PACIFIC CABLES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1520, 16 August 1912, Page 5

PACIFIC CABLES.

0 TENDERS FOR NEW CONTRACT. LARGE INCREASE IN BUSINESS. Oilicinl correspondence regarding tho new cable between Sydney and Auckland is contained in a Parliamentary paper presented by the Postmaster-General yesterday afternoon.

Tho Pacific Cable Board decided some months ago to lay a new cable between Sydney and Auckland, and to connect the present Norfolk Lland-Doublless, Bay cable with Auckland by cable. Three tenders for the supply" and laying of these cables were received by the board as follow:,—Messrs. Siemens Bros, and Co., Ltd., Sydnev-Auekland, .£135,0(1(1; Doubtless Bay-Auckland, .£19,400; The India Rubber and Gulta Percha Company, Ltd., ,i: 133,!>20 —.£ 19,200 —.El 52,420 r The Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, Lid., J:lll,000-.£19,ono-.£lf>0,-000. The board accepted the tender of tho India Rubber and Gutta Percha Company.

The board considered that there were "(prohibitive physical objections apart from other disadvantages against the proposal of tho Dunedin Chamber of Commerce that the terminus of the new cable should bo in the. South Island. The Government of New Zealand has undertaken to provide the •necessary oflice accommodation for the cable staff, in Hie new post office buildings in Auckland free of cost to the board; if possible to place a spare conduit for tho underground cables between Ponsonby and Auckland at tho board's disposal and net to charge a transit rate on international traffic to and from Australia which may bo handled over the new cable.

The report on tho year's working up to March 31, 1911, by the chairman of the board (Mr; H. W. Primrose) shows that tho net traffic receipts were .£136,142 15s. 10d., and tho actual receipts £m,6u 14s. Gd. The expenditure was .£109,313 Ss. 3d., leaving an excess of receipts over expenditure of JJ29.334 6s. 3d. This last sum was greater by .£11,378 than the corresponding amount in 1909-10, so that the amount to be provided by the Imperial and Dominion Parliaments is .£48,210. Thirtcen-eightcenths of tho net expenditure has to bo found by the contributing- colonial Governments in the following proportions -.—Australia (six-eighteenths), ,£16,070; Canada (five-eighteenths). .£18.391; New Zealand (two-eighteenths), .£5356; total. .£31.818.

The Pacific cable international traffic was larger in the year 1910-11 than in any previous,year since the cnble was opened. It is classified as follows:—Ordinary, 117,770 messages, 1,215,300 words: Government, G413 messages. 16G.812 words; press, 4971 messages, 467.495 words! totals, 129,151 messages, 1,849,613 words. Each of these figures is a record; the increase in press cablegrams was especially great, being nearly four times as large as in tlie previous* year, which olso Stowed a large increase on previous traffic.