§ (24.) £ 830,896, to complete the sum for Revenue Departments.
§ (25.) £ 1,415,172, to complete the sum for Inland Revenue.
§ (26.) £ 2,530,210, to complete the sum for the Post Office.
§ (27.) £ 652,688, to complete the sum for the Post Office Packet Service.
§ (28.) £ 735,714, to complete the sum for the Post Office Telegraph Service.
MR. BECKETT - DENISONasked, when it was likely that the claims of the railway companies would be brought to arbitration, and what sum would probably have to be paid?
§ LORD JOHN MANNERS, in reply, said, that it was quite impossible to say what the amount would be. In one case, which had been decided, the claim of the company was for £ 400,000, and the amount awarded £ 73,000. The Department had no wish to postpone payment directly the amount had been ascertained, and it could do no more than it did to hurry on the arbitrations; and he need hardly say that when decisions were come to, there would be no delay in what remained to be done.
§ In reply to Mr. WHITWELL,
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSsaid, that the Report of the Departmental Committee on Telegraphs had just been made, and that all the points embraced in it should receive the consideration which their importance merited. Some time, however, was necessary for the purpose of coming to a right decision upon them. So far as he could see, there was a growing development of the telegraph service, and the progress of the revenue arising from it was equally satisfactory, as evidenced by an increased receipt of £ 60,000. He could not allow the opportunity to glide by without expressing his sense of the great and permanent services which Mr. Scudamore had rendered not only to the Department of the Post Office, 536 but to the community of the United Kingdom.
§ Vote agreed to.