TEE CABLE CONTRACT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7786, 4 November 1886, Page 5

TEE CABLE CONTRACT.

The following are the clauses of the cable contract bearing on the right of the company to office accommodation, the question of rates, and the power of the Government to impose terminal charges :—

t lause 8. —With a view to the more speedy transfer and transmission of messages the governors respectively shall, until the said subsidy shall oease to be payable and for a period of ten years afterwards, and for so long thereafter at the tariff shall not be in excess of the charges mentioned in clause 11 of these presents, give to the company accommodation in thfir telegraph stations respectively at the terminal points of the said cable which the company shall use for the transmission of messages through the said cable.

Clause 11.—The company shall not during the continuance of the subsidies hereinafter firstly mentioned respectively make any charge for the transmission of messages through the said cable exceeding eeven shillings and sixpence for a message not exceeding ten words, and ninepence for every additional word (the names and addresses of the sender and addressee being counted as part of the message), and shall reduce the said charge to a charge not exceeding five shillings for every message not exceeding ten words, and sixpence for every additional word in either of the following cases :—

The cases, briefly, are: If during any six months the number of messages amounts to 200 per day, excluding Sundays, or if the governors, or either of them, agree to pay to the company for the number of messages short of suoh average Dumber, the company being, however, entitled to the benefit of all messages in excess of such average.) Clause 13.—The governors respectively shall not make any terminal charge, or make any charge for any message transmitted over the lines of telegraph belonging to the said colonies respectively to or from the said cable, in excess of the lowest ordinary rates according to the character of the message, so long as the said subsidies respectively shall continue to be payable, nor alter the said subsidies respectively shall have ceased to be payable, so long a* the company shall not increase their rates beyond the rates chargeable as hereinbefore mentioned.

The committee of the Chamber of Commerce wort) in communication with Sir Julius Vogel yesterday regarding the cable rates. Thev have received a reply to the effect that the Government are unwilling under all the circumstauces to give a subsidy. At the same time it is felt by the committee that the excessive rates now imposed will prove a serious burden on the commercial community, and while it is presumed Government have strong reasons for refusing the concessions offered by the company, they have been urged to bring matters in dispute to a speedy settlement.