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THE POST OFFZCE TELEGRAPHS. 305
indead, never a practicable or even a sensible one, as I bvo
end-voured to show in a paper published in the Owens
’ College Essays. The notion that an esperieuced officittl could
be appointed to negotiate the purcllase of the railway proportg
and then reorganise it in the style of the Tolegrnpk Depart
ment, is simply humorous. But to one who baa lookcd
through the documents respccting this telegraph busiuess,
tho conviction must come homo that such nil operntiou cun
hardly be repeated, even on a snlnll scdc. When we rcmember
how profits running for tell years only wero bought
at twenty years’ purchase; how tho owners of a rotton cab10
since rclaid, received nlore than tho whole mouey they Iutd
spent upon it; and how the extension of tho tclegrnpll lines,
when purchased, cost considcrably mom tlmn tho whole of
what had previously been spent by the cotnpanios 011 the
invention and introduction of t,lle system, wo must we tl1:tt
a series of disastrous precedents has been est~tblishccl.
One of the greatest uecds of thc country at prcscnt is
n Government system of parcel conveyance, which would
relieve the Post Officc of the 1:wger books and otllor unremunerative
heavy traffic, and xt tho same tirne orgauiso
into 0110 system the grcat nuruLcr of carrying cornpanics,
parcel delivery cotnpanics, and country ctwrier3 wllich uow
exist. At prescnt tho wastc of power in tho tlelive~y of
parcels at consumers' houses is cxtrernely and absurdly great,
and the chnrgcs luade arc in many cases exorbitantly high. A
well orgnnised system of parcel posts would produce Lonefits
quite cornparablc with thosc of tho pcnuy postal rcform, and
would immensely improve the methods now employed. in retail
tmde, and the distribution of goods to CousumerH. But if
we must first buy up the rights and profits of all at present
engaged in the cocveyance of parcels, in the style of tho
telegraph purchase, the scheme becomcs impracticable.
The account,s of the Telegraph Department unfortunately
demonstrate what was before to be feared, namely, that n
Government department cannot compete in economy with am
ordinary commercial firm subject to competition. The work
done i3 indeed great, and fairly accomplished on the whole,
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