§ MR. BARRIE (Londonderry, N.)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that up till 1896 the staff at Londonderry Post Office was divided, i.e., separate staffs for postal and telegraphic work maintained; that after the Report of the Tweedmouth Commission only one staff was maintained for both branches; that, this change proving unsatisfactory, the divided system was reverted to in 1903; and that during recent months the dual system has again been introduced, notwithstanding its previous failure in Londonderry and in other large centres, and whether, seeing that the Hobhouse Committee, 1907, recommended that offices such as Londonderry should have a divided staff, he will reconsider the matter in the interests of local efficiency.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) It is the practice to have a divided staff only at those offices where the volume of work and the conditions under which it is done renders specialisation inevitable, and the Parliamentary Committee did not recommend any change in this respect. The necessary conditions do not obtain at Londonderry, where amalgamation is desirable not only in the interests of the service but also in those of the staff, as a more equitable distribution of the early and late duties is thus rendered possible, and the hours of attendance can otherwise be made less irksome than if the staff were divided. The amalgamation of the staff at Londonderry was decided upon in May, 1906, as a result of the recommendations of a Departmental Committee. The matter was very carefully considered so recently as January last, and I see no reason for altering the decision which was then given.