§
Motion made, and Question proposed—
That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire and report whether the telephone service is or is not calculated to become of such general benefit as to justify its being undertaken by municipal and other local authorities, regard being had to local finance; and, if so, whether such local authorities should have power to undertake such service in the districts of other local authorities outside the area of their own jurisdiction, but comprised wholly or partially in the same telephone area, and what powers, duties, and obligations ought to be conferred or imposed upon
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such local authorities; that the Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee on the Telephone Service in the Session of 1895, and the Report of the Commissioner and the Evidence taken before him in the inquiry recently held at Glasgow, be referred to the Committee for consideration in so far as they relate to the subject of the present inquiry; that the Committee do consist of Seventeen Members; that Mr. Bartley, Mr. Griffith-Boscawen, Sir Harry Bullard, Mr. Cawley, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Colville, Mr. Firbank, Mr. Fry, Mr. Hanbury, Sir Reginald Hanson, Sir Henry Howorth, Sir James Joicey, Mr. Nicol, Mr. John Redmond, Mr. James Stuart, Mr. Tully, and Sir James Woodhouse, be members of the Committee; that the Committee have power to send for persons, papers, and records; that Five be the quorum."—(Sir William, Walrond.)
§ House adjourned at 12.10.