63. Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTTasked the Postmaster-General for what reasons the burgh of Newburgh, Fifeshire, has been 34 deprived of its Sunday mail; whether ho is aware that many of the residents availed themselves of the facilities for receiving the Sunday mail by calling at the post office, and that much inconvenience will be caused by the stoppage of the mail; and whether he proposes to stop all Sunday delivery of letters in England?
§ The ASSISTANT POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. Pike Pease)The contract for the Sunday mail cart service between Ladybank and Strathsiglo (on which the service to Newburgh depended) came to an end recently as a result of the death of the contractor, and as the cost of the Sunday service was out of proportion to the number of letters delivered my right hon. Friend could not, especially in present circumstances, continue it. In similar circumstances similar towns in England either have lost or would lose Sunday deliveries. On a recent Sunday fifty-three persons called at Newburgh Post Office, and eighteen letters were delivered to fourteen of them.