F.—l

The receipts and working-expenses of the Pacific cable for the year ended the 31st March, 1909, are estimated as follows :— £ £ Traffic revenue ... ... 108,000 Annuity and renewals ... 108,545 Estimated deficit ... . ... 69,566 Working-expenses ... 69,021 £177,666 £177,566 New Zealand's proportion of the loss is stated at £7,730. Of the ordinary paid business, the Pacific obtained —in 1906, 89 per cent. ; in 1907, 88 per cent. ; and in 1908, 85 per cent. ; the Eastern Company's share being 11, 12, and 15 per cent, during the same years. The following figures show the total number of forwarded ordinary telegrams for each of the past three years :— Pacific. E.E.A. <_ G. Year. Messages. Year. Messages. 1906 ... 94,199 1906 ... 11,522 1907 ... 102,490 1907 ... 13,610 1908 ... 101,724 1908 ... 18,873 The average best times in which messages are'handled on the Pacific route are : — H. m. From London ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 10 „ America ... "... ... ... ... ... ... 0 15 „ Sydney ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 0 5 „ Melbourne ... ... ... ... ... ... 0 15 During the year New Zealand has given the Pacific route 84*23 per cent, of the ordinary business to Australia. There has been a considerable increase in the number of cable Press messages sent from NewZealand. 1,142 such telegrams were sent via Pacific and 1,262 via Eastern, compared with 515 and 1,359 respectively last year. The result of the World's Sculling Championship at W'an.anui on the 15th Dei-ember, 1908, was transmitted by the Pacific cable. It was despatched from Makirikiri at 4.25 p.m., and received in Sydney three minutes later. Lisbon International Telegraph Conference. The eleventh International Telegraph Conference met at Lisbon from the Ith May to the 11th June, 1908. Delegates were present from all the countries of the Union, with the exception of Bolivia. The United States and China, which do not adhere to the Union, and thirty cable companies were also represented, but had no voting-rights. New Zealand was represented by the Hon. W. P. Reeves, High Commissioner. The question of the greatest public interest was that relating to the rules for counting different kinds of language, and especially words used in code telegrams. It was generally agreed that the privilege of usin<_' "artificial words" in code telegrams, conceded in a spirit of liberality at the last Conference, had been seriously abused. The intention of that Conference was to apply a favourable method of counting at the rate of ten letters to a word to " artificial words " similar in appearance to real words, and capable of being easily pronounced ; but the ingenuity of code-makers eager to obtain the maximum number of combinations soon led to the formation of codes containing millions of " artificial words " which could only be pronounced with'difficulty, if at all, and. as telegraph operators cajinot eras]) such combinations readily, more time is needed for their transmission, with the result that the speed of working is seriously reduced, while the number of errors is largely increased. Several proposals were made to deal with this question. The general view was that the privilege of using " artificial words " had struck too deeply into the habits of the commercial public, and that it could not be withdrawn without serious inconvenience. The only course, therefore, was to maintain generally the existing rules for counting words, and to take such steps as were practicable to keep the use of the privilege of artificial code within reasonable limits. The committee dealing with the question made two recommendations —first, that the test of pronounceability should be the ordinary or current usage of the language, and that the right to use double letters as single letters in the formation of " artificial words " should be abolished ; second, that the Telegraph Administrations of Great Britain, France, and Genuanv should be empowered to give the approval of the International Telegraph Union to such codes as were voluntarily submitted. These recommendations were approved by the Conference. The submission of codes for Government approval is not, however, to be compulsory. Codes which do not possess a Government certificate will still be available in so far as they may comply with the regulations. It is obvious, however, that a guarantee that the words in a given code will be accepted without question at any telegraph-office throughout the Union will be a strong recommendation in its favour, and the. three Administrations, by declining to give such guarantee until they are satisfied that it is fully merited by the character of the words in the collection, will be enabled indirectly to exercise a considerable amount of control. Other alterations for the benefit of the cable-using public made by the Conference are as follows :— (1.) The method of charging for repetition in case of error is modified, so as to reduce the cost to the public and to simplify the work of Administrations.

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