THE CAPE CABLE.

Evening Star, Issue 11452, 21 January 1901, Page 7

THE CAPE CABLE.

ITS ROUTE AND COST. After nine months' delay, during trhibh Hie commercial community has been uh-iiecessai-ily trtJcd in the 'matter of cable 'charges to the extent.of £I.OOO i month, the postal.authorities have decided to subscribe to til" agreement entered into by the States of Western Australia, tSoiith'Australia, and Tasmania, and the kasterh Extension Telegraph Company in respect to the Cape cable scheme. New South Wales has also accepted the agreement. As alreadr stateU the. i-ate tViirbe reduced frdth 4s lOd to v'js 6d from the Ist February, and if the volume of Australasian traffic "continues to aggregate £350,000 p6r annum a further reduction of 6d a Word will be made at the beginning of 1902 ahd of 1905, thus bringing the charge dorrti to 2/6 a word. The company havo entirely waved any renewal of subsidy or guarantee against competition, but in return for their concessions the- are to have the right to nn/n their own'local offices in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Hobart whenever the Imperial Pacific of ally 6the> competing cable is open for traffic. The cable will run from Durban to Mauritius, across the Indian Oce-.m to the jGocos Islands, south-west to Perth, then refund .the LMuVin, and across the Australian Bight, td ,_ The Grange, South Austfiijjft. .Mr W. Warren, manager in Australasia for tne cbrnpahy-, states that the Durbafe to Mauritius section has already beeii comflletedi, find Re antlcijktes that the ■whole cablfe will hare, betm laid by the end of the current year. It is, of course, only part of the largest cable system in'the world, for.it also runs from Cape Town as an allBritish line to the St. Helena, Ascension. St. Vincent, and Madiera Islands, and thence to Penzance..in Cornwall, Mr Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, having referred to it as a cable of great value from "a purely strategic point of view." The Australian section will cost about £1,750,000. Queensland and New ZeSlan'd hkv'e not yet acceptie'd the company's offer, aitd eohsfeejueiitl'v cable rates in those States will still be ss'id and 5s 2d l-esfcjscliY'ely; instead «f 3s 8d and 3s 10d if they had joined with the other States.