Note 65 — Chapter V · None of Mr. Scudamore’s Financial Forecasts Were Realized
Reading edition
The subjoined table gives, for successive periods, the average capital sums upon which the net revenue earned by the telegraphs would have paid the interest; and also the average sums actually invested in the telegraphs in those periods. The first column of the table is constructed on the assumption that the interest paid by the State for borrowed money was 3.25 per cent. from 1870-71 to 1883-84; 3 per cent. from 1884-85 to 1888-89; and 2.75 per cent. from 1889-90 to 1900-01.
The ten million dollars paid to the railway companies some time between 1873 and 1879 are not included in the sum put down for the average capital investment in 1875-76 to 1877-78, since it has been impossible to assign that payment to specific years.
The results of the year 1870-71 should be ignored, since the cost of the maintenance of the telegraphs was charged to capital account in the year in question.
The net revenue sufficed to pay interest on: The average capital actually invested was:
1870-7152,710,50033,790,000
1871-72 to 1874-7520,090,00040,045,000
1875-76 to 1877-7831,305,00041,715,000
1878-79 to 1884-8552,785,00054,510,000
1885-86 to 1888-8924,646,00060,545,000
1889-90 to 1891-9244,033,00063,446,000
1892-93 to 1905-06Nil74,243,000