TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH INDIA, CHINA AND AUSTRALIA.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 45, 13 September 1864, Page 3

TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH INDIA, CHINA AND AUSTRALIA.

(From the JjondonMoney Market Review, May 28.) Time arid space are great elements in all human designs, and great impediments to the accomplishment of all our most desirable objects. In every branch and department of political economy, in political and Government affairs, in trade and commerce, and in civilisation itself, they are the ( chief elements which advance and retard, which stimulate and restrain^ and, in fact, which govern and control all. In loose phraseology, men often talk of "taking time by the forelock," and of " atealing a march upon him ; " and, in still more extravagant phrase/they sometimes speak of "annihilating both; time and space," their only mean- j ing and intent, being to economise both to the utmost possible extent. Roads and railways, and rivers and canals, have done- much for commerce, and much for mankind in this -way ; and steampower, has . made, and is. still making, enormous contributions to this store of benefits ; but of all these grand economisers of time and space, none can comparewith the electric telegraph. We can well remember the ;time ? . when the ,electria telegraphffirst became a practical fact, when '^submarine telegraph "' across" the Channel JL was; audaciously; -proposed, -and -the, possibility of> extending it to s i_.dia 'and ' Chiria Svas suggested. ; And we remember, (tob;r the *■ incredulous contempt; with which the suggestion was received, and the) almZOst^nmYera'ai'Xidiaile £*_-_. _te-isionlwifch -whichl it; was -.Create A. grand chain of cloetriOi commumcatiqn,^J_^^ approaching' M "«mlpletish." w *^By -he^^erisuirigl springs vitJ>'i# fi-S_^ected^.ha--ii?_he.i ,i;Pefsian| '. G^^bable MynHto^he laid^-iand ;-, a'Lohdonl ■or_U ; _h_>_. bel_ai__we«fc?«^^cout_hl-biiateleg_aphi& coir___uidcß,ti(ni iwiib Rangoon, in the Bay g\

(Bengidrti_ie ; *^ !empire.fi;^eJine,w_U^en}extend Irony London, iand^bf TO^s^^-rofe^partsbf ' England, across |the Channel;'.' arid^hroiigh j; tho^ various states "of 'continental '» Wurbpe 7 ,^to'' -it a\ cbimnes at Constant!•nople. Thehco, the^.-willp-bceed across the Bosiphorus, through Asiatic -Turkey and Persia, and along the shorca.'bffthefGulf'of -'Persia to Kura:chce,> and;, thence <j to. .Bonibay.^Madrasi , : -and-.Cal-;cutta, and so oh to' Rangoon. The main lines .'will,, of course^, be connected by. internal poinmunicatibns with Lahore,;^^ pel-U.f.A^r^and^all ilw iprincipal cities and towns, of -India., At the present time, we believe, cbrnmuiaication can bo had between -England^ arid -Thdia, ; by moans of the jtelegraph and tho Gulf steamers, within^sixteen idays 7 bu-"^wheh~the" Gulf ~cabTe"is laid, and the' ; through 1 line is .cbmpletedrintelligehcb .will proibably be transmitted through England and India ; within sixteen hours! It is scarcely possible, to; exaggerate the import;ance„of such a means of rapid ..to ;the many thbusa-ids of thfadersahdirading vessels i which are annually passing to and fro between ■England and flndia. - It is 'i equally : impossible !to estimato the advantages it may be capable of iconferring upon the governing powers here, in itheir rule and government of ; the hundred and millions of subject populations there. In no long > time, ho doubt, these electric belts will completely ■ encompass .the earth, and: the ,of all the chief countries of the world will be in almost immediate mental intercourse with the" people. of all other countries, even to the I uttermost corners of, the, habitable globe. In the meantime, we believe, active measures have already been taken, and are now being vigorously prosecuted, for ari extension, of these lines from India •to China,, on, the one hand, and to all bur Australian polonies on the other. 'Surveys and soundings have been completed . for s an extension, from Rangoon to Penang arid Singapore, at the southeastern extremity of the Malay Peninsula, a distance of about 1,200 miles. F rom this pomt — Singapore — two other lines are intended to diverge, one to the north-east to China, the other in a south-easterly direction to Australia. The line to China will proceed across tlie Gulf of Siam to Saigon, on the coast of Cocliin China, and from thence by a coastline to a station on tho shores of the Island of Hainan, whence it will proceed to Hong Kong and Canton. From the station at Hong Kong it will be carried to Amoy, and thence across the Channel of Formosa to the island of that name, whence it will proceed to Shanghai, The line to Australia, starting fronTthe point of divergence at Singapore, will "proceed to Batavia, in the island of Jaya — a distance of 600 miles. Tha telegraph is already in operation from Batavia, at one extremity of the island, to Cape Ledano, at the other extremity ; and the line will be carried from the latter point to Timor, and thence to Port Essington, on the northern coast of Australia. From Port Essington it will be carried across the G-ulf of Carpentaria, and thence by an overland route to Halifax Bay, where it will meet the line already in progress through Queensland to Moreton Bay. At "Moreton Bay it will join the line now in operation to the colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, and Port Adelaide, in South Australia. Nearly the whole of these routes have already been surveyed and sounded in detail, and from the reports of the engineers it appears that the seas in which the cables are proposed to be laid are generally favorable as to depth and character of bottom. The depth, it is said, seldom exceeds fifty fathoms, as shown by the Admiralty charts, and experience has proved, wo believe, that properly constructed cables laid in shoal water are but little exposed to danger or interruption, and that, with a suitable steamer constantly afloat for the purpose, repairs can be rapicjly, easily, and economically effected. " The Indian G-overnment, some time ago, made arrangements for laying a submarine cable from Rangoon to Singapore, and the work, we believe, was only temporarily suspended in favor of the earlier completion of the Malta and Alexandria telegraph. Now that Rangoon is about to be brought into direct telegraphic communication with England, those arrangements will probably be speedily renewed, and the Rangoon- Singapore line be laid. The basis proposed for the Singa-pore-Batavia line has already been accepted by the Dutch Government, who have granted a provisional concession, and agreed to an annual subsidy of £8,500 per annum for thirty years, being __5 per cent, per annum upon the estimated cost of that portion of the line. Between Singapore and Hong Kong there will be an intermediate station at Saigon, tho port of the French settlements in Cochin China, asd negotiations have been opened with the French Government for a subsidy for this portion of the line. With regard to the section between Java and Australia, subsidies, amounting to £22,625 per annum, were actually voted by the Legislative Assemblies of New South Wales and Victoria in 1860, and further subsidies were promised by the Governments of the other Australian colonies. Negotiations are now pending with the Colonial Governments for the revival of these subsidies,, and. the completion of the terms and arrangements for this great work, for the accomplishment of' which it is confidently expected that the Home Government will not only give their cordial concurrence, but will afford liberal pecuniary aid also. In the meantime, and pending these various negotiations, the company formed for the purpose of carrying out these vast undertakings are about to submit to the public, and to raise the capital, for the first section or portion only, viz., the Rangoon, Singapore, and Batavia line. This line will afford a direct communication with Penang, Singapore, the Straits of Sunda and Java, and au indirect communication with China. An annual trade of £75,000,000 per annum, employing 10,500 vessels (including repeated voyages'), will be accommodated by the proposed telegraph. The capital required for its completion will be about £620,000, and the estimates of the receipts and expenditure, framed on the assumption that the earnings will only be equal to those of the Malta- Alexandria line, and that the only subsidy will be that of the Dutch Government for the Singapore and Batavia section, show a net profit of from 13 to 15 per cent, upon the capital. The Malta and Alexandria line are now transmitting at the rate of 53,000 single messages annually, of which about two-thirds, or 36,000 are supplied by Egypt alone. It can scarcely be doubted that Penang, Singapore, and Batavia will supply a much greater number of messages than Egypt supplies, and thereforo the estimate that the proposed telegraph will transmit only the same number as that between Malta and Alexandria- certainly would seem to be very moderate. Such undertakings are of vastly extended and daily increasing importance to the world hi general, and to the commercial world in particular, and they are, therefore, entitled to the best attention and consideration as well of the Governments of Several countries as of the communities they govern.