PACIFIC CABLE BOARD.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2005, 12 March 1914, Page 6

PACIFIC CABLE BOARD.

MANAGEMENT CRITICISED

_ "To. spend £2,000,000 on Vcable and its accessories, and ' then to leave it comparatively idle during two-thirds of the 24 hours, is neither commercial, politic, nor common sense." The second interim report of tho Dominions Royal Commission contains a sweeping attack on tho Pacific Cable Board, in which this statement is made. , "Though the motive for laying tho Pacific cable," tho commission reports, "was largely tho desiro to obtain cheaper telegraphic communication with Australasia, the Pacific. Cable Board has not, in our opinion, shown that enterprise which might reasonably have been expected. It 3 laudable desire to abolish its deficits appears somewhat to have obscured its vision of other duties, which, in. our judgment, are larger and more urgent It would appear, in some directions to have become more conservative than the private companies, whose methods it was intended to stimulate. It is"possible that a bolder policy wonld hav<s brought about equivalent or better financial results. The gain to the public would have been immediate, the ultimate risk to the partners in the cable inappreciable." A progressive policy would, however, in the opinion of the commissioners, not provo unremunera. •tive in tho long run. i