§ MR. LABOUCHEREI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that the Commissioners of Woods and Forests are exacting a charge of 5s. per annum from the District Messenger Service and News Company for premium to maintain any attachment, for the purpose of carrying a wire for telegraphic communication, to the chimney stack of any house of which the Crown is the ground landlord; and whether he will consider the expediency of urging on the Commissioners of Woods and Forests the desirability of allowing their tenants to become subscribers to companies providing means for telegraphic communication without exacting from the companies this rent?
SIR J. GORSTThe answer to the first paragraph is in the affirmative. I see no ground for urging the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to alter the arrangement.