§ Mr. ROBERT HARCOURTasked the Postmaster-General why, for the purposes of underground telegraph schemes, he has suggested so short a period as fifteen years for the sinking fund?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELTelegraph expenditure is, in fact, defrayed from money voted by Parliament and not from loan, and the figures quoted to the recent deputation on the subject of underground cables to Dundee and Aberdeen were intended only to illustrate, in the form usually adopted commercially, the effect of the proposed expenditure. The period of fifteen years was taken because that is the period of repayment fixed by the Treasury in the case of the money borrowed for the development of the telephone system.