PACIFIC CABLE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17129, 3 September 1926, Page 6

PACIFIC CABLE

DUPLICATION OF LINE COMPLETE IN NOVEMBER (Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. There is now every probability that the duplicate cable service between Suva and Bamfteld, British Columbia, will be ready for service about the middle of November. The Auckland office of the Pacific Gable Board lias received advice that the cable steamer Dominia, which is to lay the Bamfield-Fanning Island section, is expected to leave London next Tuesday, and that she will be followed on Friday by the steamer Faraday, which will lay down the Fanning IslandSuva section.

The Dominia is scheduled to arrive at Vancouver on October 14, and to leave again on October 16. The Laying of the cable, which will be the longest section in the world, 3458 nautical miles, is expected to take until November 3, and the final splice is scheduled to be completed two days later. The itinerary of the Faraday provides for her arrival at Fanning Island on October 28, and at Suva on November 10. Both vessels will land their surplus cable at the company’s stores at Suva.

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Once the cable is down and spliced it will he possible to use the line immediately, but it is anticipated that a few days will be required before everything settles down properly.' Hence the tixinrr of the middle of November as the time when the new service will -jjt available to the public. ™ The contracts for the cable were lefefl' by tho board in April, 1925, the Telegraph Construction and Alaintenanco Co. being the successful tenderers for the Bamfteld section, and Siemens Bros, for the Suva section. It was anticipated that the service would be ready this month, but the contractors were delayed by the industrial upheaval in Great Britain. The cost of the two sections will be £2,379,000, and a condition of the contracts is that all the components shall be of British origin, except certain loading materials in the cables, which cannot be guaranteed to be British.

Evidence of the extension of the company’s activities in Auckland is afforded by tbe construction of another storage tank at Devonport. The tank is now almost completed. It is erected alongside the other cable tanks, and is the largest, measuring 40ft in diameter by Bft in depth. It is divided into three divisions to allow of the storing of varying classes of cable.