§ SIR EDWARD SASSOON () HytheI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he would state the amount of subsidies paid during 1898-9 to the Eastern Telegraph Company by the Imperial and Colonial Governments.
§ MR. HANBURYI presume that the hon. Member refers not to the Eastern Telegraph Company alone, but to the group of which it forms the centre. From Imperial funds £19,000 was paid in 1898-9 to the African Direct Telegraph Company and £63,000 to the Eastern and South African Telegraph Company, bat £18,000 was repaid to the Exchequer in respect of the latter subsidy (£10,000 from India, £7,000 from Mauritius, and £1,000 from Seychelles), and £5,000 in respect of the former (from various West 1220 African Colonies). From Colonial funds £15,000 was paid to the Eastern and South African Telegraph Company by the Cape Government, and £5,000 was paid to the same company by the Natal Government. £32,400 was paid by Australasian Governments to the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company in respect of the duplicate cable subsidy (which finally ceased in October, 1899) and £4,200 in respect of the Tasmanian Cable subsidy, besides a payment of £2,632 on a traffic guarantee for New Zealand cables which can hardly be reckoned as a subsidy. I understand also that the Government of the Straits Settlements paid £400 to the Eastern Extension Company in respect of a telegraph to Malacca.