Cable opened by Queen

Press, 9 November 1984, Page 6

Cable opened by Queen

PA Wellington The Queen officially opened the 8000-mile ANZCAN cable yesterday morning from London in a special live broadcast to Wellington, Vancouver, Sydney, and Suva. In Wellington an invited audience in the Legislative Chamber at Parliament heard the Queen’s speech from the Berkeley Hotel in London as they watched the ceremony on big screens set up in the chamber, The $lOOO million cable links New Zealand with Norfolk Island, Australia, Fiji, Hawaii, and Canada,' and replaces the COMPAC cable, laid in 1962, with 20 times its capacity. The Queen congratulated those who worked on the project before she declared

the cable open. ANZCAN’s chairman and assistant director-general of Telecomms for the New Zealand Post Office, Mr Derek Rose, then presented the Queen with a box made of Southland beech containing samples of the cable.

Earlier in the ceremony, the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, told the gathering in Wellington that the New Zealand contribution to the cable made it the country’s most expensive« international telecommunications project. New Zealand contributed SUS6B.S million or 12.3 per cent of the cost. Mr Lange said the Post Office had been faced with a big challenge to meet the growth in international calls which rose from 33,000 in 1962 to 4.5 million last year.

After the ceremony,' Mr Lange spoke briefly to the Prime Minister of Fiji, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, in a light-hearted inaugural telephone call using the cable.

Sir Kamisese said he believed the call was to be a free one. Mr Lange replied, “It is free. That’s why we are going to talk for about half an hour.”

Mr Lange described the televised scene from London to Ratu Sir Kamisese. The ceremony in Suva received only sound from the telecast.

Ratu Sir Kamisese said he hoped Fiji would have a television network in 25 years when the cable was due to be replaced. Mr Lange said, “Well yes, and we will still be Prime Ministers.”''