Post Office Agencies at Ascension, Constantinople, Smyrna, 478 Salonica, and Panama; and they can be remitted for payment in New Zealand. Sierra Leone, Malta, Gibraltar, and at the British Post Office Agencies abroad. I fully recognise the advantages of an arrangement which will simplify the remittance of small sums of money by post, not only between the United Kingdom and the Colonies, but from any one part of the Empire to another; and, so far as the Imperial Post Office is concerned, every effort will be made to render possible the general adoption of the system.