CABLE RATES.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 May 1933, Page 6

CABLE RATES.

One of the minor difficulties of international co-operation has arisen in connection with oversea telegraphy. Great Britain is a member of the international authority which, among other duties, fixes the rates chargeable. . Voting is by country represented and not by the amount of telegraphic services in each country’s control. The consequence is that countries like Great Britain and France, which prefer the progressive policy of inducing traffic by reducing rates, find themselves held back by the more reactionary members of the international authority. The latest instance of this is the decision of the authority to increase cable rates in various directions, notably so far as New Zealand is concerned, in the abolition of the “weekend” cheap cablegrams to the United Kingdom. Great Britain protested against the increased charges, but was outvoted and the Empire has to accept the now ruling. Side by side with this is the continued decrease in cable and wireless communications, and the reduction in earnings of the company which controls these services in Great Britain. The company’s latest statement shows that profits have fallen alarmingly in spite of reductions in working costs, and that this is solely due to diminished traffic. The world depression has had its effect upon commercial, messages, and, so long as the present rates continue, there is little likelihood of developing traffic in social or personal messages to, any great extent. So long as oversea telegraphy continues to be used as an expensive 'necessity the traffic is not likely to increase, especially in a period when costs are being reduced wherever possible. In New Zealand the value of cheapening telegraphic services has been proven, and there seems no reason why a similar policy in regard to cable and radio messages would not prove equally successful.