The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Childers, "hoped the House would not agree to the motion" even if it were ready to accept Dr. Cameron's estimate that the immediate reduction in the net revenue would not exceed $850,000. "He had heard with surprise in the course of the debate some of the statements which had been made in regard to the unimportance of large items of expenditure [and of revenue]; and he was all the more surprised when he remembered the great anxiety which had been expressed during the present session in regard to the Public Expenditure, and the care which ought to be taken over it."[90] Dr. Cameron, in the course of his speech in 1882, quoted a statement recently made by Mr. Fawcett, Postmaster General, to the effect that there was an average of 80,000 telegrams a day for 5,600 offices, or 14 telegrams per office. The representative from Glasgow added: "The state of things which they now had, therefore amounted to this--that from each telegraph office was sent a number of messages which afforded a little over half an hour's work per day for the operator. It would, therefore, at once be seen that there was ample room for increased business, without any increase of expenditure."[91] The foregoing argument overlooked the fact that the wires between the large cities were being worked to something like their full capacity; and that the low average of 14 messages per office was due solely to the existence of hundreds of offices in small places that had very little traffic. And shortly after the House of Commons had passed Dr. Cameron's resolution, in 1883, against the protest of the Government, the Treasury authorized the Post Office to spend $2,500,000 in putting up 15,000 miles of additional wires, and in otherwise preparing for the great increase in business that would arise between the larger towns in consequence of the reduction of the tariff.[92] And by July 5, 1885, three months before the date set for putting into force the reduced rate, the Post Office had engaged 1,202 additional telegraphists and learners,[93] to assist in doing the business which Dr. Cameron in 1882, had said could be done "without any great increase of expenditure." [Sidenote: _Tariff is cut almost in two_]