NEW WIRELESS STATION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 297, 4 September 1918, Page 4

NEW WIRELESS STATION

RAROTONGA INSTALLATION.

A wireless station has been estabV lishod at Rarotonga, and is open for' traffic, under present war conditions.; The provision of wireless telegraph facilities for Rarotonga has been under discussion for. some years, the re- 1 sidents urging that the absence of any means of communication with the outside world has been the caußO of much loss, particularly to those engaged in the fruit export trade, says the "New Zealand Herald."* In July, ,1918, .the'fruit exporters agreed td pay a duty of Id. a oase on fruit, amounting to about £700 a year, to provide for the maintenance of a wire-, less plant, and this duty has appar* ently been collected ever* since, though' the plant has only now been brought in&> operation. Rarotonga, in common with the other, islands of the Cook Group; has al-. v ways'suffered through the lack of telegraphic communication, the nearest point from which. messages could bo dispatched being Tahiti, where there is a wireless station. This is nearly two days' steam from Avarua, the ,• principal town and port of Rarotonga. A ,, site 'for a wireless station was acquired some miles from Avarua about, three years ago, hut, as wireless plant could not bo secured owing to war needs, the erection of the station could not then be proceeded with. The South Pacific is now provided with a chain of wireless stations, capable of communicating with New Zealand under favourable , These ' art at Fiji (Suva)* Tahiti (Point Venus), and. Rarotonga (Avarua), and both _ Raro-. tonga and Tahiti can transmit mes-; sages to Fiji, which is connected with New Zealand and Canada by cable.,