SUPPLY OF TELEGRAPH POLES TO THE POST OFFICE, 343 
XXXVI. Supply of Telegraph Poles to the Post Office. 
By Lieut.-Colonel F, BatLey, 
In his evidence before the Forestry Committee (1902), Mr 
Martin Roberts, Engineer-in-Chief to the Post Office, stated 
that the Post Office use red pine (z.e., Scots pine or Scots fir) 
for their telegraph posts, and obtain their supplies from Sweden, 
Norway, Finland and other Russian provinces. The difficulty 
in obtaining the necessary supplies from these countries is 
increasing year by year, while the price of the timber is at the 
same time rising very rapidly; and Mr Roberts was recently 
sent abroad with a view to his opening up new sources of 
supply. The explanation of these conditions is that the longer 
and more suitable poles have been gradually cut out of the 
forests, and that the timber has now to be obtained from 
localities which are farther from the coast than those which 
previously yielded the supply. The Post Office invites tenders 
in this country, and allows any timber-merchant to quote for 
the required poles; but a very small proportion of them is 
bought here, and practically none of it is home-grown. Indeed, 
the specification now prescribes that the timber must be “Swedish, 
Norwegian, Finland, or Russian.” ‘The reasons for this are two, 
viz., that neither growers nor merchants of home-grown timber are 
prepared to tender for the yearly contracts, and that the quality of 
their timber is inferior to that of the timber obtained from abroad. 
In the year 1892, the Postmaster General was urged to use 
native in preference to foreign Scots pine. He invited tenders, 
and a trial order for fifty poles was placed in January 1893; 
but only nine of the fifty poles supplied were found suitable for 
the purposes of his Department, the remainder being rejected as 
crooked, knotty and unduly heavy (in consequence, no doubt, 
of their having been too recéntly cut). Several further attempts 
were subsequently made to obtain telegraph poles grown in 
this country, but always with the same result. In 1885, 
comparative strength-tests were applied to home-grown and to 
foreign poles, when it was proved that the former were greatly 
inferior to the latter, probably owing to their knotty and unequal 
structure. In conclusion of his remarks, Mr Roberts says: 
“Apart, however, from the question of strength of the timber, 
it does not appear probable that long, straight Scots fir poles, 
7.é., poles from 40 to 75 feet in length, are obtainable (in Britain) ; 
