108 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



has told us that the fault is not theirs, but is due to 

 unnecessary difficulties raised by certain local authorities. 

 One case, that of Glasgow, has been carefully inquired 

 into by a Government Official, the Sheriff of Perthshire, 

 who was specially appointed for the purpose by Govern- 

 ment, and who has reported that : 



" The main cause of the inefficiency of the present 

 Telephone Exchange service in Glasgow is that it is 

 worked by ... an overhead single-wire system. . . . 

 The National Telephone Company resolved last year to 

 introduce the metallic underground circuit. . . . The 

 corporation have been responsible for very unnecessary 

 delay, and have finally resolved ' That the request be 

 refused.' My opinion accordingly is that the inefficiency 

 of the present Telephone Exchange system in Glasgow 

 is in great measure due to the refusal of facilities by the 

 Corporation of Glasgow." 



As to cost he adds : "It appears to me that the rates 

 are not unreasonable." 



Thus, then, the charge of inefficiency brought against 

 the company has broken down in the only case which 

 has been officially investigated. 



In spite of this, however, Mr. Hanbury proposes to 

 allow the Glasgow Municipality to institute a competing 

 service, but, as the Sheriff of Perthshire justly says in 

 his able report : — 



" I think the position of the National Telephone 

 Company is entitled to consideration. The corporation 

 put forward their proposal as leading to the establish- 

 ment of a competing service. . . . But ... it is idle 

 to speak of competition when they propose to supply 

 a metallic circuit underground system, and at the same 

 time to prevent the National Telephone Company (who 

 wish to do so) from supplying tlie same. 



" In my opinion, the reasonable solution of the 

 matter would be that the corporation should grant to 

 the National Telephone Company the same facilities 

 for laying a metallic circuit system underground as the 

 large English municipalities have done." 



But Mr. Hanbury's Bill raises far more important 

 questions than those merely affecting the interests of 

 the shareholders in the Telephone Company. It con- 

 stitutes, indeed, an entirely new departure. If these 

 principles arc applied to telephony, why not to gas, 



