MR WARD’S CABLE PROPOSALS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 21 March 1901, Page 4

MR WARD’S CABLE PROPOSALS.

The Postmaster-General Interviewed.

Interviewed last week by the Evening Post reporter on the subject of his important proposals with reference to the cable service between this colony and Australia, the Postmaster-General (Hon J. G. Ward very courteously communicated a statement of the present position. The Company’s Rates. The bon. gentleman prefaced his remarks with a comparison of the scope and effect of the Eastern Extension Company’s former rate as against its present word rate, and went on to compare the present rates as they were with what should bo. He said that the peculiarity of the Aust-ralia-New Zealand cable at present was that for the first time since it was laid, the Eastern Extension Cable Company was not in receipt of any guarantee or subsidy from the colonies in connection with this line, the business of which was run entirely on its own resources. The rates now in operation were different from those formerly existing in that the word rate for commercial and Government messages was fid per word ; the press rate was, as formerly, 2d a word. Prior to adopting the word rate, the minimum for commercial messages was ten words, and the rate did not include charges on land lines, either in New Zealand or Australia, which land charges brought the total charge for commercial messages at a minimum of 3s for ten words. Abolishing the system of charging so much for ten words and adopting a 3d word rate over the cable, brought up the rates, including charges on land lines on both sides, to 5d a word ; to Sydney, for instance, in consequence of this alteration, a message of ten words now costs 4s 2J as against the former tariff. On the other hand, the users of the cable could now send any words below ten and pay only for the number sent ; for instance, a message of six words could bo sent over the cable at a charge of Is Od, and with land-lino charges at both ends the cost would be 2s ,Gd. A Reduction Justified.

It was in his opinion, not satisfactory to the colony of New Zealand, nor indeed could it be to any of the other colonics, that, in view of the very largo reduction made in rates over tho cable to England, the smaller lino from Australia to New Zealand should not before no,v have participated in the advantage of much cheaper rates, and is was on this account that the New Zealand Government was now busily engaged in trying to effect, in the interests ot the colony, an improvement. Tho Eastern Extension Company had, of course, to look at tho matter from a strictly commercial point of view, and tho company argued that tho revenue received over tho Australian-New Zealand line did not justify it in lowering the rates further.

Cost of New Cable. As it would bo to the material interest of this Colony to have a very much lower rate than the existing one, the Government, in May last, sent the following cablegram to the Agent-General;—“Tele-graph early as possible entire cost of manufacture and laying telegraph cable between La Pcrouse and Wakapuaka.” To this the Agent-General replied on the 31st of the same month“ Present cost telegraph material £220,000, delivered and laid under guarantee. It will be better and of larger type than present Now Zealand and Australian cable; 1880 knots.” The Agent-General farther telegraphed on Ist June that the working of the new cable would bo 374 letters per minute with duplex and 20G letters with simplex machine. In a letter to the Agent-General dated London, 30th May, Sir W. H. Preece, Consulting Engineer to the British General Post Office and the Colonies, stated that he estimated the coat of the cable, at the then enhanced price of materials, to be £220,000, delivered aud laid under guarantee, and that the cable would be of larger and better type than the existing cables. Expenses and Revenue.

From that it would ho seen, added Mr Ward, that if such a cable were laid at the cost estimated, a fair rate of interest to provide for would be 3 per cent., which would require .£6OOO annually. Even sotting aside his own estimate of what the working expenses would be, and t.king instead those of the Eastern Extension Company, which the company set down at £5853 for the year £1899-1900, it would bo seen that interest and working expenses on this light cost would amount to a total of £12,453. He might state that according to his own calculations the working expenses of the cable would be between £4OOO and £SOOO. The revenue received by the Eastern Extension Company for the twelve months’ traffic over line for the year ended January 1900, amounted to £18,574, which was an increase of, in round numbers, £ISOO beyond the revenue received for the previous year, and it was quite clear that if the present rate of increase were maintained, one was not over-estimating the receipts for the current year in placing the figure at £20,000. So that upon the present business, without any increase at all, it would bo a profitable undertaking to the colony to acquire the existing cables or lay down fresh o es.

Cheaper Rates—More Business. If this was done, added Mr Ward, and the rates lowered so as to oring the cables within the means of all classes to use, all experience showed that an enormous increase of traffic would result ; and the time had arrived when the colony should seriously consider the laying down of its own cable if the company was determined to retain the existing lines.