zr Appendix, No. Appendix, No. 36,38. Office.] ON FEES, GRATUITIES, & c. the hire of three Wherries provided by Meffrs. J. and S. Draper, for the pnrpofe of carrying Mads and Expreffes to and from Great Britain aSd Ireland, ixTaid of the regular Packets belong, ng to the Holyhead ftation. According to the arrangements that were made for maintaining the correfpondence between the two Countries, fubfequent to the feparate eftabliffiment of the Iriffi Poft Office it feems to have been intended that the whole expence of that fervice fhould be defrayed out 01 the Revenue of Great Britain ; whereas we find not only the above charge borne out of the Poft Office Revenue of Ireland, but that Meffrs. Drapers receive an allowance of£. 25=. per annum, which is regularly paid as attached to the Dublin Eftabliffiment, for the fupplv of certain veffels occafionally requifite for putting the Mails on board, and landing them from the Packets, a fum of £. 40. only being annually charged to the account of the Brkiffi Packet Eftablifhment for their luperintending that fervice. Thus it appears that the Foft Office of Ireland, though it may be reafonably doubted whether from the great increafe of intercourfe between the two Countries, even the receipt of the clear annual fum of £. 4,000. Britiffi, is an adequate compenfation for relinquiffiing the Revenue that might be derived from conveying its own Mails, has been of late years annually charged with the payment of2'- 2, i75. 7. 6. on account of fer- vices that ought to have been provided for by the Poft Office of Great Britain. Under thefe circumftances we fubmit, that it has a fair claim for the amount of iuch fums, as have been at any time neceffarily expended out of. its Revenue in aid of the Packet Eftabliffiment of Great Britain. With refpeft to the Packet Wherries, this eftabliffiment commenced in the year 1796, with the hire of two veffels, to which a third was fubfequently added at the rate of £. 49. 4. 6. per lunar month ; this rate may not poffibly have been more than fufficient for the proper maintenance of fuch veffels, and to afford a fair profit to the Contractors while they were prohibited, as was at f. rft the cafe, to carry palfengers; but when they afterwards came to be allowed that privilege, and that one failed regularly from Dublin every Sunday, and from Holyhead with the Chefter Mail every Tuefdayr, they might we think have been obtained upon lower terms. Such appears to be Appendix, No. 40 the opinion of a perfon converfant in all matters relating to ffiipping, by whom it is ftated, that a Wherry of forty tons burthen, the fcale on which the eftimate for thefe veffels was originally furnifhed, could be fupplied for £. 29. 10. a month, and that the Contractor would have fufficient profit from the conveyance of paf- fengers; and we alfo find that the regular Packets, owing to the emoluments de- rived from the fame fource, are provided at £. 31. 12. a month. In confequence however of the recent eftabliffiment of an additional Packet, one of the hired veffels has been difcontinued, and as the Chefter Mails are in future to be con- veyed by the regular Packets, one of which it is alfo intended ffiould fail from Dublin every Sunday, the emoluments arifing to the Wherries will be confider- ably diminifhed. The payments for printing and ftationary appear to have amounted in the laft year to ^. 6, 443. xg. 7. being nearly double their average amount in the three preceding years. This excefs is ftated to have arifen principally from an increafe of printing work, occafioned by the number and variety of new forms of Accounts and Vouchers required for the ufe of the department, in confequence of the new arrangements made in it. Some portion of it may, we have no doubt, be thus accounted for, but though we are unable in taking a curfory vic- v of the expen- diture of the General Poft Office, to afcertain the amount of its undue excefs in every particular, we apprehend that much of the increafed charge for ftationary as well as for other articles with which it is fupplied by tradefmen^ may be traced to the want of official attention in procuring them at moderate piices, and to a Append; x, No. 43. wafteful and profufe ufe of them. No Account feems to be kept of the quantity of ftationary brought into the Office or of its confumption; and the reafonableneis of the feveral charges made by the ftationer, or by other tradefmen for the articles they furniffi, is only afcertained by their refpetfiye affidavits annexed to their bills, a mode the moft unfatisfaftory and highly objeaionable. Of the whole of the charge for ftationary 5- 6rhs appear to be for printing, ruling and binding, the remainder for paper and fmall ftationary. For the latter, the ftationer ftates that Appfnd; x N0.42. he charges the retail prices according to the rate fettled yearly by the Corpora- tion of Stationers, without making any abatement in confideration of the largenefs of the quantity fupplied ; but the prices of printing, & c. for executing which there a^ eno fixed rates, are made at his own difcretion. From an mfpection of Appendix, No. 41* Appendix, No. 39. Appendix, No. 41. < 4 Ms ft IP ( 54-) F his li1 PFi <