TELEGRAPH EXTENSION IN AUSTRALIA.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2005, 8 October 1869, Page 2

TELEGRAPH EXTENSION IN AUSTRALIA.

The South Amtrcdian Register concontains the following epitome of a report by Mr Todd, the superintendent of telegraphs in South Australia, on the extension of the telegraph line to Northern and Western Australia :

He observes that the first phase of competition to be studied has reference to the overland routes. These have now been virtually reduced to two—the Northern or Burke Town, and the Western and Perth route. Mr Todd selects, in illustration of the latter, the recent proposal made by Mr Watts on behalf of the Direct English Indian, and Australian Telegraph Company, It specifies the general design of the projectors without condescending much to details. They would raise a capital of L 1,050,000, of which LBOO,OOO would be required to construct the line, and the remaining quarter million would be invested in colonial bonds as a reserve fund. The Australian terminus would be at Perth, from ■which Mr Todd suggests an overland line to Port Augustus via the Sound. This, if wholly a land line, would cost LI 16,800 —at the rate of LBO per mile from Port Augusta round the head of the Bight, and L6O per mile from the Sound to Perth. But if a section of sea cable were to be interposed between the Sound and Fowler’s Bay, the original cost would be raised to L 192,000, subject, however, to a large allowance for reduced expense in working. The Northern schemes described in the report are—(l) Mr Gisborne’s, publislied two years ago ; (2) Captain Sherard Osborne’s, as communicated to Mr Yerdon ; and (3) Mr Fraser’s, which is being promoted by the Queensland Government. Mr Gisborne’s original demand was for L 837,000 for a cable from East Java to the Gulf of Carpentaria, a distance of 1900 knots. Mr Todd has recently learned from him that an extension of the Indian lines from Rangoon to Singapore is now under negotiation, and should it end successfully, he may be enabled to make a modified proposal to the Australian Governments. The Fraser and Cracknell project is to carry a cable from East Java via Timor and Port Darwin ; also, “ should sufficient inducement offer,” to Burke Town. The estimated distance is 2000 knots for the direct route, and the cost—which Mr Todd emphasies as a minimum—L6oo,ooo. Were the cable to stop at Port Darwin, the ocean section would be only 1000 knots, and the cost L 350,000 ; but there would then be 1250 miles of land line to construct before achieving a connexion with Queensland, namely, 700 miles in South Australian territory, and 550 to the eastward. The Brisbane Government are said to have made overtures to our own Government some time ago regarding this section, on the basis that each should be responsible for the line to its own boundary. The South Australian share, as estimated by Mr Todd, would be L 56,000, and that of Queensland L 44,000, The Fraser scheme thus modified —with a cable from East Java, via Timor to Port Darwin, and a land line from Port Darwin via Burke Town to Rockhampton Bay —would cost L 450,000. Mr Fraser, who was recently in Batavia, entertains a visionary hope that the Dutch Go'» eminent would share half the subsidy with the Australian Governments, making L 17,000 per annum for each. Mr Todd, though obviously well inclined towards the scheme and its promoters, finds this too much for his credulity. He candidly endorses the opinion we expressed on Mr Fraser’s sanguine temperament when it first showed itself. “The Dutch,” he says, “after having spent so much in perfecting the land lines through Java, and having besides to provide the cable and land line con-

necting Java with Singapore, are hardly likely to render financial assistance to the Australian cable,” Very unlikely, indeed ; so that the outcome of Mr Fraser’s arrangement would be a Governmental liability of L 34,000 per anmun for the direct line, and of perhaps L 25,000 a year for the Port Darwin deviation. Mr Todd dismisses Capt. Osborne’s suggestions with very scanty notice, and does not admit them at all into his final comparison. Their vagueness, and the exorbitant subsidies attached to them, sufficiently justify the slight. It will be remembered that the cheaper land route was to have started from Rangoon, and to have connected East Java by a cable with Melville Island. It would have cost, according to Capt. Osborne, L 390,000 or L 400,00 but, as amended by Mr Todd, only L 350,000 ; and the annual subsidy x stipulated for was L 40,000. The direct sea route offered as an alternative would have consisted of two sections—the first from Galle to Java Head, and the second from Java Head to Port Darwin. The aggregate distance would have been 3200 knots, the cost about L 1,000,000, and the annual subsidy L 50,000. Mr Todd does not allude here to a third supplementary suggestion of Captain Osborne’s for saving about LIOO,OOO by landing at the North-west Cape instead of Port Darwin. The report thus begins by ignoring Mr Towler, then it drops Captain Osborne and Mr Gisborne en route, and on reaching its journey’s end, it finds it has only two rival projects to adjudicate upon—the direct cable lino from Galle to Perth, and the Fraser lino from Java to Queensland, either direct or via Port Darwin. It. recommends both to the commissioner’s attention, and points out their distinctive merits, but offers no practical decision. The Galle and Perth route would be expensive—LßG6,B6o 1 but it could be expeditiously and easily worked. The northern route would be economical— L 450,000, or at the outside, L 628,000 j but its operation would be dependent on a network of Dutch and Indian lines over which no control could be exercised.