§ MR. PICTON (Leicester)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he has now obtained the information which he was unable to give on 19th June as to the pecuniary results to the Post Office of the difference in the charges made for Press telegrams as compared with ordinary telegrams; and whether he can say approximately how much of the deficit in the Telegraph Service is received back by the public in the form of cheap news?
§ MR. A. MORLEYI found that the cost of an examination of the messages for any lengthened period would be so costly as to be prohibitive, and I, therefore, directed that the calculations should be limited to a particular day. The result was to show that if the Press messages of that day had been paid for at the ordinary inland rate, the Department would have received nearly eight times as much as it actually did receive. For the reasons which I gave on the 19th June, it is impossible for me to separate the cost of dealing with Press telegrams from that of the rest of the Telegraph Service, and I cannot, therefore, state what is the loss incurred by the Department. When the Account of the Gross Amount received and expended on account of the Telegraph Service for the year ended 31st March last is presented to Parliament it will be found that, apart from the interest on capital, the balance of expenditure over receipts was about £150,000, and the best estimate that can be formed by the officials at the Post Office points to the annual loss on Press telegrams being at least double that amount, and probably a still larger sum.
MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)was understood to ask if all the messages were transmitted on a particular day, or only a selection?
§ MR. A. MORLEYAll.
§ MR. PICTONWhat day was it?
§ MR. A. MORLEYI think some day in July.