§ SIR WILLIAM DUNN (Paisley)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, if his attention has been called to page xxiv. of the recently issued General Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland, in which they complain that, while the profits reaped at certain telegraphic extensions goes intact into the hands of the Post Office, they exact from the guarantors the full amount of the deficit in the revenue at offices which are not patronised to the same extent, but are quite as useful; and whether it is possible for some change to be made whereby the matter complained of by the Fishery Board may be remedied, at any rate when the period for which the guarantees were given is ended?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. R. W. HANBURY,) PrestonThe attention of the Postmaster General has been called to the paragraph of the Report to which the hon. Member refers. The guarantees given by the Fishery Board of Scotland being about to expire the Postmaster General will be happy to look into the arrangements, and to see whether it is possible for any relief to be given in any case. It is right, however, to point out that it is the essence of a guarantee that it should protect the public against loss in the particular case to which the guarantee applies, and that it would not be possible to maintain 1420 the system if the profit earned at one place were to be set against the loss incurred at another served by a different line of wires. The Fishery Board ignore the fact that Scotch telegraphic extensions already receive exceptional assistance in the form of a special grant under the Highlands and Islands Vote.