CHEAPER CABLES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 151, 20 March 1908, Page 7

CHEAPER CABLES.

COMPANIES OBJECT. PREMIERS' REQUEST REFUSED.' BY TELEGRAFH-TrritESS; ASSOOIATION--COPYEIGHI (Rec. March 20, 0.59 a.m.) London, March 19. The Atlantic.cable companies'are unwilling, to further .reduce Press -rates, as requested by Messrs. Dcakin and Ward. - WIRELESS " AS A COMPETITOR. .: The Premier of Ne\v Zealand, acting, no doiibt, in cooperation with J-[r. Dcakin, 1 has 1 bcjsn urging the.Pacific Cable Beard.to reduce its Press rates between' Australasia and i?rpat 'Britain from one. - shilling"■ to. fquriienco per word. y The Pacific ■ Cable J3oard' controls only the, cablo from; Vancouver; so that if tho Atlantic cablo' companies refuse ,to reduco Press rates, as the above message states, there would seem' to be'- an end .'of the matter .unless'tho. trans-Atlantic., wireless system can be made', to meet the., case. And that is exactly what the il'igh . Commissioner of Aew Zea- . land, the Hon.' W P. Beeves, has proposed,, t When Signor Marconi'initiated his wireless service, it was reported that the rate fortress messages 'across the. Atlantic, would be 2Jd. per word plus land charges.' Mr. Reeves war, interviewed. in London in December, and saia he had cabled to his Government-pointing out that ' tho inauguration of the tpns-Atlantic wireless system might possibly tend towards a'reduction in'tlio' cost, of. telegrams to Austialia. 'There: has .been :considerable contraversv as to. how far ithe wire-wiR-competed with the : cable companies.'