Part of Orders of the Day — Revenue Departments. – in the House of Commons am ar 25 Chwefror 1924.
That may be, but there are many Members in this House who know nothing about it. It is some time now since I was at the Post Office, and I do not recollect the details and should be glad to have more information from the Postmaster-General, to bring me up to date. Some things may have happened since I was at the Post Office. The right hon. Gentleman has a much better case than he has apparently been able to make out to the Committee. As far as I recollect, this is a labour-saving scheme. It is a scheme to substitute an automatic railway for the carrying of mails which are now carried above ground either by horse-drawn vehicles or in motor vehicles. As far as I remember, this railway is to be worked entirely by electricity and, if I recollect rightly, is not to have a driver upon the electric locomotive. There is to be an arrangement by which the mails will be dropped down a shute into the proper car and then, by pressing a button, they will be transferred to their destination, where again they will be automatically brought up to the surface. The right hon. Gentleman might have given us some sort of idea of what it is expected to save annually by the operation of the railway when it is completed. Is the saving that is expected from the operation of this railway going to be an adequate return upon the increased capital expenditure which will have to be incurred, as compared with the original Estimate? As I gather from the figures before us, rather over £1,000,000 have been expended upon this project. As we have already put so much money into this enterprise, really the most economical course for us to take, I presume, would be to complete it and make the money that we have already put into it remunerative, whereas it is now standing idle and no return is being made.