§ Colonel BAGOTasked whether those persons and local authorities who have granted wayleaves or privileges of a similar character under agreement with the National Telephone Company, Limited, will remain on the same footing as regards rentals, and with the same rights to terminate agreements when the telephone business is taken over by the Postmaster-General?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELSpeaking generally, any person on whose private property poles or other fixtures for the construction of telegraphic lines have been erected by the National Telephone Company will be entitled, after the telephone system has been taken over by the Government, to withdraw the facilities which he has granted in accordance with any agreement he may have previously made with the company. With regard to rentals in such cases his position will be unaltered. As regards poles in hedges and banks on the roadside the Postmaster-General has certain powers under the Telegraph Act of 1908 which are not enjoyed by the Telephone Company, and his position with reference to flying wires over property differs from that of the company. The Postmaster-General, who has statutory powers for the construction and maintenance of telegraphs over, along, and across public roads and streets does not make any payments to local authorities in respect of such telegraphs, and will not do so in respect of those taken over from the National Telephone Company. I may refer the hon. Member on this point to Questions 372 to 375 in the Report of the Select Committee on Post Office (Telephone Agreement), 1905 (House of Commons Paper 271/1905), as well as to Section A of the Telegraph Act, 1892, under which the Postmaster-General has dealt with similar wayleaves acquired from the National Telephone Company in 1896.