The Report of the Postmaster General for the year 1897-98 stated that the concessions granted would entail a total increase of expenditure of $1,940,000 a year. The Duke of Norfolk concluded his reference to the foregoing episodes with the words: "Since that time I have declined, and I shall continue to decline, to allow decisions which have been considered by the Tweedmouth Committee, and which have been revised by Mr. Hanbury and myself, to be reopened. It is my belief that those decisions have been liberal, but whether they are liberal or not, it is for the interest of all parties that it should be understood that they are final." In April, 1900, Mr. R. W. Hanbury, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, stated the concessions granted by the Tweedmouth and Norfolk-Hanbury Committees were costing $2,200,000 a year. In April, 1901, Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said they were costing $2,500,000 a year; and in April, 1903, he stated that they were costing $3,000,000 a year.[180] Those figures related to the combined postal and telegraph service. So far as the latter service alone is concerned, the average expenses on account of wages and salaries rose steadily from 11.54 cents per telegram in 1895-96, to 13.02 cents in 1902-03, under an increase in the number of messages from 79,423,000 in 1895-96, to 92,471,000 in 1902-03. In 1905-06, the average in question rose to 14.29 cents, partly in consequence of the increases in wages made in response to the demands of the Civil Servants, partly in consequence of the drop in the number of telegrams to 89,478,000--as a result of the growing competition from the telephone. In 1895-96 the receipts of the Telegraph Department proper exceeded the operating expenses by $646,000; in 1900-01, the operating expenses exceeded the receipts by $34,000; in 1903-04 the deficit rose to $1,505,000, and in 1904-05 it was $917,000. In 1905-06, the gross revenue exceeded the operating expenses by $63,500.[181] FOOTNOTES: [169] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897, is the official title of the Committee's Report. [170] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897, p. 4. [171] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897; q. 15,119 and following, 11,706, 11,694, 15,123, 11,642 to 11,648, 11,680 to 11,697, 11,774 and 11,805. [172] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897; q. 4,183 to 4,185, 3,907 to 3,912, 3,868 to 3,879 and 4,140 to 4,149. [173] Mr. Kerry probably meant that the employees of the companies worked under greater pressure. [174] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897; q. 6,747 and following, and 6,691 to 6,694. [175] _Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Post Office Establishments_, 1897; q. 3,863 and 3,853.