§ MR. GRIFFITH BOSCAWEN (Kent, Tunbridge)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether his attention has been called to the inconvience caused in country districts by the multiplication of telegraph and telephone poles along the roads, whereby both traffic is impeded and the scenery disfigured; whether he is aware that there are already in some places two sets of poles, belonging to the Post Office telegraphs and a telephone authority respectively, and that these poles often carry few wires, and that in some places a third set of poles will probably be erected by a competing authority; and whether, in such cases, the Post Office would allow the various telephone authorities to place their wires on their poles on rental terms, and when the existing poles are not strong enough would undertake to erect poles sufficiently strong to carry the various sets of wires.
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,) Worcestershire, E.The Postmaster General does not think that the cases to which the hon. Member refers are numerous, or that the poles in such cases have been erected in such a manner as to impede the traffic. He is, however, very desirous of meeting the wishes of local authorities as far as practicable, and he would be prepared to consider in any particular case the question of allowing his licensees to rent wires erected on Post Office poles. It would not, he thinks, be desirable that telephone authorities should be allowed to place their own wires on Post Office poles.