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THE POST OFFICE TELEGRAPHS.
29s
reorganising the system. Mr. Scudamore estimated the cost
of all the required extensions at .k100,000, ad, though fhie
sum seemed absurdly amall, he elaborately explained before
the Select Committee (Q. 1933) that it would be ample to
cover the whole cost of the transfer and extensions. We now
know, not exactly what the reo1 cost has been, but that it may
be roundly stated at several
In a paper on the subject of the telegrnph~, read to the
Statistical Society of Manchester, in April, 1867, I estimated
the cost of t,he transfer and reorganisntion of the telegraph
system, apart from tho purchase-money, at &2,500,000; and
thus, without pretending to any special knowledge on the
subject, I was at least twenty-five times more correct than
the Government officer charged with the business.
We were promised n net annual revenue of from 5200,000
to 1360,000, and were told that wo might rely upml this
‘r with almost entire certainty” (0. 1000*), even with the
moderate traffic of 11,000,000 telegrams. At the same time
it was plausibly asserted t,l~at, ns the business increased, the
expenses would increase in a much lower ratio (a. 1867,2441).
I have calculated that, in order to verify Mr. Scudamore’s
predictions, we ought nom to have a ?let revenue from the
telegraphs of &GOO,OOO, instead of such a trifle as L36,725 in
the year ending 31st March, 1873. When we inquire into
the particulars of the present great expenditure, like inconsistency
between predictions and results is met with. It was
not unreasonable to cxpect that the one centralised staff of
o5cers and engineers required by tho Post Office would bu
less numerous and costly than the aggregate of the four or
more separate staffs maintained by t,he companies. Accordingly,
Mr. Scudamore asserted over and over again that this
would be the case. He eays (Report, p. 38) : In their case
the average expense is swelled by the costs of a divided
management, by the rent of many Beparate establishments, by
the maintenance of a staff of engineers, inspectors, and
millions, instead of &~oo,ooo~
These numbers refer to the quefltions in the evidence taken before
the Select Committee on the Electric Telegraphs Bill, 1868.