'9th November, Lorp Sraney,. the Postmaster-General, made a Return to the, House of Commons on, the 18th of July last relative 10. the, working. of the. Wireless Telegrnph. Act.(1904) during the resentyear, The business done during. that.time Iwas not very considerable, but, the figures are of, some interest. The total number of messages. under the terms of the arrangement with the Marconi.. Company.. bande by. the general public {o the Post Ottice for transmission to ships.at sea ws one hundred: and, eleven, and of thege, as far us the records of, the. Post Office show twenty-one failed to be delivered.
sixteen. of the cases of non-delivery the senders applied, for, 2. refund.of the, charges on. their. messages..,..In six of these cases the refund, was refused, the Marconi Company declining.to entertain the applications on ithe ground. that. the, telegrams' had been accepted at the risk of the senders after the honr, showa, in. the Comrany's sailing lis us the latest; at which such telegrams should, be sent, The number of messages received fiom ships at sea, and delivered by the Post Office to, thei general, public was much greater, the tual having been one thousand six hundred. aad fifty.five. No. figures. are,.given, however, as to., the number, which fulled to secure transmission, as.that was a matter of concern to. the Marconi, Corpany, only, and. not.to the, Post Office, which, became responsible for messages when placed in its hands and not before., The total sum received by the Post, Office. for out= ward messages was £55.2.6, or an average of about ten. shillings a message., Of this £7.15.1}d. was, the share ut the Post Ottice, the; balance going to the Murconi Company, for its servic... For inward messages: the Post Office received £65.1.2, the whole of which was due to it, the sum received by-the' Marconi Company in respect of such m. sages being paid direct to..their. representatives.on board the ships from which' messages were sent, and "not to the Postal authorities. To make this clear it may be-well to siate'that the: practice is for. the Post Office receiving messages to charge the sender the whole amount due and subsequently {to pay to the, Marconi Company,.'the '|sums:- received lugs ithe ordinary charges for the land telegraph.éervices rendered. - The-Post Office transmits the messages by telegraph to the most: suitable Marcopi station, which uses its own apparatus to send, them over sea. On, the.ovher hand the 'sender-of a message from -on board Iship hands his message' to' the Marconi operator payment is made,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.