. . .enue of $1,050,000 a year; and that sum would suffice to pay the interest on the debt to be contracted, and to clear off that debt in twenty-nine years.30

Parliament was to be prorogued in August; and a General Election was to follow prorogation. The Government naturally was anxious to avoid having to go into the General Election without having achieved the nationalization of the telegraphs; particularly, since the opposition party also had committed itself to [Pg 59] State purchase. Then again, the Government believed that the value of the telegraphs was increasing so rapidly that the State would lose money by any postponement of the act of purchase. For these reasons the Government entered into negotiations with the various interests that evinced a disposition to oppose in Parliament the Government’s Bill, until finally all opposition was removed.

Politics forces Government’s Hand

The Bill, as introduced, proposed that the State . . . Read More