THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN GROSS. TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 1919. CABLES AND WIRELESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17112, 18 March 1919, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN GROSS. TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 1919. CABLES AND WIRELESS.

A great improvement in the means of communication among the nations of the earth is an inevitable result of the war. The facilities hitherto in general use have been remarkably developed in the theatres of war, and with hostilities at an end there is an abundance of enterprise seeking to apply these expanded services to civilian needs. The chief aim of the Allies has been to foster a more intimate neighbourliness throughout the world—it is a sign of the new order that aerial services should be setting forth and that plans should be discussed for wireless communication between Britain and the Dominions. Such advances have been made in aviation and in .wireless telegraphy that both | enterprises have become immediately practicable on a considerable I scale. The question of telegraphic

communication within the Empire has so far been overshadowed by the initiation of aerial services, but this can be only temporary. The improvement of telegraphic communication occupied public attention before the war, and must now receive further consideration, since the war has merely emphasised the disabilities for which a solution was being sought. The subject has al-1 ready been revived by the offer to the Australian Government of a wireless service with Britain at a rate much below the present cable charges, while a committee has been appointed by the War Cabinet to examine the whole subject of telegraphic communication within the Empire. Commenting on the prospect of a wireless service at 2s a word between Melbourne and London, the Australian Postmaster-General is reported to have declared that the proposal involves the life or death of the Pacific Cable. It is doubtful whether this conclusion is justified by the operations of the Pacific Cable during tho war. They have shown that the traffic carried before the war was far below the capacity of the cable, and that even the official estimates of its maximum capacity fell short of the volume of business that has actually been carried when the cable has been fully employed. In the year before the war about 3,000,000 words were transmitted; this was the highest figure reached in the cable's history, though it was less than half the estimated ' capacity. Yet during the war, the traffic has been trebled and a record of over 9,000,000 words established. The improvement in the financial results is shown by the following abstract of the board's annual reports, giving, for four years, the gross revenue, the actual working expenses and the excess of revenue over expenses:—

Working Revenue. Expenses. Surplus. £ £ £ 1914-15 .. .. 225,045 114,259 110.786 1915-16 .. .. 810,516 131,896 178,620 1916-17 .. .. 336,774 155,848 180,926 1917-18 .. .. 411,061 161,973 249,088 During the period covered by these figures the annual contribution to the fund for the renewal of the cable has been increased from £30,000 to £137,000, provision has been made as usual for the payment of interest and sinking fund charges amounting to £86,695 on the Imperial loan, while for each of three years the board has been able to show a net profit to be also devoted to the liquidation of the loan of £2,000,000 with which the cable was laid. In 1914-15, there was a deficit of £7915 which the Imperial and the Dominion Governments provided. But in 1915-16, the credit balance was £17,924, in the next year £4231, and in 1917-18, the last for which a report has been published, £25,393. During the first 13 years of the cable's operations, the four contributing Governments were required to supplement its earnings by amounts totalling ' £713,380, of which New Zealand provided £79,353. In three years, the board has been able, after making greatly increased transfers to its reserve funds, and meeting war-inflated working expenses, to reduce its capital indebtedness by £47,548. These returns are regarded by the Pacific Cable Board as abnormal, since the cable has been working at full load and the traffic has been flowing without intermission during the whole 24 hours. It is not reasonable to suppose that the records of the past few years can be maintained, since the " full load " has been at times accompanied by a serious congestion of traffic which would not be suffered by the public with the same patience in normal conditions as in time of war. But

it has been necessary to refuse " cheap classes of traffic" which is certainly waiting to take the place j of the extraordinary wartime demand as soon as thp service can absorb it. This "deferred" traffic provides the necessary degree of elasticity, and there seems no reason why it should not be fostered so that messages will still flow without intermission over the board's cables. The question whether the submarine cable can compete with wireless telegraphy certainly requires serious consideration. If wireless is indeed so much cheaper there seems little advantage in attempting to prohibit its entrance into the field of the Pacific cable since at the best the death of the cable which Mr. Webster forecasts would merely be postponed for a few years. A more reasonable view seems to be that both systems of telegraphy will be developed simultaneously, each finding and expanding its own sphere of usefulness. As conditions become stable, the Pacific cable should be conducted upon more progressive lines than in the past. It is established upon a strong financial basis, it has greatly increased its capacity, and it still has a special duty to the public as an Imperial service designed to contract the distances between Britain and her dominions. There can be no doubt, after the experience of the war period, that periodical reductions in cable rates are possible and necessary. To maintain the present charges, which make the cable a costly luxury instead of a general convenience, will be to risk a sharp retrogression of the traffic to the unprofitable level of the pre-war period, and to weaken the cable's position in competition with wireless telegraphy and even with aerial mail °ervices.