§ MR. HAROLD COXI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that in a Return, No. 339, bearing his name, and purporting to give an account of the receipts and expenditure of the Post Office telegraphs and telephones, the column headed amounts expended by the Post Office in respect of salaries, wages, maintenance, etc. is intended to include large sums spent upon extensions, or other outlay in the nature of capital, and whether he can explain why so misleading a heading is used.
§ MR. SYDNEY BUXTONThe column in question includes the whole of the expenditure (whether spent upon extensions, or other outlay in the nature of capital, or not) charged on the annual 407 Post Office Votes, and is based upon the Appropriation Accounts. This Return with its various headings dates from 1875, but I will consider whether they should be made clearer in future Returns.
§ MR. HAROLD COXI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he will give a Return for every year since 1870 showing, as is done for ten years in Appendix R of his Fifty-second Report, the net revenue or deficit on the Post Office telegraphs and telephones, after deducting expenditure upon sites, buildings, and extensions from total expenditure; and whether he will include in that Return a statement of the total sums expended by way of capital expenditure upon telegraphs and telephones, including the original purchase price, and distinguishing the sums supplied out of revenue for such capital expenditure from the sums borrowed.
§ MR. SYDNEY BUXTONReturn No. 295 of 1902 gives, for the earlier years, the information required and given for recent years in Appendix R of my Report. As regards the second proposal the Question presents considerable difficulties and I shall be glad to discuss this with my hon. friend.
§ MR. HAROLD COXI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether in the various Returns issued under his name purporting to show the profit and loss upon the Post Office telegraphs and telephones, any allowance is made for interest on money spent out of revenue upon sites, buildings and extensions, or other forms of capital expenditure; and whether any allowance is made for depreciation of plant and premises.
§ MR. SYDNEY BUXTONIf by "money spent out of revenue" the hon. Member means money provided in the annual Votes by Parliament, the Answer to the first part of the Question is in the negative As regards the last part of the Question, the allowance to which the hon. Member refers could not be made in the manner he suggests, unless a capital account were created.