TASMANIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 518, 21 October 1857, Page 4

TASMANIA.

"Via Sydney we are placed in receipt of Tasmanian journals to the Bth ultimo. The ' Mercury' of the 7th has the following in reference to the recently formed line of telegraph between Launceston and Hobart Town: "We believe we may now, with safety, congratulate the colony upon the success which has attended the first introduction into Tasmania of the electric telegraph. Its limits at present are so circumscribed, that its advantages are necessarily of a restricted character. It may be, that a very small amount of practical benefit has as yet resulted to the mercantile community, nor could much be anticipated from its operations. When we assert that the opening of a line of ■electric telegraph between Hobart Town and liaunceston has been successful, we do not base the -assertion upon any good which has hitherto been accomplished by its agency, nor do we ground our opinions upon the amount of revenue which it may have yielded, although we believe in each of these respects it has realised the most sanguine expectations of those who took a prominent part in its introduction. At present, the eiectric telegraph has merely connected the noTthem with the southern part of the island—■ thus bringing us also a few hours nearer Melbourne than we were before. Were the line not to be extended across the Straits, it is doubtful whether the narrowed advantages we now possess womld compensate for the expense already incurred. When we say, therefore, that the telegraph has been successful, we wish to be understood as adverting to the energy which has been so signally displayed by the merchants and citizens of the city, in availing themselves of c Fen the limited benefits which it was capable of affording, rather than to the amount or value ■of those benefits."