MR HENNIKER HEATON.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 77

MR HENNIKER HEATON.

SEEKS HEALTH IN AUSTRALIA

PENNY POSTAGE AND CABLE SERVICES.

Mr J. Henniker Heaton, ex-member of the House of Corc.mons. has come on an extended visit to Australia, in search of renewed health and strength after his arduous public services. Prior to his departure from England by the Mantua he received the following letter: —"Queen Alexandra hopes that the change of climate will restore your health, and that England will not be long deprived of your valuable services." In the course of an interview Mr Henniker Heaton said:—"l suppose everyone here was glad to get penny postage both ways; that is, from England to Australia, ana vice versa. It nearly broke my heart when I found Australia holding out so long against it, but I was able to rejoice when Mr Josiah Thomas wrote informing me that penny postage had been established with tho Commonwealth and the rest of the British Empire. At Home general rejoicing fojlowed when Mr Thomas wrote the first letter under the penny postage rate to me, for it signified the end of the long, weary struggle. For such part as I havo taken in Imperial penny postal government, tfhe sheaf of letters I have received from all sections of the community are sufficient as my reward, for among those letters are communications from nearly every great man in England, as well as in the oversea Dominions." " Aro you confident that ultimately there will bo universal penny postage?" " Most assuredly I am," replied Mr Heaton. " For one thing, I have positive knowledge that the present Postmastergeneral has it in view to carry out the scheme 'by degrees. He is, lam aware, already anxious to establish penny postage with France, and I would even go as far as to prophesy that he will gradually extend the principle, step by step, to all parts of tho world. As a matter of fact, Japan is tho only place which is not included in the round-the-world penny postage scheme at. tho present time. "Wo have penny postage to Gibraltar. Malta, Egypt, India. Singapore, Hongkong. Chin.i en route to Vancouver, Canada, and San Francisco, the United States, thence to Australia, New Zealand, and Home yia Africa." CABLES FOR MILLIONAIRES. " Even with the consummation of the universal penny postage, the question of Imperial communications will not be completed so far as you are concerned?". "No," said/ the visitor; "not while the cable monopolists succeed in maintaning the cables for the use of millionaires, and not for the millions. When I seo a reform instituttd by which 12 words may be cabled out from England to Australia or vice versa for Is, I shall be satisfied. It is now accepted by many leading statesmen of to-day that we shall never gee a perfectly developed, un-ass-ai'.able British Empire until we annihilate time and distance in communicating with every part of it. and make it as easy to speak from London to the people of New Zeland us to those of Ireland. This is a matter with which I am not connected. I venture to assert that it is dangerous to postpone any longer tho granting of a cheap, popular cable service at a uniform rate to tho whole Empire. The Creator gave electrio telegraphic communication to the people, and it is now in the hands of a cable ring,' who pander solely to the millionaires. By that word I mea-n the rich big firms as well as actual millionaires, and not the masses." " ABOLISH THE MONOPOLIES."

" How -would you propose to provide cheaper rates by land and sea?" "It is advisable, at all costs." said Mr Ilea ton, " to put an immediate end to all cable monopolies. They should bo bought out at market price of the day by the Governments of the world. The people of England, it is estimated, pay from four to five million sterling annually for cable communication, yet the charges are so big that, as I have already stated, barely one in a hundred messages is a private one or of a. social nature. The amount paid by the British and colonial Governments for official messages would go far towards defraving the interest, on the cost of purchasing the cables from the companies. To show how prohibitive the cable rates are, it might be mentioned that there are at least 16 wires from Europe to America, the carrying capacity of which is 320 million words a year, yet only 20 to 21 million words arc transmitted annually. Itie alleged that nine or ten wires are kept idle by the cable ring, and the whole cable

svstem is in the hands of '.wo concerns — the Eastern Telegraph CabW Company and the Western Union Gompan f of America." AN ILLUSORY CONCESSION.

" One of the objf'-ctions against nationalising the system it that vested interests should not be interfered with. To my mind that argument is ridiculous in. the extreme. So far as ehe recent reductions in the cable rate.i are concerned, these have only been conceded out of the alarm, consequent upon the agitation at Home, but. the reduction granted —50 per cent, on deferred and uncoded messages—is amusing, and certainly an illusory concession. It will merely benefit the millionaires again, and will prove unsatisfactory to Australia, Africa, and even Canada. At times the name and address will take up too many words, and cables will often cost a guinea. Then their talk about deferring messages for 24- hours only is a joke. It is well known that one wire would carry all the messages sent between Australia and England. By the nationalisation of the cable companies, we would not only secure the oab'.e services, but many land wires as well, for the monopolists have taken good care to close up all the avenues which might be ured a.s a means of securing cheaper services."