WIRELESS TENDERS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1060, 24 February 1911, Page 5

WIRELESS TENDERS.

—-—►- —•, PRIME MINISTER'S STATEMENT. - WHY WE ADOPTED "TELEFUNKEN. v AND ? (By Telegraph,-Press Association.) Dunedin, February 23, Kfgarding wireless telegraphy, the I'rimo Minister this evening made the. following statement to an "Otago Daily Times" reporter-: -"I have noticed the comments that .are being made through the press of tho Dominion, and it appears to me they nro inspired by one ot the tenderers. 1 have not previously been' ill a position to state what has been dojie by. tlio Government for the reason" that we required to have completed tho agreement Detw&en .tho company whoso tender has been accepted and tho Government betore I was'in a'pojition to discuss 1 it. ~ I ;\ m now in a position to announce that the tender of the Australasian AVireless Company, Limited, has been accepted, and tho amount of the accepted tender for tho two high-power stations, ®Dtl for the five low.powcr. stations js £-3,730. There -were- two • other- tenders.iheso were the Lepell and tho Marconi Companies., -The -Government'resolved" to act:ep t the tender of the Australasian \\ ircless Company, as being from the standpoint n of the . Dominion, the most satisfactory one in every way. The Government fully considered the offer of the Alarconi Company, which, for the samo 'In? _ r , 0 /. stations,', was approximately e£30,000 higtier. than that of the Aush tralasian Wireless Company. This difference i;i price made the 'Marconi offer i prohibitive. , _ '.''•• coming to' a decision a close investigation of tho merits of the Telelunken system, which is used by the Australasian Wireless Company; was made by our own engineer, and the opinion of our consulting. engineers in London was also obtained, and upon their reports tho ■ Government was satisfied that tho ielefunken system was better suited to our requirements th'an the Marconi system, to say nothing of tho enormously lower, price. Also, apart from the-report of our engineers,:, wp,,called foriand,;obtained a guarantee from the company that equally,: good results. would fcc secured. Thei the system', to be operated between New Zealand and Australia, as carried oil by the Telefunken msthod, vnll require only 70 horse poiver, and, for the same guaranteed system, the Marconi Company specified; 200 horse power, so that, not only in the prime cost, but in the cost ;of the • annual' working, the Marconi system would have been much more expensive than the other. "Again, for the purpose of economv in working, we 'desir'o to establish' the lowpower stations—that is, tly smaller stations' on the top of post onices—which is highly desirable to prevent - interference with telephones. The installation of the low. voltage system, of which the Telefuriken is one, and which we have in operation in our experimental station iji Wellington, is giving us the advantage of direct opportunities of testing this Tolofunken system in .intercepting the communications of. .the Ulimaroa, which is fined with the same system. ; "Tho Department's engineer has" h«ard conversations' at our experimental station between thf Ulimaroa, and a ; war vessel 1000 miles apart, which is good proof of tho efficiency of the system, so ■ that, so far as'the Government is concerne<l, we took every precaution to fully ascertain before deciding what' was the best "course to follow, and, in any .case,: ho Government • would .have dreamed of adceptihg a tender .£30,000 higher, than another without taking-> the requisito steps to learn whether the lower tender would not fully meet the requirements of the .'Dominion. "I notico, of course, that the press'has evidently been insnired to suggest that, in accepting .the Telefunkon system," are accepting that of a foreign nation' as against the Marconi. I need hardly say that this ;aspcot of the matter-was'fully, considered, and the fact remains uhatf there is no system in operation at present that is not a foreign ipveiition, tint the company whose offer we have accepted is , British company, who, .*'« are. advised, havo purchased ,the'.rights of the ' funken system, and, to suggest, as I notice one of the papers has done, that, in, tjme of war, for instance, there would.bo any disadvantage from what we have done will, upon examination, be found, to be not only * incorrect, : but somewhat, ludicrous. In. tho. first'place, there is now no monopoly in' the matter of what system can be used on British shins - ih any part of the,world; secondly, all the systems in use are the inventions .of ' foreigners; thirdly, the wireless system wo are establishing will bn operated by. onown officers, and will bo", under/..British control,; and, therefore, " the suggestion has no point. ' • . . , , 7 ..'.5.,