THE PACIFIC CABLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12071, 15 September 1902, Page 4

THE PACIFIC CABLE.

Oub cable messages announce that the laying of the long span of the Pacific Cable has been commenced, so that our hopes of securing electric communication with London, via Vancouver, by the New Year may well be justified. This is the longest stretch of cable yet attempted. ■ During the bitter fight against the Pacific Cable scheme made by the Eastern Extension Company and its official friends— for cable reforms, as well as mail reforms, have both enemies and friends in high places — an attempt was made to show that the distance between Fanning Island and Vancouver could nob possibly be worked. But with the materialising of the scheme this objection vanished and now we hear nothing of it. The experts and . authorities who then declared such a cable impracticable have every wish to allow their partial criticisms to be forgotten. As a reserve line, the branch to Honolulu, from Fanning Island, thus uniting with the 'FriscoPhilippine, cable will probably be undertaken in the near future, so that instead of our present comparative cablegraphic isolation we shall soon find ourselves in triple connection with the rest of the civilised world. And the ultimate result will be a Shilling rate to London. Can Sir Joseph Ward tell us when this will be 1