FIFE POSTAL SYSTEM
The Clerk laid upon the table a letter from Sir Robert Anstruther, M.P. for the County, asking the Commissioners to furnish him with any information relative to the present very unsatisfactory postal arrangements in the county, so that he might be supported in going to headquarters on the subject, and that an alteration may be obtained by which letters posted in the afternoon in Fife will be delivered in Edinburgh the same evening, instead of next morning as at present, and that letters arriving in London may also be sooner delivered than under the present arrangement.
Mr Wedderburn, of Birkhill, thought this was a subject of great importance to the county, and that the hands of the members should be strengthened in endeavouring to get arrangements made for the delivery of their letters in Edinburgh in the evening of the same day on which they were posted.
Dr Watson Wemyss of Denbrae, was very glad this matter had been taken up; and, as showing the absurdity of the present system in Fife, mentioned that letters going to Lochgelly were as long on the way as going to London, as they were taken to Edinburgh, and had to come back again. It took four days, he said, to get an answer in St Andrews from Lochgelly.
Mr J. O. Dalgleish concurred that this was a subject of great importance, but he did not see that they could do anything else upon it that day than to appoint a committee to investigate it, as what suited one class might not suit another. For instance, if the mail was to leave an hour or two sooner – say at twp o’clock – it would leave little or no time for gentlemen living in the country answering letters delivered by the runners.
Provost Taylor did not think there was much force in Mr Dalgleish’s objection, as the letters of country gentlemen were not delivered in Edinburgh till the morning after they were posted, and would reach there destination just as soon, though only posted in the Fife posted office at twelve o’clock at night. He thought the whole difficulty would be reached if they directed their member to apply for a mid-day mail from Fife, and also that a sorting office be established at Thornton.
After some further discussion, the matter was remitted to a committee to make inquiry – the Chairman to be convener.
(The Dundee Courier & Argus (Dundee, Scotland), Monday, May 02, 1864)