The Evening Star TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4053, 22 February 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1876.

Practically the world is belted with a lightning* conductor, the last link in the chain having been completed by the successful laying of the cable between New South Wales and New Zealand. Probably, at this moment, there are upwards of 400,000 miles of •telegraphic wires connecting the families of mankind together, and providing means of immediate communication with each other. In Europe and America they traverse nations in every direction. America telegraphs to Europe, Europe to Africa and Asia, and Asia to the islands of the South. The gap is between America and Asia, but it forms no practical hindrance to necessary telegraphic communication—the process required being merely reverse instead of direct action. Forty years ago transmissions of messages by electric telegraph were regarded by most as dreams of scientific men. Thirty-nine years since, Sir Charles Wheatstone and Mr W. F. , Cooke patented their inventions ; in 1841 Mr Cooke set up telegraph lines on the Great Western and other railways ; in 1847, so little Avas electric telegraphy valued, that Louis Philippe, then Monarch of France, refused permission to Mr Brett to lay down a sub-ocean line between Dover and Louis Napoleon, his successor, was wiser in his generation, and under his sanction, a wire, coated with gutta percha, twenty-seven miles in length, connected England and France on the 28th August, 1850. But although messages were transmitted, and thus the value of the experiment proved, the cable snapped while settling into its bed; and it was not until November the following year that the prices of stock on the Paris Bourse were quoted during business hours of the same day on the London Stock Exchange. But little aid has really been given by governments, at least in the first instance, in developing means of travelling or national inter-communication. Although the public value of telegraphs and railroads was demon-

strafced by the partial success that marked their beginnings, govern* mentis were slow to realise the advantages. In 1845 Mr Brett proposed to unite Great Britain and America by electric telegraph, but was not listened to. The idea was regarded by most as visionary, by others as useless, while many who imagined rapidity of. transmission of news likely to interfere detrimentally wit a their private interests opposed and ridiculed the scheme. Slowly the public awoke to the commercial, social, and national advantages of the plan, and it was not until twelve years afterwards that a company, supported by the concurrence of the British and United States Governments, attempted to carry .it out. But in 1857 the attempt was made and failed. Another effort in 1858 also failed, but the third ( succeeded for a while, and then, in a few months, the cable ceased to speak, and a silence of five years more took place. It was not until 1866 that telegraphic communication was finally established between the two countries. Since that time but little difficulty appears to have been experienced. Machinery adapted to laying down cables has been invented, the necessary fittings for the vessels employed have become known, and the material required for protecting and insulating the wires has been ascertained; so that what in the first instance was necessarily tentative is now executed with precision and certainty. In laying down the cable between New South Wales and New Zealand but little difficulty hasjreen gvoerienced. No storm has rendered the operation risky. The vessels have had fine weather, and have done their work in time very little in excess of that required for prosecuting an ordinary voyage. The splicing of the Cook’s Straits cable has caused much more excitement, and we should imagine has been a more costly operation. Yesterday, it was announced that the cable was open for transmission of messages, and therefore now events of moment pasting in the old world may be known by us before they are read by the people generally of the country in which they happen. Telegraphs are thus changing the relations of the world. However interesting a batch of English or American papers were a few years ago, all that they contained was read as' a matter of history. We have now before us the latest dates—say December 16 th of last year. They contain much local intelligence, and much that it is desirable to know, but tbe leading facta detailed in them have been familiar to us for weeks. Colonial journals in time to come will form a branch of the English and American Press. They are already in of English-speaking ration for purposes of news points to what may be accomplished by a federation of peoples.. It is the beginning of that movement which tells that mankind have a common interest, and that co-operation, not isolation is the object that should be sought to be secured for individual and national advantage.