AUCKLAND-SYDNEY CABLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14818, 23 October 1911, Page 9

AUCKLAND-SYDNEY CABLE

SUITABLE LANDING SITES.

THREE ON WEST COAST.

The: visit of Mr. John Milward, the manager in the Pacific for the Pacific Cable Board, to New Zealand, is fraught with a good deal of interest to Auckland, for upon his report depends whether a cable will be laid from Sydney direct to Auckland. Mr. Milward has been making investigations on the west coast to ascertain if a suitable place could be found to land the cable there.

It had been the opinion of many of those acquainted with the west coast and its physical conditions that it was by no means suitable for the terminus for a submarine cable station. The suggestion that it should be landed at Onehunga was not taken seriously. To bring the cable tc the south of Manukau bar was not regarded as feasible, whilst the high cliffs and the hilly country north of the Manukau Heads were looked upon as abstaclcs that could not be easily overcome.

It is of "considerable interest to learn that the landing of the cable on the west coast does not present any insurmountable difficulty. Mr. Milward informed a Herald representative yesterday that as a result of three days' investigation on the west coast last week he found there were at least three sites suitable for the landing of the cable. The cable could not be laid across the Manukau, as the moving bottom of the bar would tend to break the cable, but to the north of Manukau Heads the conditions would be favourable for cable laying. Of course, owing to the physical conditions, the cost would be much "great- 01 " than if the cable were laid to Doubtless Bay, but the Board had adopted the principle of bringing the cable as close as possible to the busy centres, as this reduced the retransmission of cablegrams, and. thus . ensured greater speed and accuracy. _ '. Mr. Milward will forward his report to the Board in London, and this will have to meet with the Board's approval before anvthing definite is done. This, of course, will take some time. But it is quite within the bounds of possibility that if the Board decides in favour of the cable being landed on the west coast, that the cable direct from Sydney to Auckland will be an accomplished 'fact within 12 months.