74. MARQUESS of TULLIBARDINEasked the Postmaster-General whether he will explain why he insists upon ten subscribers and an annual donation of £33 for taking the telephone five and a half miles to Blair Atholl, when four subscribers and a donation suffice for six and three-quarter miles in Dunning, and three subscribers and a guarantee of £22 suffice for a distance of five and a half miles for Kinrossie; whether he will give the same terms amounting to the same total subscription to the inhabitants of Blair Atholl as to those of Kinrossie; and, if not, will he say why this cannot be done?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELIn the case of the proposed extension to Killiecrankie and Blair Atholl, new poles will have to be provided for 5½ miles out of a total route length of 7 miles, whereas in the Dunning case new poles will only have to be erected for 1½ miles, and in the case of Kinrossie for ¾ of a mile. The additional annual expenses involved in the Killiecrankie and Blair Atholl extension are nearly three times as much as those arising from the Dunning or Kinrossie extension. Moreover, in those two cases the same circuits will be used for the telegraph and telephone services, thus reducing the expenses chargeable to the telephone scheme, but in the Killiecrankie and Blair Atholl case the amount of telegraph traffic precludes such an arrangement. I would add that the amount of the annual subscriptions at Dunning, which I was unable to furnish in my reply to the Noble Lord's question of the 7th instant, is £40 1s., including a special payment of £4 15s. by one of the subscribers.