Among the improvements that I effected this year, the following is, I conceive, of great importance:—
Exorbitant claims having been advanced and admitted for compensation in respect of abolished fees, perquisites, &c., I made arrangements for such returns as to the current amount of those irregular emoluments as would keep these claims thenceforth within due bounds. The efficiency of this plan will be evident when it is considered that, though at the period of abolition claimants would naturally seek to make this amount appear as large as possible, yet, in ordinary times, when the receipt of large fees might act as a bar to demand for augmented salary, the interest would lie in the opposite direction. All, therefore, that was necessary was to get the ordinary estimate on indisputable record. This had been provided for before I left the Treasury, but, in the interim, the plan had been abandoned.
Finding that any attempt to establish a parcel post, which I had formerly suggested, would raise more opposition in the railway companies than I thought it prudent just then to encounter, I suggested the establishment of a book post, pointing out how much such a measure would promote education, and how acceptable it would be to the public. The Postmaster-General expressed apprehensions of the department being overloaded on magazine days, and I had to point out the means by which all such difficulties could be surmounted. Vehement objections came from the usual quarter, but these were overruled.
Before closing the account of the year, I must mention two attempts at improvements which have met with no success.
Upon an application from Colonel Maberly’s extra clerks for an increase of salary, I proposed instead a regular system of promotion, whereby all vacancies in the establishment should be filled by selection from the extra clerks instead of from without, an arrangement which would have obtained the collateral advantage of submitting every candidate for regular clerkship to a probation in the extra corps. The Postmaster-General seemed favourable to the principle, which, indeed, had been occasionally recognised in practice, but unfortunately I never succeeded in obtaining its adoption as a rule, the real obstacle being, no doubt, that it would have acted as an impediment to patronage.
My second abortive measure I regarded as of great importance, nor has my opinion of it undergone any change; though how far it may be applicable to the circumstances of the present day is another question. Wishing to procure for the Post Office the unrestricted use of all the railway trains, and that at a moderate fixed rate, I suggested that Government, as a means of procuring the ready acquiescence of the railway companies, should include in a bill then preparing for Parliament a provision in their favour, which seemed to me to be in strict accordance with justice, and with the true interests of the public. In my Report[40] on this subject, I first showed that in order to enable the Post Office effectually to serve the public, it was necessary that the department should make far greater use of the railways. Under the existing law, owing to uncertainty as to the rate of payment, the excessive awards frequently made, and other causes, this was impracticable. I therefore proposed that an attempt should be made to obtain an Act empowering the Railway Commissioners, at that time an organised Board, with the present Lord Belper at its head, to take the following steps:—
1st. To issue a general tariff of charges for the conveyance of mails, such tariff to be constructed so as to afford the companies a moderate profit.
2nd. To decide all questions which might arise between the Post Office and any railway company.
3rd. To issue a general tariff of maximum fares for passengers and charges for goods, minerals, &c., to be demanded of the public; and
4th. To revise such general tariffs from time to time.