The Press. TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1872.

Press, Volume XIX, Issue 2706, 2 January 1872, Page 2

The Press. TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1872.

Ctens item of news in the English mail telegram which, we published yesterday deserves especial notice. The first telegram for the Argus was dispatched from Point de Galle via Java and Port Darwin on the 28th November. Word to that effect was brought by the Nubia, which left Point de Galle with the mail for Australia on the following day, the 29th.

The announcement at first sight appears somewhat ludicrous. There seems more cause for laughter than congratulation, since the steamer which left the day after the message was forwarded, actually reached Melbourne before it; and the absurdity ia heightened by the apology which is added for the unnsually slow passage the vessel made. But the explanation is simple. The arrangements of the Argus happened to be a little in advance of the means of communication. The submarine cable from Java to Port Darwin was successfully laid on the 21st November, but there was still a considerable gap in the overland line. So that though the telegram for the Argus no doubt reached Port Darwin in due course, it ■was not then known in Melbourne that the connection with Java was complete; and consequently no provision had been made for receiving messages and transmitting them to the nearest telegraph station. "We are not quite sure whether the Australian colonies have come to any agreement as to the direction of the overland line. The original proposal was that it should run from the point at which the cable was landed to Brisbane, which was already in telegraphic communication with Sydney, Mcl-

and Adelaide. Bat the Government of South Australia were bent on keeping the line exclusively/ilktheirAvwn hands, and with /entered into a contract on their ? own account with the English Company, whereby the latter undertook to land the cable at a point within: the territory of South Australia, and the latter to construct the land line right across the centre of Thisis the contract under which the cable has been laid, and its effect 6f course is to give South' Australia a complete monopoly. But though the Adelaide Gorernment have got the upper hand for the moment, it is in the highest degree improbable that its monopoly will be permanently secured. The construction of the direct line to Port Darwin will, it is to be hoped, assist in opening up the interior of the country; but such a route must be very expensive to maintain and liable to frequent interruptions, while it will not serve the purpose of any colony but South Australia itself. The obvious plan is to allow the Queensland line to connect at the Northern terminus; and unless that is done, there seems no course open to the three eastern colonies but to unite together to procure a second line of ocean telegraph. We dp not know, however, whether any arrangement of the kind has been made or is likely. Meanwhile on both aides the construction of the land line is being rapidly proceeded with. According to the latest Australian news, dated December 20, only twenty-nine miles of the Queensland line to Carpentaria then remained to be constructed, and the whole was expected to be finished by the end of the month. A telegram from Adelaide of the came date reported that the overland line was being pushed forward with vigour, and was making rapid progress, the want of water along the route being the only difficulty encountered by the workmen. The submarine cable from Java was, as we have said, successfully laid on the 21st November, and was in excellent working order.

Thus then for the last six weeks the extreme north of Australia has been in direct communication with England ; and as soon as the overland line is completed—or rather, as soon as a system of expresses has been organised over the interval yet unfinished—messages from IJondon will be received every day in Melbourne. It will remain for the Government of New Zealand to see what steps can be taken to extend the telegraph to these islands— an object of the desirableness of which there can be little question, and which may be effected, as was shown in the report of a Select Committee on the subject in the session of 1870, without necessarily imposing on the colony any money burden.

The question of a more speedy means of communication between Dover and Calais other than by the ordinary steam vessel is again before the public, and this time in the form of a bridge. A well-known scientific authority has addressed an English journal on the subject, and he prefaces his proposition* by condemning the idea of a tunnel. He states that by investigation it has been proved that the bed of the Channel is composed of chalk, with innumerable fissures, and probably an enormous fault about midway, from the probable disruption of England from the Continent, which must be filled up with all kinds of rubbish. Besides, chalk itself is one of the materials most absorbent of water, and the rick of tunnelling consequently very great, to say nothing of the fissures and faults. He thus doubts the practicability of euch an undertaking, except by using extraordinary precautions and by an unlimited expenditure. He therefore proposes a bridge from Dover to Calais, the roadway only sufficiently elevated above the surface of the high water of spring tides to prevent the waves from reaching the superstructure, by which means a great reduction would be effected in the expense. He further proposes a series of opening bridges, with span sufficient to allow'the largest vessels to pass through; steam tugs to be in readiness to assist sailing vessels in passing through. He considers that great facilities would be offered by the existence of good chalk foundations, as a rule, and the use of cement-concrete and .iron ; and that the bridge -would be carried out at a moderate outlay, and with reasonable expedition. ' ■:■■■-