§ MR. CRILLY (Mayo, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether any licences to form public telephone exchanges under the Act of last session have been applied for to the Post Office; if so, how many; and how many such licences have been granted; how many of them have been granted to public corporations, and how many to incorporated companies; how many licences are in force in opposition to the existing licences held by the National Telephone Company; and in what districts are such competing licences operating.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. HANBURY,) PrestonThree actual applications for licences for telephone business have been made by local authorities. In one case a licence has been granted—namely, to the Corporation of Glasgow, for an area co-extensive with the Glasgow area of the National Telephone Company. The Postmaster General has also been in correspondence with twenty-two other local authorities, who are considering whether they shall apply for licences. Two applications for licences have been made by companies. A licence has been granted to the Mutual Telephone Company of Manchester for the borough of Salford and certain adjacent urban districts. The other application has been referred for approval to the corporation concerned, in accordance with Section 3 of the Telegraph Act, 1899. There is, of course, a telephone system worked by the local authority in the island of Guernsey.