I, however, found it practicable to introduce, by successive improvements, such simplification in the arrangements as, with increased convenience to the public, and increased accuracy in the accounts, with better pay and more relaxation to the clerks, to convert this loss into a gain, which amounted for the year 1850 to £3,236, and which, under my brother, Mr. Frederic Hill, who has subsequently carried on the Department in the same spirit of improvement, amounted last year to £11,664, making an effective saving within five years of upwards of £21,000 per annum.
As regards the Post Office generally, the amount of saving which may still be effected is a matter of so much uncertainty, that I hesitate to offer any estimate. I can only say that it may be assumed, as I think it may, that every Department of the service can be gradually improved to the same extent as the Money Order Office (the only one which has been confided entirely to my care), it follows that in the course of a few years, not only may the public be better served, and the men, if necessary, better paid, but savings may be effected to an extent of about £200,000 a year, in addition to the saving of £100,000 a year, which, if required, I should be prepared to show has already been made.
But of late a new motive has arisen for the proposed change. The augmentation of letters is not only in constant progress, but has for some time moved forward with increasing celerity. Without some change, no doubt is entertained in the office, that the present building will soon be not only too small for the transaction of the business, but so much too small, as that no increase of its limits by practicable additions will answer the requirements of the service; and consequently that a most expensive outlay—probably not less than half a million—will be required for a new Post Office.
If placed, however, in the position contemplated, I shall be enabled, as I confidently expect, to make, under your Lordship’s sanction, such improvements as will avert this impending necessity for years, if not remove it altogether.
The result of my experiments in the Money Order Office has been to show the great power which the simplification of arrangements has in lessening the quantity of labour, and, as a consequence, the quantity of space required for its performance.
When, five years ago, I took the secretarial control of the Money Order department, the building appropriated thereto was fully occupied, and negotiations were in progress for purchasing land to extend the accommodations. At present, notwithstanding an increase of business to the amount of one-third, there is such ample room that no extension is likely to be required for many years to come.
My knowledge of the other departments of the Post Office enables me to state, with some confidence, my opinion, that similar improvements may be extended to those also, and with the like beneficial results. At the present time, a postponement of building, though but for a few years, is of great importance. Several projects for bringing railways into the heart of the metropolis, so as to make them available for mere local transit, are on foot. And from some years’ experience, first as a director and afterwards as chairman, of the Brighton Railway Company, I feel justified in predicting that in some shape or other, some such project will be realized: I also foresee that such change must produce results in which both the Post Office authorities and the proprietors of the railways will have a common interest, and from overtures which have been made to the Department by some of the projectors, I think it highly probable, that whatever changes in the Post Office may be thereby rendered necessary or desirable, will not have to be made altogether, perhaps not mainly, at the cost of Government.
But however this may be, it can scarcely be doubted that the effect of such railways must be to reduce the value of any outlay made irrespective of this disturbance in the present system of Metropolitan communication, since it is hardly possible that any buildings that might now be put up would be found adapted, either in position or arrangement, to the altered state of things.
Having now concluded the financial part of the subject, I beg your Lordship’s attention to the new sources of anxiety which have been opened, and to the possibility of allaying that anxiety by substituting a unity of executive power for its present divided state.
The vast increase which has taken place of late years in the facilities for locomotion and the conveyance of merchandise, has led to a wide-spread desire—I might almost say a clamorous demand—for further facilities in the transmission of letters. On some points this is the result of ignorance as to what is practicable or even possible, while on others it relates to changes which I have long had in view, but which, under present impediments, I cannot undertake.