The Appropriate Types of Authority
| Date | 01 October 1926 |
| Author | Geoffrey Clarke |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1926.tb02267.x |
| Published date | 01 October 1926 |
The
Appropriate
Types
of
Authority
for
the Operation
of
Publicly Owned Utility Services,
and
the
Power which they should have
By
SIR
GEOFFREY
CLARKE,
C.S.I.,
O.B.E.
Late
Director
of
Posts
and Telegraphs
in
India
EFORE dealing with the actual point at issue
it
might be helpful
B
to consider what is an Utility Service, and then which of such
services should be publicly owned with advantage to the country. The
broad definition of
a
Public Utility Service is a service that is essential to
the community. It is not ahvays easy to distinguish between services
that are primarily essential to the State and those that are essential to
the community. Among the former could be classed the Army, the
Navy and Coast Defences, and the Civil Services. The latter would com-
prise the Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones, Rail and Road Transport,
Shipping, the organizations for the maintenance of Water Supply,
Lighting, Electric Power, Sanitation, and in Great Britain, perhaps, we
might add coal.
With respect to the great non-earning services which exist as part of
the machinery
of
Government, there can be no question but that control
must be finally vested in Parliament through a Minister of State and that
the maintenance of such services must depend upon
an
annual vote for
supplies.
The Post Office (including Telegraphs and Telephones) stands upon
a
different footing. It can hardly be regarded as part of the machinery
of Government, and yet it is essential to the community.
With one
or
two notable exceptions, the Post
Office
is kept as
a
State
monopoly in all countries, and in England we have always been taught to
regard it
as
a triuniphof organization under State control. The Com-
mittee on Retrenchment of Public Expenditure and the Geddes
Committee, however, had very stringent criticisms to pass upon the
organization. The Report
of
the fonner has the following remarks
:-
"
We have, however, been impressed
by
the fact that,
of
all the numerous
services managed
by
the Post Office,
hardly
one shows
any
profit, except the letter
post.
They were taken
over
in
1870
at a cost (including capital expenditure
on
extensions)
of
i10,129,687
in
the anticipation that
they
would
yield
a
profit to the State. After the second
The
history
of the telegraphs is most unsatisfactory.
330
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