WIRELESS PROGRESS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 95, 16 January 1920, Page 7

WIRELESS PROGRESS

NEW ZEALAND'S POSITION A SOUTH PACIFIC CENTRE Comparatively little has been heard of wireless telegraphy in New Zealand since or subseiiucnt to the war. There has been a considerable increase in the commercial use of wireless since the releasehv the Naval authorities subsequent to the armistice, and the business generally is said to bo steadily growing. One of tlie biggest advertisements of a practical character given to wireless was tho nso of it. made bv those on the home-coming transports, and messages transmitted to such shins from New Zealand. Last ve'ar was the busiest wireless year experienced on that account. It is surprising to learn that it was by no means an tincommon thins for a thousand messages to be received or sent within a week when the transports were arriving with "rcater frequency than is the case to-day. At the present time the business done between the shore and coastal steamers with wireless plants is fairly considerable. Particularly is it noticeable on the shortest of all steamship runs-betwoen Wellincton and Lyttcltoii. A business man, perhaps hurried and bustled all dav. mav not have time to advise his friends cr clients of his coming during the dav on which he leaves, but in the aiiiet of the evening he gets a chance to do this bv wireless. Jinny people nre unaware that messages may be sent to or from the Wcllington-Lyttelton ferry steamers at the rate of 2\A. per word (with a minimum of Is. 3d. per message), possibly the cheapest rate in the. world The rate for communication by wireless with coastal and intercolonial steamers (other than thoso running between AVellington and Lyttelton) is .id. per word, anil (o deep-sea steamers-with-in radius it is lOd. per word. If a man were drawn showing the rami of the various wireless stations in the Southern Pncilic. the important position held ■ bv ' New Zealand in tho wireless system of this quarter of the globe would be realised more fully. Duriii" tho war, for instance, Karotongii has been provided with a fair-powered wireless station, ami; that fact has put Now Zealand in communication with Tahiti (the French colony). Now the French Government and business people, beili" without cable communication, use the wireless almost, nightly to communicate with Australia or Noumea by way of Earotonga and Awanui (our station north of Auckland.) These messages arc received in French, and naturally are not as welcome to the receiver as it they were in English. Still, tho fact remains, that through New Zealand s wireless-sta-tions, Papeete is placed in touch with the outside world overy night . Another section of tho Pacific is covered by tho reach of our wireless to Apia, ;n Samoa, and to Suva, in tho Fiji "roup. In both cases, messages can he transmitted direcS to Awnnm; iiien, if the business concerns Australia, it can be sent on by-cablegram. The Chatham Islands, direct to the eastward, are also now in touch with Now Zealand by wireless day and night. That oflies has been kept open- practically continuously up till tho present, so as to provide- a I means for reporting the existence of lloatina mines that: may. have broken away from the Cape Farewell field and drifted eastward through Cook Strait. On the other hand, the Rarotongan station i? only open between 7 p.m. and midnight. • ~ ■ It may not bo generally known that whilst our -wireless hfis 'been .wholly relenscd for commercial purposes, that has not been the case in England, owing to the necessity of having a clear (wireless! field for reporting drifting mines in the English Channel and the North Sea Hundreds of vessels were, at latest advice still employe! A this ■work, and in the interests-of shipping and the safety of the public it was considered advisable to .prevent any wireless confusion when there was no much at stale*