The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY. AUGUST 10, 1901. IMPERIAL COMMUNICATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 186, 19 August 1901, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY. AUGUST 10, 1901. IMPERIAL COMMUNICATIONS.

For the cause that lacks assistance For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance And tho good that wo can do.

The Pacific Cable Bill has al last been accepted by the House of Commons, and we may now look upon the ''all-red*' cable as an accomplished fact. The original project dates back to the Colonial Conference in 1387, j when the representatives of all the gTent colonies agreed that great commercial and strategical advantages were to be gained by the construction of a Paeitiu cable whk'ii would touch land only in British territory. P>ui Jiio survey of the projected route was '"hung- up" in the manner jkh-u----linr to tht! Colonial Office before the advent of Mr Chamberlain; and the report of the Survey Commission was not published till 1809. The scheme involves serious diuleul- j ties in the long; intervals of sea space between the land stations. From Vancouver to Fanning- Island, a gap of 3561 miles must be bridged by wire; and from Fanning- Island to Fij! is 2093 miles. The total length of cable to be laid, including- the branch linos from Norfolk Island to New Zealand and Queensland, is almost exactly 8000 miles. The outside estimate fov the cost is £2,000,000; and it was calculated that the interest at 21 per cent., with cost of maintenance and sinking fund, would easily be covered by earnings, even on a far lower scale than rates ruling on other submarine cables. A conference between representatives of the Imperial, Canadian, and Australasian Governments was held to discuss the subject in 1896; and following their report hi 1899 it was arranged that the countries represented should be collectively responsible for the whole undertakingEngland and Canada each taking fiveeighteenths of the shares, and New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and New' Zealand one-ninth each. The long delay over the scheme has encouraged opposition to it; and it will be remembered that New Zealand lately joined with Canada in a protest against che attempt made by the Eastern Extension Cable Company to bribe the Australian States to break their contract and give up the Pacific cable. However, as the Bill has now been read for the third time, it is fail- to assume thai all serious obstacles to the prosecution or the scheme are at last removed. The importance of this great enterprise is as yet far from being realised by those most immediately concerned in its success. So far back

as 1892 the authors of "Imperial Defence" declared that it was imperatively necessary that the Empire should be bound together by a network of cables, touching land only hi British, territory. The advantages of such a system, both for commercial and naval or military purposes, become obvious as soon as the question is raised. ''The formula for the preservation of the British Empire," says Mr Henniker Heaton, "is cheap cabling. It is the key to all the really momentous problems that con-

front bur statesmen and our merchants. It annihilates distance, abolishes delay, bridges the ocean, laughs at the storm, creates trade, nourishes individual and racial sympathies, multiplies our stength, and enable us to mass our •collecti"e resources at the threatened point."

The Pacific cable project is the first great work of the kind undertaken deliberately and avowedly in the interests of British Imperialism. It is impossible to deny the advantages of the rival course suggested via Honolulu, following' the ordinary shipping routes; but this would involve a deviation from British territory; and the promoters of the scheme desired not only to establish cable communication be'twjen Canada and Austalasia, but to illustrate their conception of British. Imperialism. The attitude of

England towards the scheme has been from the first sympathetic and encouraglng; and the fact that, the great eolbnicw have persuaded the Imperial Government to share with them the heavy pecuniary responsibilities of the undertaking augurs well for the harmony and unity of that Imperial Federation towards which the signs of the times are already pointing- the way. There is one aspect of the Pacific cable scheme which has a more practical and immediate bearing upon our awn material interests. Com-' mereially an "all-red" cable is better than a foreign cable: but neither of them is of much use if the rates arc exorbitantly high. The monopoly so long' enjoyed by the Hastern and Eastern M\tension Companies enabled them to exact any charges! they pleased; and the iirst effect of the agitation for a I'acifie cable was a reduction of the Australian cable rate. liven now the charge to Australia from London (11,120 miles) is 4/7. as against 1/ only charged to P.ombay (6390 miles); and this t bough the Australian messages actually have to pass through Bombay in transit. Hut there is no system nor consistency about any of the present rates throughout the world. From London to Vancouver the charge is 1/0 per word per GOOO miles; to Aden (4750 miles) the charge is 3/9; to Alexandria (3050 miles) 1/7; to Borneo (0500 miles) 5/; while to Tunis (1350 miles) it is 3Ad, and to Constantinople (2030 miles) it is Gkl. In spite of these absurd inconsistencies it is asserted by many experts that there is nothing to prevent a European telegraph rate of Id per word from one end -of the continent to the other. If this were agreed upon. Mr Hcnniker Heaton declares that it would be perfectly easy and profitable to establish a rate of 3d per word to Canada, Gd to India, and one shilling! per word to Australia. What this would mean in the way of facilitating commerce and encouraging F'.r:l:sh trade we leave our n;ader:- io imagine.

Nothing is so likely i'> aid in thej reduction of submarine charges us taej establishment of the "all-red" cable. Experience has already shown lhat the existing system could be worked scale of charges. In LSBG tho Australian rate from England was reduced from 10/8 to 9/4: and in 1891 a further reduction was made to -!/. Though the rate was again raised in 1893 to 4/0, throughout this period the business and the revenue of the Eastern Extension Company steadily increased; and it is estimated by Sir Ed. Sassoon that they have gained about £1.250,000 in 10 years by the reduction, while the profit to Australasia in the increase of commercial facilities and lessening of expenses has been incalculable. We may look for further and greater reductions in the exepnses now incidental to the use of cables in the immediate future, through the establishment of the '■all-red line of connection with Canada and England. But apart from this material gain, we have the satisfaction of knowing that New Zealand has once more by her support of the Pacific cable project done good work for the Empire by strengthening its line of strategical defence, and by helping it to realise the great conception of Imperial Unity.