§ MR. MAURICE HEALY (Cork)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether the so-called trunk telephone service between Cork and Waterford is not a direct wire but passes through Limerick and Dublin with the result that the delays are such as to make the service useless; and seeing that in England towns so small as Hayle (Cornwall) with only 1,672 inhabitants, Newquay with 1,891 inhabitants, and Llandaff with 3,379, have the advantage of a trunk telephone service, and that in Ireland Tralee (the chief town of county Kerry), Killarney (an important tourist centre), and other important towns, such as Newry, are left without it, whether the Postmaster General will reconsider the representations made to him by the Cork Chamber of Shipping and Commerce as to the necessity for trunk telephonic communication between Cork and Fermoy, Youghal, Mallow, Tralee, and other towns.
§ MR. HANBURYTelephone trunk-wire communication between Cork and Waterford is by way of Dublin. There is no break at limerick. The average number of messages between Cork and Waterford is less than two a day, but the service is a good one. There is not a direct trunk-wire service at Hayle and Llandaff. The nearest offices on the trunk-wire system are at Penzance and Cardiff respectively, and access to that system is obtained through the local exchange systems of the National Telephone Company from Hayle and Llandaff. The extension to North Cornwall and Newquay was made under a guarantee from the National Telephone Company. An extension of the trunk-wire system is now being made to Newry under a similar guarantee, and the Postmaster General has offered on several occasions to extend the system under local or other guarantees to the other towns mentioned in the question.