MR. WHITEsaid, he would, in the absence of the Secretary of State for India, ask the Under Secretary for that Department, If the re-organization of the Indian Telegraph Department, mentioned by him on the 13th March 1862, has been carried out; and, if so, why Mr. Galbraith, formerly the tutor of Sir William O'Shaughnessy's sons, has been promoted over the heads of officers of long standing in that Department; and if he is aware that the present system of Telegraphic communication in India is much complained of by the mercantile community and others, and if it would not be desirable to decentralize this Department by placing the Telegraph lines under the control of the chief authorities of the respective Presi- 517 dencies, as has been locally recommended?
MR. T. G. BARINGwas understood to say that the re-organization of the Telegraph Department had been completed in consequence of the representations made by the mercantile community. With regard to the suggestion of the hon. Gentle man that the Telegraph Department in India should be decentralized, and placed under the local authorities, he had received no such suggestion from India, and he should say, that if there was one thing which required uniform management more than another, it was the Telegraphic Department. With respect to Mr. Galbraith, he might observe that he obtained his appointment in India in 1857; that he at first received, he believed, £300 a year, which had gradually been increased to £600, and that the last two appointments in his case had been made since Sir William O'Shaughnessy had left India. It was impossible, therefore, that they could be the result of his connection with that gentleman, nor was there any ground for the assumption conveyed in the hon. Gentleman's question with respect to Mr. Galbraith.