With the growth of Post Office business, the Head Postmaster has become a Civil Servant: he is now provided with an office of his own, and he usually gives up his time to the Service. A Head Postmaster is not allowed to interest himself in any business, such as banking, insurance, or parcels delivery, which would bring him into competition with his own Department. Unlike the centre of sweet reasonableness at the vicarage, he is compelled to be absolutely neutral at election times, and the postmaster is expected at all times to be discreet and guarded in the expression of his political views. Sometimes, therefore, it happens that the centre of sweet reasonableness is really at the post office and not at the vicarage.
In the old days a knowledge of horses was the chief requirement in a postmaster, but year by year additions have been made to his work, and he is now required to be not only a smart business man but to know a great deal concerning many different activities. He is responsible for the despatch and delivery of the mail service in his district, but he also has to look after a large banking business, including money order and postal order systems: he has to know something of telegraphy and of the telephone, and in addition to his Post Office business he does work for the Inland Revenue, such as the sale of Inland Revenue and Fee Stamps and the granting of dog, gun, establishment, motor, and game licences. And the latest duties which have been placed upon him are the payment of old age pensions and the working of a portion of the National Insurance Scheme.
At the Head Office in London every official has to specialise more or less, but a Head Postmaster cannot afford to do this. In addition to the various duties I have mentioned, he has to manage a large staff of men, to preserve discipline, and to see that the sub-postmasters of his district are performing their duties properly.
Undoubtedly the status of the postmaster has risen considerably, and in large towns he occupies a high and influential position among the men of business. His immediate superior as a rule is the surveyor of his district, but the postmasters of the largest towns in the United Kingdom are their own surveyors. These postmasterships are the prizes of the professions, and they include Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Belfast, Cardiff, Nottingham, Sheffield, and Hull. The salaries attached to these posts vary from £725 to £1000, and the postmasters are frequently Civil Servants who have passed the highest examinations on entering the Service, and they are invariably men of superior education, ability, and experience. Yet so long does it take to root out an old association of ideas in the mind of the British public, that a postmaster is still regarded in the minds of many people as merely a man who sells stamps and perhaps fancy articles.
Let me take the city of Liverpool as an illustration of how the growth of Post Office business has raised the importance of the postmaster. In the year 1775 there was only one postman in the town, and by the year 1900 the numbers had risen to 800. It is true that in 1775 the staff was already considered inadequate. A petition was sent up to London in that year asking for another postman, but it was not granted. The reply, however, did not deal with the necessities of the case, but declined to accede to the petitioners' request on the ground that “not more than one letter carrier has yet been allowed to any one town in England.” So firmly established even then was the power of precedent in the official mind. In the year 1839 the weekly number of letters and newspapers dealt with at Liverpool amounted to 103,201, and in 1900 the number had risen to 4,823,694. Of course, all the other large towns in the Kingdom could show similar increases in proportion to their size, and these figures take no account of the increases in other kinds of Post Office business which have been equally significant.
Let me take as another illustration the city of Bristol. Here we have a city which in the race for priority of position has been “passed over” by younger and more pushful rivals like Liverpool and Hull. Yet the growth of the Post Office business here has been extraordinary. There is an old official record which consists of an application by a postmaster of Bristol for an increase in his salary. The request was granted by the Postmaster-General in the following minute, which is dated 13th December 1686: it is addressed to the Governor of Bristol. “You are therefore of opinion that the said salary (£50) is very small considering the expense the petitioner is att and his extraordinary trouble, Bristoll being a greate Citty, but you say that you doe not think all the things he setts down in the aforesaid accompt ought to be allowed him, the example being of very ill consequence, for (as you informe me) you doe not allow either candles, pack-thread, wax, ink, penns or paper to any of the postmasters, nor office rent, nor returns of money; you are therefore of opinion that tenn pounds per annum to his former salary of £50 will be a reasonable allowance, and the petitioner will be therefore well satisfied: these are therefore to pray and require you to raise his salary from £50 to £60 accordingly.”
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Clarke & Hyde.