§ Mr. BARNESasked the Postmaster-General if the payment for allowances from work for sub-post-offices has been cut down by 100 per cent., as applying to the larger offices handling 3,750 cases per quarter; is he aware that many of the offices which will be affected by this have found their private business entirely gone as a result of the pressure of post-office work during the War; and if he will reconsider the matter of payment and, in the meantime, defer the application of the new scale?
525W
Mr. PEASEThe rate of remuneration of scale payment sub-postmasters for Allowance Form work has recently been reduced only at offices transacting a considerable volume of such work because it was found that at such offices the former rate gave a payment out of proportion to the expense and labour thrown upon the sub-postmasters. The largest reduction has been by about 45 per cent., not 100 per cent. The question of reduction has been under consideration for nearly a year, and the Sub-Postmasters' Federation has been given opportunities of advancing valid reasons against it. I have agreed to receive a deputation on the subject, but I am not prepared meanwhile to defer application of the new rates.