The post office and its story an interesting account of the activities of a great government department

Several instances occurred some time ago of injury to telegraph poles in the neighbourhood of Shipston on Stour, caused by large holes being driven into and almost through them. The offender was discovered to be simply a woodpecker. The bird is thought to have imagined that the humming of the wires indicated insects. The united cost of the transfer had been seriously under-estimated, and the telegraph service has always been more or less burdened by the expenditure incurred at the outset. The transfer, however, has been a great boon to the nation, and has enabled the postal and telegraph system of Great Britain and Ireland to become the largest and most complete organisation for the transmission of messages in the world. The immense increase in business would, however, have been impossible but for the advances made since the transfer in telegraphic apparatus, and in wire values, such as the introduction of the duplex, quadruplex, and multiplex systems, which allow of a single wire being electrically split up for the simultaneous transmission of a number of currents. Previous to 1870 the number of telegraph offices in the United Kingdom was approximately 3000, as against 13,520 at the present day. The total number of messages dealt with in the time of the companies amounted to between six and seven millions annually. At the present time upwards of eighty-six million telegrams are dealt with annually. The charges were high compared with the present time, as much as 7s. 6d. being required for a twenty-word telegram to Liverpool in the fifties, and later the average cost of a telegram to the public was 2s. 2d. per message.