§ MR. GRAYSON (Yorkshire, W.R., Colne Valley)To ask the Postmaster-General, in view of the fact that over 20,000 sub-postmasters in shops receive as remuneration only £20 to £40 a year for a working day of twelve hours, without a meal hour, and that many of them are compelled out of this sum to pay for assistance if they desire to absent themselves for a single evening, whether he will take steps, without at present reopening the general question of postal employees' grievances, to make some improvement in the cases cited.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The case of the sub-postmasters was
| Percentage Reduction in Death Rate between | United Kingdom. | German Empire. | ||
| Per cent. | Per cent. | |||
| (1) 1872–6 and 1901–5 | … | … | 28 | |
| (2) 1872 and 1905 | … | … | 26 | 32 |
§ It should be added that, although the German death late has declined to a greater extent than the English death rate, it remains (in 1905) 19.8 per 1,000 of population as against 15.5 per 1,000 in the United Kingdom. In other words the death rate of Germany in 1905 was 28 per cent. higher than that of the United Kingdom.