The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-07-11 00:00:00

MR. SHAW LEFEVRE ON THE
PARCELS POST.

On Tuesday afternoon a numerous party assembled
in what the Postmaster-General described as a "well-
lighted and airy cavern" underneath the General
Post Office, St. Martin's-le-grand, London, for the
purpose of witnessing the despatch of the first post-
office parcel mail to Gibraltar, Aden, and India.
Among those present were Lord and Lady John
Manners, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, the Dowager Duchess of
Manchester and Mr. S. A. Blackwood, Sir Charles du
Cane, the Postmaster-General of South Australia,
and many of the chief officials oZ the Post Office.
The mail consisted of 24 boxes, of which 18 were for
India, one for Aden, three for Port Said, and two for
Gibraltar, containing 1104 parcels of the aggregate
weight of 1 ton 871 b. All but one of the boxes were
fastened up and sealed, one parcel, with the envelope
containing the "bill " of the whole box, remaining to
be inserted. Mr. S. Blackwood handed the parcel to
the Postmaster-General, who said he felt much plea-
sure in
.being present, but be felt that the honour
of bringing about such an important event was
due to his predecessor, and he therefore invited
Mr. Shaw Lefevre to close the mail. The
ex -Postmaster - General, in reply, said: It is
true that the arrangements for carrying into
effect this important extension of the Parcels Post
were completed during my term of office; but, on my
part, I had done no more than carry out plans whicii
bad been devised by my predecessor, Mr. Fawcett
Indeed, the chief credit for what has been done is
due to the able and public-spirited permanent officers
of the Department, who change not with this or that
Government, but who secure continuity of action in
such matters, and especially to Mr. Baines, who has
conducted the negotiations with the Indian Govern-
ment, and with other Powers as far as they have
gone; and also to Mr. Jeffrey, whose services have
been so great. The parcel which I now deposit in
the mail-box for Bombay is the first which will be
sent under the new arrangeMent, and the first com-
mencement of a Parcel Post between this country
and its colonies and dependencies. At the same time
the Parcel Post will be opened to Gibraltai and Aden.
That in Egypt commenced a few days ago, and is
already largely in use. Negotiations with all our
other colonies and with all foreign Powers are in pre-
gress, and in various stages of advance; the change of
Government, I fee] confident, will make no difference
whatever in their completion. I• hope that the noble
lord, my successor, be his reign long or short, will
have the credit of completing these arrangements and
of achieving the inestimable advantage of an universal
International and intercolonial Parcel Post, when it
will be possible to send or receive a parcel from any
most remote post-office in the United Kingdom to or
from any other person in any part of the world.
Before dilating upon the economic and social
advantages and results of this, it may be worth while
that I should say a few words upon the subject of the
Inland Parcel Post. Two years have now elapsed since
it was inaugurated by my lamented predecessor, Mr.
Fawcett. At first the number of parcels transmitted
did not reach the number that was anticipated. The
public was slower in taking advantage of it than was
expected. It started at the rate of only 15,000,000 a
year, which was considerably less than the officers of
the Post-office had expected ; but since then there
has been a continuous increase month by month
and week by week, showing that the post is grow-
ing in the confidence of the public, and that it is
making its way more and more into the habits and
necessities of the people. The present number of
parcels conveyed is at the rate of 27,000,000 ; the last,
completed week shows an increase over the corre-
sponding week of last year of 23 per cent. In rural
districts the growth has been proportionally more
rapid than even in the centres of population, which is
what Mr. Fawcett always anticipated ; indeed, I may
remind you that in establishing the Parcel Post Mr.
Fawcett by no means intended to supersede private
agencies, but to supplement them, and it was because
the rural and remote districts were FO inefficiently
served by private agencies, or not served at all, that
he determined to establish a parcel post. In this
respect the success of the post has been most remark-
able. We have no reason to believe that it has much
interfered with the numerous private agencies which
exist for the collection and distribution of parcels;
they still appear to drive a very good trrde ; nor do
we believe that the Post-office` has much interfered
with the railway companies. It has been mainly a
supplement to all these agencies, and the 27,000.000
of parcels now carried are in addition to the parcels
carried by other agencies, and therefore an enormous
addition to the convenience of the public. I may per-
haps here state that a few weeks ago I directed a teat
to be made of the efficiency of the Parcel Post, as com-
pared with other existin„a agencies. 100 test parcels
were sent from various place's in the country to other
distant places by the Parcel Post, and at the same
time the same number of parcels were sent by the
railways, or by whatever other agencies existed, from
or to the same places, for the purpose of comparison.
It was found that 71 per cent. of those sent by the
post arrived earlier than those sent by other agencies.
The average time occupied in the transmission by the
Parcel Post was 20 hours and 21 minutes, while by
other agencies it was 25 hours and 50 minutes, a dif-
ference of five-and-a-half-hours. All the parcels sent
by the post-office were delivered at the houses of the
persons to whom they were addressed, while of the
others 73 per cent. were left at the nearest railway
station, and had to be sent for by the persons to whom
they were addressed. As regards the charges, it was
found that in 68 cases out of the 100 the charge was
less by the post than by the other agencies; in 24 it
was
o y n
as the
say o that same, and d i h
n eightthe
s s onlyoeso
f damage Was it w
more.e r e
fewer
ame
r
glad
the post than by other agencles. Of the parcels
tsieonnt
lboy the post s itthinsnniowinalscoe,oro9tai,ned that the
andthepro ip
piroortioorn-
less
parcels than 1 n t h
n s l
slto
0, Oro 0 h
d,
awmade the
average d he
is
daelorwfable. In one respect I was not
svdaeatrmrs afige
den de
vowanilissutie h the tariff of the Parcels Post. The
present tariff rises by inconvenient increments. Thus
3d. is charged for a parcel of 11b., 6d. for a parcel of
31b., 9d. for a parcel of 51b., and is. for a parcel of
i
71b. If a parcel weighs just over 11b., the charge s
doubled ; so also in the case of all the intermediate
weights between 11b. and 31b., 31b. and 51b., 51b. and
71b. I was very anxious to establish intermediate
rates, and have negotiated with the railway companies
with this object. My first proposal was to rise by
increments of id., somewhat reducing the charge for
the heavier parcels; to charge 3d. for 11b., 4d. for
sd. for 21b., 6d. for 31b., and then by incre-
ments of id. for each additional pound up to 111 b.,
increasing the maximum weight to be carried from
71b. to 111 b. This would have entailed some imme-
diate loss of revenue, but the change would have
immensely stimulated business, and the loss would
very soon have been made up by a great increase in ,
the number. The railway companies, however, I
would not listen to this very reasonable proposal. ,
My next proposal to them was to establish simply
intermediate rates—namely, 3d. for 11b., 4.1-d. for ,
21b., 6d. for 3d., 'lid. for 41b., and so On by
increments of lid. per lb. up to 111 b. I regret
to say that the railway companies again met this pro-
posal by a demand for an increased proportion of the I
receipts. They already receive the larger half of i
gross receipts ; they have none of the cost of distribu-
tion and collection. They are paid at a very high rate
for the part of the work they perform. It is there-
fore out of the question to concede to them a higher
rate of payment. It will therefore be for any member
to say whether he will take action under the Parcels
Post Act, and make the change in the rates without
the consent of the railway companies, leaving it to
them to make a claim before an arbitrator for in-
creased remuneration. It seems to me to be impossible I
to conceive that any arbitrator could concede to them
an increased proportion of the receipts because inteta
mediate rates are established. It is desired to raise
the maximum weights allowed to be carried from 71b.
to 111 b., because the recent international postal con-
vention of other Powers agreed upon this higher
limit for international parcels. 1 may add that
before leaving office I had obtained the consent
of the Treasury to another important change, viz.,
that the Post-office should assume responsibility
for the loss and damage to parcels to the value
of £1 without any further payment, and that
beyond this it should insure to the value of ..f5 for
id. and to £lO for 2d. I have, however, left on
record my opinion that the first of these measures—
namely, the assuming responsibility up to .E 1 should
be deferred until the question of intermediate rates
has been decided upon. I have already pointed out
that the railway companies receive the larger half of
the gross receipts of the parcel post. The portion
received by the Post Office does not recoup it for the
expenses incurred. The loss, however, is diminishing
with the increase...of business, and with the changes I
had proposed and the great increase of work, which,
I believe, would certainly arise, the loss, I feel con-
fident, will before long disappear. It should also be
recollected that the Parcel Post stimulates letter
writing; every parcel means probably two additional
letters; one additional penny for a letter for every
parcel carried more than covers the most extreme
estimate of the loss incurred by the Parcel
Post. It is, I am sure you will admit, most
creditable to the administration of this great
department, that the Parcel Post has been
engrafted upon the letter post without in any
one single case delay or hindrance to the conveyance
of the 9000 millioa of letters or other packets sent
yearly through the post. Reverting now to
the Parcel Post to India, I may be permitted to pay
a tribute to the energy and enterprise of the Penin-
sula and Oriental Company in carrying on for many
years a species of parcel post to India. In future
however, parcels up to 71b. will be collected or
delivered in any part of the United Kingdom
for or from India at the same charge that
applied hitherto to London parcels only, namely,
at ls. per lb. The present is only an instal-
ment of what is to come. Eventually all the
British possessions in the East, all the colonies
of Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, and the
South African settlements, the West Indian
Islands, and Canada will be included in the Parcel
Post system, with the mutual advantages, social,
commercial, and domestic, as in the exchange of
products of the mother country ;with her depend-
encies. Before long, also, an arrangement now in
course of negotiation with France, Germany, Italy,
and othea great States of the Continent will be com-
pleted, and still greater advantages will result from
an inteenational post with the United States. Thus
a further step will be made in the direction of uniting
the civilised world together in a network of peacetql_

relations, which we may hope it will become more ancl
more difficult to cut by the sword. The completion
of this great work will rest with the noble lord my
successor. I should not have said so much, I should
not have taken advantage of the opportunity he has
afforded me, if I did not knew that he takes as great
an interest in this subject as I hare done, if I did not
believe that there will be continuity of action in spite
of the change of Government. On my part I can
promise him the same cordial support, if there should
be need of it, from the Opposition as during the
past six years they gave to Mr. Fawcett and myself.