§ SIR THOMAS DEWARI beg to ask the Postmaster-General if he will state what progress has been made with the London telephone system, and how much of the money provided for the service has been expended.
§ THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Lord STANLEY,) Lancashire, WesthoughtonNine post office telephone exchanges have been opened in the London area, and three others are in course of construction. On the 4th inst., 15,020 telephones were working in connection with these exchanges. The expenditure for the working lines, and for a large amount of general construction available for the further development of the system and the establishment of additional exchanges, amounted, on the 30th November, to £1,441,775. Parliament, when providing money for telephone capital expenditure, did not allot a defined portion of that money to expenditure in London; but I may mention that the sums provided for such expenditure in general will be exhausted by the end of the present financial year, and that I propose at the earliest opportunity to ask leave to introduce a Bill to provide 588 further moneys for the extension of the telephone system.