§ MR. FLYNNI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the proceedings in connection with the formation of the Pacific Cable Board; whether this Board entered into any contract respecting the construction of the cable before any resolution of Parliament or other sanction w s obtained; and was any money paid in the nature of instalments before sanction of Parliament was obtained; and, if so, was this action taken with the sanction of the Treasury representatives on the Board; and what explanation of these proceedings can the Treasury offer to the House.
§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR, Manchester, E.)The Treasury and the Agents General of the several colonies interested entered into a contract with the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company for the construction and laying of the Pacific cable before the sanction of Parliament was obtained. This was in accordance with the regular practice with regard to contracts involving subsidies to telegraph companies or payments; to steamship companies for the conveyance of mails. The exceptional feature in this case was that the first instalment of payments under the contract fell 1187 due, and therefore had to be paid, before the payment was sanctioned by Parliament. When the contract was agreed to I had every reason to anticipate that we should be able to submit it to the judgment of the House before this instalment fell due, but this proved to be impossible owing to the congestion of business in the early part of the session. I take the entire responsibility for what occurred, but I think my action in accepting the contract was perfectly justified, because prices of materials were rising so much at the time that, if we had not accepted the contract when we did, we should probably have incurred a considerable loss in the price of the cable.