"Mr. Alderman Edwards seconded the resolution. He was glad that the matter had been laid before the Postmaster-General. A great deal had been said about the present site being more useful and
convenient than the proposed, but he felt that the difference was very small indeed. The sites were within a minute or two of each other. In Baldwin Street they had a road 60 ft. wide, and if Small Street were altered, however much, they would not widen it half as much as that. As to the positions of the banks, some of the important ones were nearer Baldwin Street than the other street. At any rate, the Old Bank, Stuckey's, and the National Provincial Banks were nearer Baldwin Street than Small Street. The speaker then named several large warehouses which were, he urged, closer to the proposed site than Small Street. At Baldwin Street they had an acre of ground for the present or future. He would not give the land to the Post Office authorities, but he suggested that they should be liberal towards them in their offer. If the Post Office authorities wished to give them the old office in exchange for the site, it might be utilised by the Corporation.
"Mr. C. Wills supported the resolution. He would advance one or two reasons why they should make the best terms they could with the Postmaster-General. That the present Post Office was inconveniently
small was generally admitted, and he maintained that if the proposed additions were made to the existing building, the extra facilities would not meet the ever-increasing demands on the Post Office for more than six or eight years. The various departments of the present building were too small for development and carrying on the important work of a Post Office. Personally, he would as soon for the Post Office to be in one street as the other, but he felt it would redound to the credit of the city to see a fine building erected in Baldwin Street. If they had the Post Office there it would enhance the value of the other sites in the thoroughfare. Very shortly they would have the sixpenny telegrams, and then the increase in telegraphic communication would be very great indeed, and the present building would soon become inadequate to the demand. Then, again, they saw that the present Postmaster-General did not intend to give up the parcels post, and the development of this branch of the Post Office work would be very great indeed. Then, again, there would be increased vehicular traffic to the Post Office; and could this, he asked, be carried out to the comfort of the
citizens in Small Street? The turning point arose from Mr. Shaw-Lefevre visiting the Chamber of Commerce recently. That gentleman visited the site in Baldwin Street, and he, no doubt, saw that the site would be better and superior to the one in Small Street.
"Mr. Pethick said that they had come to a turning point in the history of the city of Bristol. The question was whether they should continue the system of compression that they had suffered from for so many years. Small Street was a narrow thoroughfare; it was only a back lane to Broad Street. ('Oh! oh!') It was called Small Street and had a carriage way of only 9 ft. ('No, no.') He must repeat that at one point in Small Street the carriage way was only 9 ft. wide.
"Mr. Daniel protested against Mr. Pethick saying that Small Street was the back lane to Broad Street, and that the carriage road was only 9 ft. (hear, hear). The narrow part of Small Street would come down when the improvements to the Post Office took place.
"Mr. Pethick: I state facts—what the street is to-day.
"Mr. Daniel: But is the narrow part you speak of the entrance to Small Street?