The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JULY 9, 1888. THE BROKEN CABLES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1888, 9 July 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JULY 9, 1888. THE BROKEN CABLES.

There is no news as yet from Home, and the cables have now been broken for over a week. The sadden isolation m which we have been placed is anything but satisfactory. We are cut off as completely from communication with the Home Country as if we were back again to (he days of Captain Cook's first visit to these shores. The official explanation of the breakage was that an eruption must have occurred, and perhaps this theory is a very reasonable one. One cable broke 100 miles from Java, and the other 500 miles from Port Darwin. No prompt measures, it seems, were taken to convey intelligence over the broken communication while the cables were being repaired. To those specially interested m Home and Foreign news the break is very inconvenient and annoying. The general newspaper reader misses his cable news, and the business firms who have intimate relations with London houses are thrown into a state of confusion. The Auckland " Herald " writing on the subject says : — " r J ho question of cable communication between tho colonies and tho rest of the world is one m which every person m Australasia must take a keen interest, and it is not improbable that the present double break will direct public attention more than anything else to the importance of encouraging and assisting tho scheme for laying a new cable between Canada and her sister colonies m these seas. By the terms of their agreement with Australia tbfl Eastern Extension Telegiaph Company are bound to maintain two cables m efficient workkig order between Port Darwin and Banjoewangie. It is notorious, however, that this condition has not been complied with m the manner expected and stipulated. One of the cables ia an old one, and is of very little use. Indeed if has before now been alleged that it was practically unworkable. But be that as it may, it, as well as the other, has gone, and cannot now be worked even if its condition were good/ Wfcen the first news of the breakage was renewed there was quite * scene m Australia, as it ww thought prou^Wo that the Russians had swooped down and sevSr?** the connection prior to taking possession of the Cronies, 'ihen again it waß deemed that the Chinese were tho aggressors, and they had damaged our cable communication because we would not let their people emigrate here. It is most likely that some subterranean upheaval is the cause of the mischief which we hope very soon to see repaired.