asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs what special privileges or rights attach to an experimental wireless receiving licence as compared with the ordinary receiving licence, and whether he is prepared to consider the reduction of the fee charged for an experimental licence from £1 to the rate charged for an ordinary licence.

Before the establishment of the Broadcasting Services licences were granted for the use of wireless receiving apparatus for experimental purposes to persons who desired to carry on experiments with a definite object in view and who possessed the requisite scientific qualifications. At that time and for some time afterwards it was necessary for the Department of Posts and Telegraphs to know the location of receiving stations designed to pick up telegraph signals as well as broadcast telephony, and to exercise special supervision over such stations.

From the technical point of view the maintenance of a distinction between experimental and ordinary receiving stations is no longer a matter of much importance, and the question of regarding the ordinary licence, the fee for which is 10s. a year, as covering the use of any form of receiving set is under consideration.