§ Mr. PERKINSasked the Postmaster-General, whether his attention has been called to the inconvenience caused to the residents, some 17,500 in number, of the Itchen urban district, Southampton, in consequence of the closing of the only available post and telegraph office at Woolston on Sundays, which necessitates to those inhabitants who wish to despatch telegrams a journey by ferry-boat to the head office in Southampton, some three miles distant; whether this office has hitherto been open for telegraphic business on Sundays; and whether he will order its reopening for the benefit of the seafaring population resident in the district, and to whom telegraphic communication is of frequent importance?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELSunday attendance at the Woolston Post Office has been discontinued because the business transacted was extremely small. On four Sundays in August and September last there was an aggregate only of fourteen transactions, including four telegrams forwarded. It is not usual to open town offices of this character on Sunday; and there appears to be no sufficient reason for treating Woolston exceptionally in this respect.