§ Mr. PIRIEasked the Postmaster-General if he will state fully what the annual authorisations by Parliament were for the laying of underground telegraph lines in great Britain; and the Estimates for, and the sums expended in, the construction of the same each year, respectively, from 1906–7 until this year's Estimates?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe annual authorisations by Parliament for the laying of underground telegraph lines in Great Britain are given in the Post Office Votes; and there is in addition expenditure under the Telegraph Money Acts for the development of the telephone system. The Estimates for and the sums expended in the construction of these lines from 1906–7 are as follows:—
— Amounts Voted. Voted and Capital Expenditure. £ £ 1906–7 … 208,050 330,651 1907–8 … 180,000 228,230 1908–9 … 208,000 270,275 1909–10 … 138,500 169,943 1910–11 … 105,400 125,282 1911–12 … 84,980 100,285 1912–13 … 80,370 16,340 In the expenditure is included the share of the cost allocated to telephone capital granted under the authority of the Telegraph Acts, 1892–1911. The expenditure for 1912–13 covers the period to the 30th September, 1912, only; and expenditure has also been incurred on sections of underground work unconnected with the main underground system, but the cost of this could not be distinguished except at great expense from the cost of other engineering work incidental to rearrangements of the wires.