§ Mr. TOUCHEasked if in June of this year the Post Office quoted a rate of £37 6s. 3d. a year on a four years' agreement to provide Colonel Le Roy-Lewis, D.S.O., with a telephone at Westbury House, near Petersfield; that in August, 1907, the National Telephone Company were willing to put a telephone into the house for an annual subscription of £12 4s., covering 900 outward calls, all inward calls being free; and why the Post Office charge should be approximately three times that of the National Telephone Company, especially in view of the expressed intention to develop the telephone convenience in agricultural districts?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe Post Office quotation given to Colonel Le Roy-Lewis was for a telephone line for his exclusive use and connected with the Peters-field exchange, which is about seven miles 482 distant from his residence, and is the nearest exchange on the Post Office system. I understand that the quotation given in 1907 by the National Telephone Company was contingent on the establishment of an exchange by the company in the immediate neighbourhood of Colonel Le Roy-Lewis's residence, and that the company abandoned the scheme owing to the absence of local support.