Where intercommunication took place between the systems of the company and the Post Office, a terminal charge on the part of the receiving system was allowed. Telephonic messages could be sent to the post offices for transmission as telegrams and delivery as such or for delivery as letters. Express messengers could also be sent for by telephone, and telegrams received at the post offices might be transmitted by telephone. [829] Only five years before, Mr. Raikes, the Postmaster-General, said in the House of Commons: "I am inclined to think that it is extremely doubtful whether there would be much public advantage in establishing telephonic communication generally between those [the principal] towns" (_Parl. Deb._, 3d ser., cccxix, col. 664). The Postmaster-General was authorized to grant to the company all such powers of executing works within its exchange areas (other than works under, over, or along any railway or canal) as were conferred upon him by the Telegraph acts of 1863, 1878, and Section 2 of the act of 1892. If required by the company, he must provide underground wires between different exchanges in the same exchange area, and must allow the company to conclude agreements with railway and canal companies over whose property he had exclusive right of way. In exchange for these privileges the company agreed to sell its trunk lines to the Postmaster-General, their value being fixed at a later date at £459,114, which amount was paid to the company on the 4th of April, 1895, the length of trunk line taken over being 2651 miles having 29,000 miles of wire. In order to remove a serious handicap to the success of competing companies, the trunk lines were henceforth to be controlled and extended by the Post Office, the company to receive five per cent of any gross charges for trunk-line tolls which it might collect as an agent of the Post Office. The rates charged by the Post Office for trunk-line conversations in 1896 were, for distances of 125 miles and under, the same as those previously charged by the company, and were lower than the old rates for distances in excess of 125 miles.[830] [830] _Rep. Com._, 1892, xvii, 278, sess. 1, pp. 17-18; 1895, xiii, 350, pp. 8, 34; _Rep. P. G._, 1896, pp. 16, 17; _Rep. Com._, 1898, xii, 383, pp. 35-37, 40; 1905, vii, 271, pp. 233-235; 55 and 56 Vict., c. 59, 59 and 60 Vict., c. 40; _Parl. Deb._, 4th ser., iii, coll. 168, 186, 196.