Yes, and our telephones showed an unexpected profit, or an advance on the Estimate of £17,000. Telephones, for the first time in their history in this country, have become a paying proposition. They made a small profit last year, and, notwithstanding the substantial concession of £34,000 or £35,000 which we made through the recent Budget, we anticipate a profit also for the coming year. Now, this is a hopeful development. It means that you can have cheaper telephones and paying telephones. It proves one thing in regard to this side of commercial enterprise. It proves that profit moves hand in hand with cheapness.
It has been suggested from time to time that we ought to follow the footsteps of England in a letter rate reduction. A reduction to 1½d. would mean a sacrifice of a quarter of a million of money. I am not satisfied that the nation would get value for that reduction. I think we must try to proceed on economic lines. If you take this quarter of a million off the postal revenue, you must find it somewhere else. We do not anticipate an increase of any considerable amount through a reduction. In England it was found that the reduction resulted only in an increase of four per cent. through the change from 2d. to 1½d., and we have no reason to believe that the outlook would differ very materially here. We are not satisfied, either, that a reduction to 1½d. will stimulate trade very materially or very substantially.
I have taken the trouble, during the year, to determine, as far as possible, the origin and nature of postal correspondence. While I cannot hold definitely by the conclusions that we have come to, it can be fairly safely stated that 50 per cent. of the postal matter dealt with by my Department has its origin in correspondence of a private character, and about 25 per cent. may be ascribed to what we should term handling business; the balance would be what is generally termed productive work. We must consider, when deciding to sacrifice the sum of a quarter of a million, how we are likely to help the nation, and to what degree. In this case, I hold you can only consider that 25 per cent., and to sacrifice a quarter of a million for such a small margin would not, in my estimation, be justified. I do think that the nation's money could be better spent in other directions, and I am not prepared now, nor, should I be in this position in 12 months' time, would I then be prepared, to make any proposal to the Minister for Finance for a reduction of the postal rate below its present level. I want to make that very clear, in order to get done with any possible agitation during the coming 12 months.
I may also say that, with the exception of three or four countries, our postal rates are not high. In the case of South Africa and England they certainly have lower rates. A great many Continental countries have a rate similar to ours; but a great many of them also have rates of a higher kind, and some have charges very much above the Saorstát charges. I do not, at the present time, see any great prospect of the Post Office paying its way. Under certain favourable conditions that possibly may be brought about. If the cost of living falls, for instance, our deficit will decrease. If trade revives, it will also decrease, and very appreciably, for the reason that we must necessarily maintain—as we are maintaining—a staff in advance of our requirements. I think I could safely say that we are in a position to deal with something like from 10 to 15 per cent. more traffic with our existing staff than we are now called upon to deal with. It will be understood by the House that in a Department like this you cannot cut the staff from day to day. You must move cautiously in a matter of that kind. That is a means by which this deficit could largely disappear.
There is still another means. It was referred to here, I think, on the 1923-24 Estimates. Our loss is incurred mainly in rural districts. We set about reducing that loss some two years ago. I cannot say it was very popular with the country. At first the country thought it could face reductions of the kind, but most people like to see reductions when they are applied to others; they do not wish to see them as applied to themselves. When the reductions were made we were faced with an outcry and they have been discontinued. Were this country strong economically, and in a position to give general employment to its manhood, it would not be out of the question to introduce a very radical change in the distribution of rural correspondence, by the introduction, for instance, of the motor cycle method. One motor cycle would take the place of half a dozen men. A change of that kind would, at the present time, result in wholesale dismissals and additions to the ranks of the unemployed. Nobody in the House desires that the unemployment situation should be accentuated at present. I want to make it clear, when this loss in the Post Office is pointed to, that at any time that the House desires, the Post Office is in a position, without very serious hardship to the country, to balance the Post Office accounts and to cause this heavy deficit practically, if not entirely, to disappear.
Prior to the Treaty, all mails leaving this country found their outward and inward channel through London. The mails were sent to a clearing office in London, sorted there, and dispatched to their respective destinations in different countries. That applied both to parcels and letters. It naturally resulted in delay, more or less. We have departed from that. We have developed a system of direct intercourse between the Saorstát and foreign countries, and at the present time we are making up mails direct— I am speaking of letter mails—for France, Germany, the States, Canada, Newfoundland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States. We are negotiating direct exchanges with Holland, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, China, the Argentine, and Mexico.
In the case of parcels, we are now dispatching our entire American output through Cobh. We have in this way been able to give small assistance to the various steamship companies that call at that port. Whilst the major portion of the inward parcel mails also comes through Cobh, it must be understood that we do not control the homeward route; we control only the outward route. We are at present negotiating a direct exchange of parcels with certain other foreign countries, such as Canada and Germany. In the case of foreign money orders, up to six or eight months ago all money orders going from, or coming to, this country passed through a clearing house in London. The charge made on these at the time was 4d. The commission on foreign postal orders was 4d. The total commission had to be paid to the British Government for their part in the foreign money order business. Latterly, or during the last twelve months, we have opened direct money order business with a great number of foreign countries, and in every case this has meant a saving of 2d. per money order. It resulted in a big saving in the instance of the United States, from which we received last year, through the money order channels, a sum of £989,000.
It resulted in a saving to us of something in the neighbourhood of £6,000. The effect of the introduction of the direct method of exchange has resulted in that saving in the Saorstát Post Office in money orders alone. This policy is being developed. It will be observed that the Post Office has gone in for motor transport very generally. Formerly the mails were practically entirely handled by private contractors. We have found from experience that we can save money by handling them ourselves in certain areas, notably Dublin. In addition to this development of the mail carrying business in the bigger centres, it has been found very useful to introduce light motor vans in country districts. This introduction has expedited the transport of correspondence, and in addition, it is a pretty substantial saving, as will be observed from the accounts. This policy is being pursued. It will also be noticed that our mails are being collected by light vehicles. It is unfortunate that this country does not manufacture these light vehicles, or similar vehicles, because they take the place of labour. It would not matter very much if labour were otherwise employed, but nevertheless, we have to move with the times, and we find that the introduction of light vehicles has resulted in considerable saving, as well as the speeding up of our business. It will also be seen that we use motor-cycles for the delivery of telegrams in the bigger centres. This, too, is a paying development, and a very advisable one from the point of view of expedition. In connection with this motor vehicle side of our department, we have found it necessary to set up a separate section for fuelling and repairs. This section is attached to John's Road, and may in time be useful for other departments. On the 1st September last our inland parcel rates were reduced by an all-round fee of threepence. This reduction has proved to be a rather substantial drain on revenue. I should say here that even at the old figures the parcels rates were too low. You cannot by any stretch of imagination conceive how a parcel can be taken from one end of the country to the other with all its different transactions, counterhandling, stamping, packing, transit, delivery, and so forth, all for sixpence. We were losing heavily prior to this reduction, and we are losing still more heavily now. This was one of the main reasons in connection with the surplus of incoming parcels why we found it necessary to impose a delivery fee.
That delivery fee resulted in an income for the past year of something like £50,000. A good deal of agitation has gone on for its removal in the interval, but we feel that we would not be justified in making any change. I do not think that this country can afford to be philanthropic in dealing with surplus incoming traffic. We are merely asking these people who get parcels from abroad to pay part of their way. It is not unfair to expect that people who find it necessary to bring parcels from the other side should, at least, do something to relieve the loss which the payment for that delivery would cost their neighbours. In other words, they expect people to do something to pay their own fee in this respect, and they intend to retain it. A number of tests were taken during the year as a result of the imposition of that sixpenny fee. The last test reveals the fact that over a week the number of these incoming parcels dropped from fifty-four thousand, prior to the introduction of the fee, to thirty-nine thousand a few weeks ago. That is a substantial decline.
