LINKING UP COOK STRAIT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 162, 2 April 1908, Page 4

LINKING UP COOK STRAIT.

STEPHENS ISLAND ON THE X. < TELEPHONE. CABLE AVOEK IN THE STRAITS. TW Government cablo. steamer "Tutanckai left .Wellington at 2 a.m. : on Mo'nday last for the purpose of: laying a, short length of cable between Stephens Island (which is capped by a lighthouso)i-iuid D'Urville 1 Island, and from; there': to .JUlrrislie's..Bay (on tho main - ,■; land,;' near the French Pass), from • '".whence there.is. a land wirb v to Kelson. This workj.is .part ;'of.. tho 1 . scheme for linking up %. .cable the -principal lighthouses. "A . goodi 'many of our lighthouse's"aro connected' v.'ith the-busy world, cither by cablc or jland wires, but Stephens Island, prominent as it is as a reporting place for "sliip3 that pass," has not, up. till now, enjoyed that advantage; It only remains now for,the Government to' sanction the" connec'tmg i up of the Capo Pallisor lighthouse ...with Pirinoa—some 15 miles away—for communication to bo established with all tho essential lighthouses that " ilaro the track," through Cook Strait. . . Mr. J. K. Logan, Superintendent of Electric Lines,- states that the 'weather was too strong to allow much to _ be' done on Monday, but tho Tutanckai visited D'Urvillolsland, and' selected a' landing placo for tho. cable on the. north-east,side (near Duncan's station), and,a shore party erected a post and a lightning-guard box; to which to attach the .cable. It was too rough to effcct, a landing on Stephens Island' that day. The. weather had calmed down , a bit on Tuesday morning, and after,erecting a pole and securing the lightning guard, the cablo ,was laid between tho two points, a distanco of■ about five knots.,' . Then the Tutanckai. steamed down tho coast of D'Urvillo. Island' towards tho Pass, ; . and, after selecting a pretty.little, bay-a little to the'north of tho Pass, ran a two-knot length of tho cable across to Elmslie's Bay on the mainland, which work was completed on Tuesday evening, tha Tutanekai arriving'back in port at 11.30 p.m. that' night. ' : " • Only the land line on D'Urvillo Island between the two cable points remains to be erected to give the keepers at-the Stephens < Island lighthouso .communication with Nelson. Thero is a gang at work now erecting tliis line, but it is expected that it will take i about a month to wire tho twelvc-milo i stretch between the two Tho erec- . tion of the line will'-.bo a boon to tho settlers ! on D'Urvillo Island, who are to bo given a ! telephone station on Mellota's run, and possibly another at Duncan's. Mr; Logan says : it will be possible for the keepers to speak ■ to Nelson direct, but owing to tho number ' of land stations between Elmslie's Bay and ' Nelson, messages will most probably, bo i transmitted from' tho -termor plnce.