§ MR. DOOGANI beg to ask the Postmaster-General has he received a 892 copy of a resolution, passed unanimously on the 3rd instant by the Cookstown Urban District Council, expressing disappointment that no step has yet been taken to construct the line of telephone between Cookstown, Dungannon, Omagh, and Belfast, notwithstanding that a line is being constructed to connect certain towns in the counties of Deny and Antrim with Belfast, which line will be longer, more expensive, and for fewer subscribers than the line proposed for the Tyrone towns; and, having regard to this resolution and previous correspondence with the Postmaster-General, and in view of the fact that it would be only fair that the people of Tyrone should receive equal treatment to that accorded to their neighbours in Derry and Antrim, can he now say when steps will be taken to have the line constructed.
LORD STANLEYI have received the resolution referred to and am giving the subject careful consideration. I should be quite willing at once to extend the telephone system to the Tyrone towns in question, if there were as many persons in them willing to rent telephones as there are telephone subscribers in Derry and Antrim.
§ MR. T. W. RUSSELLBut did not a return sent to the noble Lord last year show more prospective subscribers?
§ MR. T. W. RUSSELLIt is the case, though.