SYDNEY TO AUCKLAND

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8463, 15 January 1913, Page 3

SYDNEY TO AUCKLAND

DIRECT GABLE COMPLETED

(For Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, January 14 To celebrate the completion >>•' the direct cable between Auckland ?nd Sydney, the Pacific Cable Board entertained the leading citizens at lunch jd. Responding to the toast of "i-he Pacific Cable Board," proposed by 'iiu Postmaster-General, Mr Milward, the company's Australian manager, stated that the original capital was advanced by the Imperial Treasury, and was being repaid by the revenue earned by tiie cable in fifty yearly instalments of £77,000. In addition the revenue was expected to provide £33,000 per annum towards the renewal of funds, besides paying all working expenses. This meant within fifty years that the original capital, with interest, will be repaid, and a sum necessary to lay a second cable throughout. The accumulated sum that the different Governments were -called upon to contribute was decreasing yearly, and it was hoped in a few years to be reduced to nothing. The-, traffic in eight years showed an increase of 250 per cent., and the new cable between Sydney and Auckland, it was hoped, would, in addition to a more reliable service, reduce the working expenses by cutting' out two transmissions. ' He thanked the people of New Zealand for their very loyal support to the undertaking.