ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH TO AUSTRALIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 491, 18 July 1857, Page 3

ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH TO AUSTRALIA.

f From the Sydney Morning Herald.)

Our readers will see with interest a petition of certain London gentlemen, and the bill by which it was accompanied, referring to a telegraph from Sydney to London. A practical measure to establish this communication between Sydney and London appears at first sight a dream. Yet here is a project brought to our doors, and the question of possibility, Jboth physical and financial, is set at rest. All that now remains to be discussed is, who shall do it, and when shall it be done. The lines already laid down and in progress, are descending to the shores of India. The Dutch are about to bring a line on within a jump of New Holland. Greater distances will have been passed than those that remain to be covered, and it is no stretch of hope that IS6I, the time proposed by these documents for the completion, that we shall receive daily accounts of what is passing not only in every Australian colony, but throughout the civilized world. It will be seen that the projectors of

this scheme have not yet passed beyond first preliminaries, and we question if they have sufficient consistency to justify the concession of an act in their favour. The colonies cannot, without some imperial enactment., secure a general co-operation. Without co-operation the guarantee of interest of money cannot be given by any one. It is necessary for this, and for a thousand other things, that the colonies should act as a whole. The adjacent colonies must derive all the material benefits of telegraph w'.th Europe, whether they pay or not. The want of some federal action has rendered all general undertakings a matter of hazard.

We understand the gentlemen who have signed the petition are well known i.i connection with similar undertakings, and that they are acting in good faith and with a view to forming a company equal to the task. We should do wrong in offering any discouragement, We have no doubt, when they come forward with their plans in a more finished shape, they will be received with enthusiasm. They must not, however, expect that with the present material for judging either of the wisdom of their pans or their power to execute them, any legislative body will grant a bill in their favour. In our opinion they should take several preliminary steps before they ask for colonial assistance. They should | first ascertain their line, and calculate its I cost; heving done so. they shoula obtain au | act from the British Parliament to authorise the union of the colonies, for the purpose of establishing a telegraph, otherwise they may pass all sorts of laws and interfere with any contract made in their favour. The company should also be able to show that they have sufficient control over the intermediate lines to prevent vexatious interruption. It is very true something must be confined—something left to chance ; but we might have a scheme much more tangible. The company do not ask any advance of money at present, and only require the guarantee of interest, but then we may, by concluding a bargain which will prevent any further offer of a similar kind, be merely trusting to a shadow.

We insert these documents with great pleasure, because we admire the pluck of these gentlemen, and wish them success. The very movement toward the realization of this great object is exhileratiiig. It shows how strong the confidence^ in our future, and how houndless the enterprise which will run to co-operate in the development of" the AustraKas. We are firm believers in the universality of the electric telegraph. The ocean itself is the great highway of this wonderful medium of inteligence. It is already proved by experiment that a message will travel 3000 miles of wire ; it is already shown that a single thin rope is Letter than a thick electric cable, —less exposed to accidents. It is shown that the bed of the sea is the best platform for the line. All difficulties are happily removed save those of money; and yet the electric communication of the whole earth would cost less than the fortifications of Sebastopol and their conquest. A message can now be sent simultaneously to all the capitals of Europe. Soon Australia will be the only outside region of the world !

It is impossible to read of these triumphs of electricity without elation of heart. They seem to unfold before us a future which defies hyperbole, and makes rhetoric tame. That unity of nations, the hope of piety as well as the dream of statesmanship, seems approaching. Yet will the nations be united by a tie which a child can sever, powerful for civilisation or government,but useless alike to anarchy and despotism. These things, in connexion with brevity'of life, will hardly bear thinking of; they make' an old man wish himself a boy again. What will the world be some fifty years hence ?

Striking instances of mismanagement in private companies have been chronicled by the London press. First came that of the Australian Agricultural Association. This society, with a paid-up capital of £250.000 and a free grant of 700,000 acres of land, has squandered its immediate resources, and kept the shareholders in profound ignorance. Next, the London and Eastern Bank, which, with a paid-up capital of £250,000, _ has in three years assisted its own directors and manager to the extent of £290,000, and has announced the probable loss of the whole investment and the probability of further calls. The shareholders of the North of Europe Steam Company have discovered that they have lost £50,000 out of £500,000 in a few months ; and that the last half-yearly dividend at the rate of 8 per cent per annum was paid not only when there had been no profits, but actually while these ruinous proceedings were going on. A committee of investigation has been appoiuted. The London and Paris Bank has been abari- „ doned. Not a single step has. been taken towards the commencement of' business, yet £14,422 has been spent by the directors in j introducing the scheme to the public. ' ■ , / ,•••"■"'