§ Mr. RONALD McNEILLasked the Postmaster-General if a telegraph or telephone line is being, or has been, erected at Herne Bay along the Reculver Road to a point near Bishopstone Lodge; how many subscribers were secured before this line was undertaken; if there are two public telephone call offices in Beltinge which offer facilities to the same residents who will be served by the new line; what the cost will amount to of erecting the new line for nearly two miles; whether he has received any protests from the locality against the unnecessary expenditure on the installation; and what public demand persuaded him to undertake the extension?
§ Mr. PEASEThe line in question is required in order to provide telephone service for a doctor, and it would be used68W for any other telephone circuits which may in future be required in the locality. The cost is estimated at £85. There are two telephone call offices in Beltinge, about a mile from the doctor's premises. Objection has been raised to the erection of poles on the ground that they will be unsightly, and it is claimed that some of the sites proposed for the poles are on private property, and not part of the public road. The matter is being investigated.