Note 62 — Chapter V · None of Mr. Scudamore’s Financial Forecasts Were Realized

Parliamentary Paper, No. 295, Session of 1902.

Proportion borne by operating expenses to gross revenue, after excluding from operating expenses all expenses properly chargeable to capital account. The capital account of the telegraphs having been closed in September, 1873, the Post Office, since that date, has charged to operating expenses all expenditures on account of extensions, the purchase of sites, and the erection of buildings.

Average percentage of operating expenses Range

1870-71 57.24

1871-72 78.94

1872-73 to 1874-75 88.77 85.13 to 92.40

1875-76 to 1884-85 79.34 72.27 to 85.50

1885-86 to 1891-92 91.31 87.72 to 95.30

1892-93 to 1900-01 98.30 95.43 to 101.07

1901-02 to 1905-06 100.38 99.69 to 108.06

Parliamentary Paper, No. 34, Session of 1876. Lord John Manners, Postmaster General: “In the first two years after the transfer the expenditure was kept down, because no charge was raised for maintenance, as it took the form of renewal of the plant of the late companies, which, between 1868 and 1870, had, in some instances, been allowed to fall into decay, and was therefore considered properly chargeable against capital.”