§ Mr. LARDNERasked the Postmaster-General whether any telephones under the new scheme had as yet been provided in rural districts in Ireland; whether any applications for the provision of such telephones had been received, and, if so, from what districts; and would he further state whether any information was circulated amongst rural districts in Ireland with a view to eliciting applications for rural telephones from farmers and others?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELNo rural-party line telephones have yet been provided in Ireland, but applications for such telephones have been received from residents in the neighbourhoods of Dundalk, Limavady, and several other places. The difficulty in Ireland, as elsewhere, is in getting sufficient subscribers on the route of each party-line. Circulars have been sent to Ireland to be given to applicants, but no general distribution has been made. The possibility of modifying the conditions of the service so as to allow the wants of more scattered subscribers to be met is at present under consideration.
§ Mr. LARDNERalso asked what experiments have been, or are proposed to be, made with automatic telephone exchanges in the three kingdoms; whether an experimental automatic exchange will be set up in Ireland in view of the fact that there are many small exchanges in Ireland for which the automatic system would be suitable both from efficiency and economy in working expenses; and will he further 991W state what is the estimated cost of the experiments with automatic telephones?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThree experimental automatic exchanges are about to be established at Epsom, Caterham, and the General Post Office, London. They can all be watched conveniently by the technical officers of the Engineer-in-Chief at headquarters, but this would not apply to an exchange in Ireland. The establishment of automatic exchanges in other places must depend on the results of these experiments. I cannot give a precise estimate of the cost of working of the experimental exchanges. It is, indeed, one of the objects of the experiments to ascertain that cost.