CABLE CODES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 180, 25 April 1908, Page 4

CABLE CODES.

' The,-statement by the British Post-master-General'. that the ■ British 'delegates at the International, Telegraphic Conference, support any: pip'posal to restrict the-privileges' of' those using- xablei .codes : will be read.' .jyiith general ■ satisfactionby/ merchants in this country. It' was in .1903 ,-'tliat : .users of the cables, were permitted .tq employ in code messages', any; cbnibina-; .tibn' of letters,' provided that: the' artifipial word so constructed not consist of ; more than- ten letters, and lis pronounceable in one of the eight .chief; commercial /languages. ?' The result' in- ; New Zealand,- as;was. shown' by some, local"mei'chants"who supplisd .us : with' . some observations the • otherday; 'has' been a very large incrcWe r in .the business of the cable companies. .The concession, inasmuch asCit' Enabled; mer-: chants to .say in' onei'yford^hat; ; cbuldi only be said in three or four' words''iiii the best of the; Codes under the.'.bld' restrictions, amounted: in .effect to a. cheapening 'of. the rates. - Just as the: reduction of postal rates in recent years has been followed by a more than cpunterbalancing use of the post office, so the 1903 concession stimulated merchants. into using the cables very much: more freely than before., Mi\ Duthi.e'.said that his firm , spent 75 per'iCeht. more .upon-cablegrams under the- new system-j and Messrs.' Levin and-- Cp. -.gave 'testimony of "a similar' suggestion, originating apparently x 'with', the' cable, companies, that - unpronounceable; words should .not be'permitted m code messages, .wjoiildy if carried out,, result' in a serious curtailment of the use of the cables and' a' good of 'expense and inconvenience'to merchants: ' ' : • It might appear ;to be'a proper thing to say that trade will in'ot be affected; by-.cable regulations, that'commerce is a 'resistlesstide independent of : the facilities for talk' between, a man in London > and another man "in Wellington. It is, nevertheless, an incorrect; thing to §ay. Just as '' routes create trade," so increased facilities of communication . increase . the volume of business done.-". To;' New Zealand, remotest of .all active .communities from the centres of . the world's commerce, it is, peculiarly: necessaiy. that no obstacles,should He placed in the way of an extension ,of commerce. - The more our merchants keep in touch with business houses, the better;it will be.for their businesses, and, therefore, for "the country as a whole. ; Heavily' enough • handicapped by the long journey between London and our. ports,' the commercial community of New Zealand, is further burdened by ' the extreme ; costliness of cable communicaition with Europe. We cannot afford to have a change which will make 'that communication more costly, and ' the Premier, we are glad to : understand, intends to do his utmost to protect the code privileges which, our merchants. enjoy.