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THE POST OFFICE TELEGR.4PIf.F. 297
Post Office would not require or even desire a statutory
monopoly of telegraphic business. Mr. Scudamore, in faot,
said distinctly : (Q. 294) IC I never should wish for that protection.’’
Nevertheless, no sooner had the business advanoed
a step than a clause prohibiting all competition in inland
tekgraphic business was at once inserted h the Act of
Parliament.
Various pleas have been put forward in defence of tho
department, the most plausible, perhaps, bei~~g t,ho assert.ion
that the results are exactly comparable to thoso of tho Post
Office after the penny post,al reform. Nothing, howcve~’, can
be more opposed to fact,s. It is true tllat the groat reduction
of postal charges caused a loss of net revenuo of &1,259,000,
and that twenty-four years elapsed before the same net revenue
was again realised. This fact done ought to Le R caution to
those who are so frequently and rashly asserting that low
charges pay best. But there is this great differcnco between
the postal and telegraph reforms-that the postal net revenue
was never less than half a million, and, still more, that it immediately
began to recover, so that by tho year 1817 it had
nearly reached u million. To put this matter iu the clearest
light, I have compared the net revenue of the Telegraph
Department with that of the Post Office, during corresponding
years before and after the penny postal reform. The results
are in t,he following table :
Net Revenue and ProGt.
Post Office. Tclographs.
First year before reform ... &1,659,087 -
First year after ,, ... 500,789 $303,45li
Secona ,, It ... 561,249 1
.;! 1,8:j-1.
Third ,, I, ... 600,641 103,120
Fourth ,, If ... 640,217 90,033
Fifth ,, 1, ... 719,957 36,725
There cannot be a greater contrast than between the rapid
progress of the postal net revenue and the alarming decrease
in the telegraph net revenue. This comparison entirely beam
out the statement of the Treasury Commissioners that “The
Telegraph Branch is not in the position of the Postal Depart-