XXXII LIGHTENING HIS BURDENS 107 



deduction by bankers of income tax on interest 

 paid to their customers on deposit accounts," 

 and admitted himself satisfied by the arguments 

 against the suggestion. 



Not uninteresting, in view of later develop- 

 ments, is this letter which Sir John sent to the 

 Times on the subject of the Government's pro- 

 posals for the partial working of the telephone 

 service. It is a mode of management which, as 

 Sir John states, Mr, Hanbury, the President of 

 the Local Government Board, denounced, then 

 proposed and carried. 



The Government Telephone Bill 

 To the Editor of the Times. 



Sir — You are certainly conferring a great service on 

 the public in opening your columns to a discussion on 

 Mr. Hanbury's important proposals with reference to 

 the telephone. He has assured us, and of course I do 

 not question, that he wishes to be fair to the company ; 

 he is acting, no doubt, to some extent in accordance 

 with the recommendations of a committee ; but com- 

 mittees are not infallible, and now that we have the 

 Bill before us it seems to me unjust to the company. 

 It will, I believe, exercise an unfortunate effect on the 

 progress of applied science, and lead to an increase in 

 both rates and taxes. We are told that the company's 

 charges are too high and the service inefficient. But it 

 is not fair to contrast the charges in this country with 

 those abroad without taking into consideration the 

 fact that the National Telephone Company has to pay 

 one-tenth of its receipts i— over £100,000 a year — to the 

 Post Office as royalty. No wonder, then, that more 

 progress has been made in other countries. If a similar 

 payment had been exacted from railroads they would 

 have made much less rapid progress. 



As regards the alleged want of efficiency, the Company 



1 I.e. one-tentli of the gross receipts, the said one-tenth amounting 

 to more than £100,000. 



