NEW CABLE RATES

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 84, 9 April 1938, Page 8

NEW CABLE RATES

REDUCTIONS ANNOUNCED

EMPIRE TRAFFIC

Reductions in the cable rates to the United Kingdom and certain parts of the Empire were announced by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) last night. The basis of the new rates, which will become effective on Monday, April 25, is a uniform charge of Is 3d a word to Empire points in all cases in which this will result in a -reduction. The new rates are expected to mean a saving of nearly £24,000 a year to the Dominion. In the case of the United Kingdom, to which part of the Empire approximately 35 per cent, of the cable traffic originating in New Zealand is addressed, the reductions may be expressed as under:— Full-rate reduced from Is 8d to Is 3d a word; code-rate reduced from Is to lOd a word; deferred-rate reduced from lOd to 7|d a word; daily-letter rate reduced from 13s lid to 10s 5d for 25 words. Typical examples of the reductions in the full rates to other parts of the Empire are as follows:— Present New full-rate full-rate Destination. per word, per word. Canada 1/6 1/3 South Africa 2/- 1/3 India 2/10 1/3 Straits Settlement .. 2/10 1/3 For code telegrams, deferred messages, and daily-letter telegrams, the reduced rates will be two-thirds, onehalf, and one-third respectively of the new full rate of Is 3d. "Based on the present volume of traffic originating in the Dominion," the Prime Minister said, "the reduced rates will result in a saving to the New Zealand public of the sum of £23,707 per annum; while the total benefit of the reductions in telegraph rates to users of the cable services throughout the Empire is estimated to amount to nearly half a million pounds per annum. "This huge saving to the public has been made possible 'by concessions on the part of the United Kingdom and Dominion Governments, but the main burden of the reductions has fallen upon the approved British Company, Cable and Wireless, Limited. Obviously, a saving of such magnitude will have a very helpful influence in the achievement of the object of the new uniform rate of Is 3d a word to Empire points, namely, the concentration of all cable communication within the Empire on the services provided by Cable and Wireless, Limited, and the fostering as much as possible of trade within the Empire." The last reduction in cable rates was made in 1931, when the rate to the United Kingdom was reduced from Is lid to Is 8d a word. The present reduction is the outcome of the conference that took place in London in May last under the auspices of the Imperial Conference.