§ 35. Lieut.-Colonel ACLAND-TROYTEasked the Postmaster-General whether, in view of the dislocation of the service caused by the breaking of telegraph and telephone poles during the recent severe weather, he will consider the gradual replacement of these foreign poles by English-made poles of steel or iron, which are not liable to be broken in this manner?
§ The ASSISTANT POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Sir Ernest Bennett)Steel telegraph poles are much dearer than wooden poles of equal strength; and the substitution of steel for wooden poles would therefore result in greatly increased expenditure. The breakage of telegraph poles is very rare, and in the recent blizzard the main cause of the breakages was the weight and wind resistance of masses of snow and ice accumulated on the wires.
§ Lieut.-Colonel ACLAND-TROYTEWould not steel poles have stood that weight better than wooden ones?
§ Sir E. BENNETTPossibly, but they are more expensive and are not always reliable, because they corrode, not only externally, but internally. We can deal with external corrosion by frequent layers of paint, but the corrosion inside is another matter and the poles may snap at any moment.
§ Mr. T. GRIFFITHSIs the hon. Gentleman aware that no damage whatever was caused to the wireless pillars and structures and the electricity structures in South Wales because they are made of steel, and will he consider the advisability of replacing wooden telegraph poles by steel poles as that will give employment in the steel trade and the mining industry?
§ Sir E. BENNETTI have already stated the reason why we do not employ them at present. It is because we cannot afford it.
§ Captain HAROLD BALFOURIn arriving at the cheapest method of putting up telegraph posts, has the hon. Gentleman considered the saving in unemployment benefit that will result from employing men to make steel poles instead of wooden poles?