NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 612, 15 September 1909, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

►— i — The tendency at tho , present timo is towards large joint stock' concorns. In banking and insurance this has been most marked in recent years. It was ■ only about a month or six weeks ago that .we heard of the projected great amalgamation of thp London and-<Wostminste'r , and' London and : County Banks! , Other, important.banking 1 amalgamations ..have 1 taken: place'; witmn the''.past \twelve months. Insuranco merges .have been more frequent than those' of banking, oho of the most important of such being the absorption of tho Queen Insurance , Company by the Royal. In Australasia thero have been quite a number of .insurance .amalgamations; or absorptions: i The. Com-, mercial Union acquired the. old Colonial Insurance Company, and the Alliance Assurance absorbed the Union Insurance; this was some years ago. Tho latest absorption is perhaps the most important. Last week ,1 a provisional agreement was signed whereby the London and Lan-! cashire Insurance Company secures con-1 trol of tho business of the.Australian Alliance Assurance Company. The latter, it would, seem, is not to be disturbed in its organisation or .management; that is to say,• the business of. the, Australian Alliance will be carried on as horotofore, but the shareholders will ceaso to have any interest'in the company.- Jho Loridon and^Lancashire:acquires the 'interest of the .shareholders, and as .the.assets of the Australian -Allianco are'large, and the business a paying one; the prico to,bo paid to the shareholders must be a very good one.,. The, details, of the'' purchase are not yet available, and the-bare nouncement of tho pending sale was sent to New Zealand 1 by .cablo on • Saturday. The Australian Alliance does a good business; in the Dominion, and'the General Manager in; New Zealand is Me. A. E v Kernot,. who': will ■■ retain his,' position. The local agents for $0 London :,and Lancashire ; are -.Messrs. ..- Johnston-; and Co., Limited, .; . ; . . -. . ;. : :'•'■:

It is' reported to-day that "experiments are shortly to be made with a view to'es-tablishing-a wireless service between Britain and South Africa.": We are/not told by whom the oxperimerits are to be undertaken, but it appears that' the South African Government, is -.'-looking upon'the project, with a sympathetic eye, being prepared, indeodj to pay £1000 per annum in subsidy to a practicable schemo.' A grant of' £10,000, )t is calculated, would, make the rate a penny a word. The inspiration for this most .interesting project is probably from the recent article in the London Times in which a general "scheme of Wireless telegraphy, for linking up the Empire was outlined. ; According to the Times writer, an initial ' outlay >. of £1,320,000 would provido a system from which the revenue on a penny-a-word basis would be £540,000, or more than double the annual 'cost of maintenance and operation. It is to be hoped that the experiments'mentioned in the report from South Africa will bo undertaken, for if they are successful and wiroless messages can be satisfactorily transmitted from Britain to;the Cape through one, intprmediato station, there .is unlikely; to be much delay in extending the ,system throughout the Empire. Of the great benefita thativdll follow the provision of a trustworthy system of communication at cheap rates there can bo no question. Onco. it is shown that tho Mauconi system us as efficient as tho submarine cable system there will-be no oxcuse for. the retention of the old mothod. Tho Empire must move with the times. To maintain its strength it must tako advnntago, of every new development of ;'.-industrial seienco. The South African project may moan the beginning of an Imperial revolution as great in'.its way as tho : industrial revolution that transformed Jiaslfmd.