WIRELESS PROSPECTS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1780, 19 June 1913, Page 4

WIRELESS PROSPECTS.

CHATHAMS STATION ALMOST COMPLETED.

Structural work, the erection of masts and so forth, has been practically completed at the new wiroloss station at tho Chatham Islands, but the motor generator, an essential portion of tho apparatus, will only oome to hand by tho Makarini, which is due to arrive from London on July 10. It will bo sent down to tho Chatham? by the first steamer after tliat datte. About a imonth will then bo required to comploto tho installation of tho equipment, so that tho station should be in a position to send and receive mesasges by about the end of August. Two wireless operators aro to be stationed permanently at tho Chathams, and there will bo a standing arrangement under which tho station will get into touch with Now Zealand once 'every hour. Tho Post Office at tho Chathams is to bo linked with tho wireless station by telephone, and residents will bo permitted to connect up their houses by private telephone wirefl much as settlers do in many back-block districts in the Dominion. "With tho completion of tho Chathams station, New Zealand will havo four wireless installations on land. Tho highpower stations at Awanui ana , the Bluff are still going through their official tests.Tho Chatham Islands station, like that at Wellington, is a low : power one. Thero is also a low-power station on the Tutanekai, and it is intended eventually to similarly equip tho Hinemoa, but, the latter vessel ha 9 not yet been furnished .with tho special engines required to generate power for tho wireless apparatus. , Negotiations havo been in progress between New Zealand and Australia for somo timo, with a view to arriving at, an understanding regarding tlio tnuistnissioii of commercial messages by wireless, but it is considered doubtful whether any definite arrangement of the kind can bo made. Although messages can frequently bo transmitted by wireless, over enormous distances with tho utmost facility, it is very far from being as Teliablo a means of communication as tho submarine cable. •V station that can send' messages at ordinary times over thousands of miles will on other occasions fail to transmit them over a, fraction of that distinct). Sometimes communications aro interrupted in ono direction, though tlie.y can bo freely maintained in other directions. This was exemplified the other day when tho steamer Niwaru failed for some lime to get into touch with Wellington. So long as storms and atmospheric disturbances of vnnous kinds continue to occur, wireless as, it is now understood will be liable to interruption. Experts agree in insistin&Jhat wireless is not to bo judged by commercial standards. Liko the lighthouse, tho system is oi supreme importance, but it is not at all likely to develop into n re-venue-producing agency.