The Hokitika Guardian FRIDAY JANUARY 26, 1923. LONG DISTANCE WIRELESS.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 January 1923, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian FRIDAY JANUARY 26, 1923. LONG DISTANCE WIRELESS.

CoMMi.NTiNt; on the resolution passed last week by the Federation of British Industries, urging the Imoeiinl Government to grant immediately facilities for the rapid development of long-distance wireless comniunicition. a northern exchange says it will meet with strong support in New Zealand and in Australia. As the farthestflung outposts of the British Empire, this Dominion and the Commonwealth

are naturally most keenly interested in establishing as rapidly as possible the quickest and most efficient- means of keeping in close and constant touch with the heart of the Empire; and it seems to be admitted on all hands nowadays that, even apart front the more recent wonderful radiotelephone developments. wireless telegraphy is at once the best and the cheapest method of meeting needs of, the position. Tn this connection it is interesting to note the dissension that has arisen among the Australasian members of the Pacific Cable Board with regard to the advisability of erecting n ex; criniental wireless station at Fiji in lieu of duplicating the cable from Fiji to Vancouver. It is espeoialy noteworthy tfint the dissension is not so much as to whether the cable shall he duplicated or a wireless system substituted for the second cable, but as to whether the wireless communication so substituted shall be direct or via Fiji. Sir James Allen (nigh Commissioner for

Xeu Zealand) favours, we are told, with the majority of the Cable Heard Dm erection of tho wireless siation at i Fiji. Such a station. Sir Janies cle- ; elares. would, ill his opinion be a valuable insurance against a complete interruption of the service in the event of tho oil hie breaking, and is preferable to duplicating or relaying the Cable, which must ha undertaken sooner or Inter, besides facilitating the dispatch of messages. Australia's representatives (Sir Joseph Cook, and Sir Timothy Coghlan), however, strongly oppose the erection of an experimental station at Fiji. To establish such n station, they point out, would he false economy; because, if made permanent, it would involve the stationing of a costly stall on the islands. Further, the repetition of messages to Sydney necessitated by such a system, would cause both delay and a substantial increase in costs. They favour, therefore direct wireless communication to Australia and New Zealand. Irani the Empire point of view, direct communication, surely, is far and away the best. A ‘‘wireless chain,” like an other chain, can lie no stronger than its weakest link ; and the needless multiplication of links is in itself a source of weakness. The stronger the wileless station the stronger the link; while tho more direct the communication and the fewer, therefore, tho hands that the messages pass through, the less the liability to error. A wireless substation should meet all Fiji’s requires incuts in the way of inter-Empire and other communication. It appears, however, that the Fiji scheme, which is purely experimental, is to be proceeded with, the previous decision to that effect remaining unaltered, in spite of tile discussion af the last meeting of the Cable Hoard. The Federation of British Industries, it is clear, prefers direct communication between the Mother Country and its Antipodes; The federation is strongly of opinion, too. that long-distance wireless should he left in the hands of private enterprise; and it claims that the Dominions also favour private enterprise in this regard. \Ve hardly think that this states the ease quite fairly. The position of the Dominions, we take it, is not that they favour private enterprise, as such, in matters of this kind; but rather that, finding that the British ]’ost Office schemes are totally inadequate, including the erection, tor the traffic of the whole Empire, of only one station, considerably less powerful than those of the Dominions they look to private enterprise to provide what the British Post Office has not the go and the vision to put in hand. The Post Office station, it is ■stated, would not be sufficiently strong to counter atmospheric difficulties, and would be totally inadequate for the Empire’s needs, commercial and otherwise. On the other hand the wireless industry is prepared to find the large capital required and to erect radiostations that would direct wireless communication with Australia and New Zealand; while the Imperial Government, oil lines similar to those contained in the New Zealand radio regulations published last week would bo able in emergency to take over the control of the stations and use them for Imperial purposes. The State would thus, it is argued, have all the advantages and none of the disadvantages of a nationalised service. It is well to know that- the British* Industries Federation is urging the necessity for—is, indeed, “insisting upon” an immediate and definite decision in regard to the future of wireless in Britain. It seems a very strange thing well-nigh an incredible tiling that the British Empire, the only one upon which the sun never sets and therefore more in need than any other country "1 nil absolutely direct and thorougli‘.v efficient system of wireless communication, is lagging far behind other countries in regal'd to the provision of wireless facilities.