THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9160, 15 September 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1888.

» ■' We are informed by cable that the Agent-General for New South Wales, by direction of his Government, has \ interviewed the President of the Board of Trade with reference to the project of the trans-Pacific telegraphic cable. The Minister expressed himself as favourable to the project, but added that the majority of those interested in the question were hostile to Sir Julius Vogel's proposal that the Eastern Extension and Pacific Companies should amalgamate, and make the terminus of the cable San Francisco. We confess that until this announcement we were unaware of such a proposal having been made by Sir Julius Vogel, and it seems singularly at variance with the tone maintained by that gentleman in his relations with the Chairman of the Eastern Extension Company during his occupancy of Ministerial office in the colony. The vigour of his resistance to concession to that Company is a matter in the memory of all colonists, and one of his dispatches to the Chairman of that Company, when treating of this same subject, remains, for conciseness and piquancy, a model in the art of snubbing. That Sir Julius may have since altered his views with respect to the Eastern Extension Cable Company, and its services, past or prospective, to these colonies, is possible, but it is satisfactory to find, from the statement of Lord Stanley, that the majority of those interested in the question were hostile to such amalgamation of interests. Anything more disastrous to the colonies, so far as their telegraphic interests are involved, than any perpetuation of the monopoly of the Eastern Extension Company, could hardly be imagined, and if ever the proposal is broached to the colonies that the Pacific connection with England should be placed under the hand of Sir John Pender and his Company, we trust that it will meet with a unanimous and determined expression of indignant disapproval throughout the colonies. To no other so grinding and so long-continued a monopoly have the interests of the colonies ever been subjected, and one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of the prospective advantages of the trans • Pacific cable service — namely, the breaking-up of the mono—would be at once annihilated if the Eastern Extension Company have any connection whatever with the project. We do not hesitate to say that if this scheme, attributed to Sir Julius Vogel, is aver seriously considered, it j would be the duty of every colonist in I New Zealand to resist the least con- j cession or assistance being given by j Parliament to what would only delay |

the establishing of an independent and cheap telegraphic service by way of the Pacific.

The scheme respecting which the representative of the New South Wales Government interviewed the British Minister is that formulated by Mr. Sandford Fleming, Director of the Canada Pacific Railway, and of the Hudson's Bay Company, and first submitted in detail about two years ago to the High Commissioner of Canada, Sir Charles Tupper, and on which as a basis has been founded the Pacific Telegraph Company, whose agent, Mr. Owen these colonies some months ago. It is the scheme which has the favour and support of the Government of the Dominion, as it is the one in which these colonies have the greatest interest. The earnestness of the Canadian Government to push Canadian enterprise and trade towards these colonies is a motive power that is not, nor is likely to be, possessed by any project having for its object a cable touching land at San Francisco, and intended to have its messages transmitted over United States territory ; and if no] considerations of patriotism or loyalty to the British Empire prompted us, the mere fact of this powerful influence operating in connection with it should prompt these colonies to ally themselves with the Canadian scheme.

The proposal of Mr. Fleming referred to in our cable message, contemplates a capital of two and a-half millions being applied to the construction of the cable between Vancouver and New Zealand and Australia, one million to be raised as share capital, apportioned between Australian, Canadian, and English capitalists, and a million and a-half to bear a low rate of interest secured by Government subsidies, with a sinking fund to pay it oft in twentyfive years. The subsidies given by the various Governments are to be returned in full services rendered to their value, in the free transmission of Government messages, and the rate per word will be reduced to the public from, say ten or twelve shillings to four shillings, with the prospect of still further decrease if the accession of business warrants such reduction. Taking as a basis the number of messages transmitted between the colonies and England during the previeus year, and dividing this by two, as giving a not unreasonable share to the new company, and not counting anything on the increase of traffic sure to result, Mr. Fleming showed conclusively that on the modern cost of cables there would be a safe return for the capital invested, while the several governments would receive full value for their subsidies, and the colonists derive such advantages as were likely to oouie from telegraphic communicatioit at a half or a third of the present eo.se. It is needless to speak of the change that such a condition of tilings would effect in the position and prospects of the colonies, and it is interesting that New South Wales has instructed her representatives to take action in moving the Home Government in the matter. The advantages of an alternative and wholly different route, and one passing entirely over British territory, are such, and more especially in the contingency of a European war, as can hardly be overstated. Indeed, the advantages are so palpable that the Chairman of the Eastern Extension Company, after for a couple of years maligning and misrepresenting them in that unscrupulous way which only an utterly selfish monopoly would resort to, has now seemingly offered to join hands ; and we have not the smallest hesitation in saying that it is to the insidious action which that monopolising company is sure to take that we may look as the chiefest danger in the prospect of cable extension across the Pacific.