§ MR. BAINESsaid, he would beg to ask the Postmaster General, Whether he can now explain the very serious failure of telegraphic communication with regard to both public and private messages?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONI am sorry to say that the expectations which I raised in the minds of lion. Members when this subject was last mooted in the House have not been fully realized, for during yesterday and the day before, very serious delays and very great inconveniences have occurred throughout the country from delays in telegraphic communication. The causes of delay connected with organization have been entirely removed, and the new system is now working as fairly as possible, and I trust I shall not be taxing the credulity of the House too much when I say that the cause of the delay during the last few days has been almost entirely beyond the control of the Department. The state of the weather has affected the wires to such an extent that a very large number of them have been rendered almost entirely useless during 437 the last few days. One of the most important circuits must be placed in this category; between Manchester and London only two wires out of seven have been in a working condition; we have had only one working wire between London and Dublin, and the same has been the case between London and Scotland. I know it may be said these things have not occurred before, and that this excuse has been invented to cover the shortcomings of the Department; but I have taken some pains to obtain opinions on the subject from engineers formerly in the employment of the telegraph companies and now attached to the Department. They assure me that these delays did frequently occur under the old system, but they also say that in all their experience they do not recollect a time since 1866 when the state of the weather so seriously affected the wires all over the country as it has done during the past few days. One engineer in charge of the south-eastern district, which may be taken as a sample of the others, reports that, upon a careful examination of the wires which would not work he discovered that, in consequence of the severe gale which had prevailed during the previous two days, accompanied by continual storms of snow and sleet, the insulators had in many cases been rendered of none effect from the wind having filled up the interstices with a mixture of small gravel and frozen snow. The House will, doubtless, be prepared to accept this as a reasonable explanation of the matter, and it may not be too much to assume that what has occurred in the south-eastern district must have occurred in other districts as well. I am happy to say the wires have worked very much better to-day, and that in hardly any instances has there been much accumulation. This we believe to be owing to the drier state of the weather, but until we have a complete thaw and some sharp showers of rain we must not be surprised if delays occur. Delay has also occurred in the transmission of intelligence to provincial newspapers. The House is aware that the business of collecting and transmitting news has been transferred from the office to various press associations, but, owing to some want of concert between them, they have in many instances asked us to transmit three times the quantity of news formerly sent to the provinces; they have, in many 438 cases, asked us to transmit the same news three times to the same place over the same wire; and although the associations have been informed by Mr. Scudamore that it is impossible to transmit such a quantity of news within the requisite time, they have not been able to come to any satisfactory arrangement. Until some arrangement is come to between them, it is quite impossible for the Department to give them entire satisfaction. I trust, however, as far as the transmission of general messages is concerned, the country will, in a few days, hold the Department in better estimation than it does at present.