§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ LORD STANMOREMy Lords, the Post Office desire to acquire, for purposes connected with the telephone, a tube which was constructed many years ago by the Pneumatic Dispatch Company. To repair this tube, and to alter it to make it suitable for Post Office requirements would cost very much less than the alternative scheme of making ducts under the street. After a full discussion the Government have agreed to buy the tube outright for £7,500, but it has been necessary to introduce this Bill because the company have no power to sell the tube, and it is doubtful whether the Postmaster-General could exercise his powers under the Telegraph Acts with reference to this tube without statutory sanction. It is also desirable that the Postmaster-General's title should be made clear by vesting in him the tube by Statute. I beg to move that the Bill be now read a second time.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.— (Lard Stanmore.)
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.