DUPLICATING THE PACIFIC CABLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 186, 6 August 1923, Page 5

DUPLICATING THE PACIFIC CABLE.

hauled ashore. The casks arc then cast off and the land-end is buried in a trench. The most notable event of the month J in Fiji was the laying of the Pacific j cable from Suva to Auckland, writes our Fiji correspondent on July 31. The fine j steamer Stephan arrived last week, and on Friday she went round to Suva Point. Iving off "the Sandbank Island, and about a mile from the shore. A concrete cable hut had been erected at the landing spot, and operations started on i rid ay at 4 a m. to catch the Hood tide, but there was some delay owing to a punt getting ashore. However the cable was safely and cleverly landed on Saturday afternoon by means of barrels on which Ihe cable was floated ashore. One hundred barrels were used, and there was no hitch in the delicate proceeding. No less than two and a-half miles of manila rope was used in landing the cable. I be operation was carried out under the supervision of Mr. Clark, duet engineer in charge for the cable manufacturers, and bis' lirst assistant Mr. de Lisle. The first four miles ol the shore-end ot the cable weighed 14 tons io the mile, and this made the job all the more difficult. The cable having been satisfactorily tested from the hut the stephan left on her long stretch for New Zealand on Saturday afternoon, having to lay 1140 miles of cable at a speed under normal conditions of seven knots per hour. The special cable for connecting the shore-nd of the cable with the station arrived to-day by the Armagh from London, and will be laid along the waterfront for a distance of two miles enclosed In a concrete tunnel. The laying of the cable was intently watched by many interested people. HiotOKraptis hv Mr. J. \-. j>. R ugse it chief officer of the Stephan.