§ MR. HENNIKER HEATONI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, with regard to the official reply given to the deputation which recently waited upon the official head of the Department, 1687 requesting that the name and address not exceeding four words in a telegram should be sent free, that the loss of revenue from such a concession would be £600,000 per annum, whether he will inform the House how he arrives at this calculation of the probable loss?
§ MR. HANBURYNo such statement was made by the official head of the Department. What that officer did say was that an addition of four words to the average length of each inland telegram would produce an additional revenue of about £600,000 a year, and that the granting of a free address of four words could not be consequently regarded as such a trifle as had been represented by some members of the deputation.