the purchase of existing rights.[800] [799] Receiver and Accountant-General of the Post-Office. [800] _Rep. Com._, 1867-68, xi, 435, p. 108; _Acc. & P._, 1867-68, xli, 202, p. 7. The report presented by Mr. Scudamore was strongly in favour of the control of the telegraphs by the Post Office, and is especially interesting in furnishing an abstract of the evils which the people considered that the companies were inflicting upon them. The most important of these evils, real or imaginary, were as follows:-- Exorbitant charges and a resulting failure to expand on the part of the system. Delay and inaccuracy in the transmission of messages. Failure to serve many important towns and communities. Inconvenient situation, in many places, of the telegraph office, it being often at a considerable distance from the business centre of the town, especially when in the railway station. Inconveniently short periods that offices are open in many places. Wasteful competition between the companies. The strongest argument against the existing condition was rather a result of competition than private ownership. In the more populous centres the companies very often had their telegraph offices at a very short distance from each other, being so situated as to compete for the public patronage, while other and more outlying portions of the town were quite unserved. The latter were thus made to suffer in order that favoured portions might enjoy the somewhat doubtful boon of competition. In order to show the failure to extend telegraphic facilities, Mr. Scudamore compiled a list of towns in England and Wales having an individual population of two thousand or more. In his own words "So far as telegraphic accommodation is concerned, while thirty per cent of the whole number of places named ... are well served, forty per cent are indifferently served, twelve per cent badly served, and eighteen per cent, having an aggregate population of more than half a million persons, not served at all." By combining the telegraphic business with the postal service, there seemed every reason to suppose that its advantages could be more widely extended, the hours of attendance increased, charges reduced, and facilities given for the transmission of money orders by telegraph.