Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/73

 1899.] The Post Office and the Telephones. [65

Clutterbuck u Taylor. It proposed, therefore, to do away for the purposes of service franchise with the distinction between apartments with partitions going up to the ceiling and apart- ments with partitions which did not quite reach the ceiling, and consequently re-enfranchised a large number of policemen, shop assistants, warders, gardeners, stablemen and others who voted from the time of the passing of the [Representation of the People Act in 1884 till the decision in the Appeal Court ten years later. Sir Charles Dilke moved an amendment deprecating any addition to the existing complexity of the franchise system, and described the measure asa" frittering little bill," but met with scant support, Mr. Logan (Harborough, Leicestershire) supporting the second reading on the ground that it at any rate enfranchised somebody, a line of argument which demolished the objections of Sir Charles Dilke. The Solicitor-General, Sir E. B. Finlay {Inverness), offered no opposition, and the second reading was carried by 188 to 88 votes, no valid objections having been advanced against a measure which restored the franchise to those who had been disfranchised by a mere technicality.

The Sale of Food and Drugs Bill, founded on the report of a select committee, was left by the Government in the hands of the President of the Board of Agriculture, Mr. W. Long {West Derby, Liverpool), presumably on the ground that its main object was to protect dairy products, especially butter, from fraudulent rivals. The representatives and supporters of British and Irish agricultural interests were agreed as to the dangers incident upon the importation of margarine, and endorsed by large majorities the desire to protect the public from adultera- tion, whilst recognising that from a commercial point of view margarine should be obtainable by those who were ready to purchase it under its own name.

The vexed question of the claims of the National Telephone Company, the rights of the Post Office, and the needs of the public, had long occupied attention, and given rise to much discussion. The need of some improvement in the existing condition of telephonic communication was recognised by the Government, and the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Hanbury {Preston), was entrusted to move a resolution (March 6) on which the Government proposed to found a bill, which if carried would allow the Post Office to greatly extend telephone exchanges. He claimed that the department had a perfect right to undertake the task of developing telephonic communication in rivalry with the National Telephone Company. It was the object of the department to popularise this system of com- munication, which was vital to the trading and commercial interests of the country. At the same time the department wished to deal as fairly as possible with the company ; but the service supplied by the company was neither efficient nor sufficient, and it was limited practically to rich subscribers. It was not right that so important a medium of communication

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