INTERRUPTIONS TO CABLE COMMUNICATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5249, 19 January 1878, Page 3

INTERRUPTIONS TO CABLE COMMUNICATION.

Xn an article on the prolonged interruptions to cable communication .with Enrop 3 , the Mel-, bourne Daily Tdeyra-ph,. reviewing the several projects for the construction of a duplicate service, says of the advantages likely to .accrue from the adoption of the Queensland land line, and connecting Normnnton and. 'Singapore directi it will be seen that all the interruptions have occurred'on this side of that port : thus, had a second service connected us direct with Singapore, our communication with . Europe and the East would probably have been uninterrupted throughout the whole year. At all events, if communication."was closed by one line, the other would doubtless be available. On the question of ,expense, certainly the Queensland line offers, again, superior advantages over any other proposition which has come before the public. The construction as well as the maintenance of Captain Audley Coote’s and Mr. Cowderoy’s plan are objections not easily got over. On the other hand, the connection of Normanton with Singapore would require little more than the ohtlay for 1 laying about 2800 miles of cable, Again, if it is absolutely, necessary that the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company should enjoy the entire monopoly of supplying Australia with cable communication, some arrangement might be made with Colonel Glover, the. company's agent—who is oxpectedto arrive in Victoria in January next—whereby the alternating line might be laid under their auspices. ■ The effect of this would be to materially decrease the cost of •keeping a repairing, vessel on the Singapore station, as one steamer could very well attend to the wants of both cables. At the. moment, our wants point immediately to the,absolute necessity of the establishment of an alternating service. There seems to be the grave question Of expense entailed in utilising the hew land line to Perth, as, the cost of. laying a cable to Mauritius thence' would ho so enormous as to exclude the possihity that the business done'by the litio would anything .like pay interest and working charges,, and,a similar objection holds good in respect to the ’other' proposal of connecting the north-west point—Western Aus--tralia—with Ceylon. To make'the hope of success of a second telegraphic' service even possible, the greatest care will have to be taken iu limiting the outlay as well as keeping down working expenses. And this is the argument which the supporters of duplicating tho present cable to Banjoewangie are sure to adopt. But here we should carry the objection too far, as the laying of a second cable along this section of the route neither relieves us from the fear of continued interruption on the sections between Java and Penang, nor from the certain periodical mishaps which must attend the laud line. A service via Queensland p-nd Singapore, however, without being prohibitively costly iu construction, affords affair solution of the present difficulties. The land line from Normanton is well, established, and . there are no difficulties in laying the 'cable, hence the desirability > of adopting the route is clear.