Captain CRAIGasked the Postmaster-General if his attention has been drawn to the unsatisfactory outgoing mail service from Ballintoy, County Antrim; if he is aware that letters are despatched from Ballintoy at 3.5 p.m., which is too late for their inclusion in the last outgoing mail from Ballycastle, which leaves at 3.45 p.m.; that the failure to connect with the last train from Ballycastle has the effect of causing a delay of a day in the delivery of the Ballintoy letters to a majority of the places to which they are addressed; that the retardation of the outgoing mail service from Ballintoy only began during the War, and that before that event the service was satisfactory; that if the postman left Ballintoy at 2 p.m., as he did before the War, thereby giving him time to catch the Ballycastle train at 3.45, this grievance, which causes inconvenience to the inhabitants of Ballintoy and to summer visitors, would be removed; and whether he will make the necessary arrangements to revert to the old hour of despatch of the mails in question?
§ Sir W. MITCHELL - THOMSONOwing to alterations in the train service mails now reach Ballycastle later and have to be despatched earlier than before the War, and the postman who serves Ballintoy does not complete his delivery in time to return to Ballycastle before the despatch of the outgoing afternoon mail. I am afraid that with the existing train service it is not feasible to remedy this, but I am having further inquiry made.