TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH AUSTRALIA.

Southland Times, Issue 1056, 13 November 1868, Page 3

TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH AUSTRALIA.

It has long teen a source of surprise to the commercial world that no telegraphic communication exists between our Oriental possessions and Australia, even though five years have elapsed since the completion of our agencies of telegraphic correspondence with India. Since 1860 statistics have been collected, estimates prepared, and plans proposed from time to time for the promotion of this most important project ; but the policy of the Government has rendered all the efforts of private enterprise unavailing. A brief sketch of the history of the negotiations regarding this subject may not be uninteresting at the present time. In 1861 several of the colonies voted subsidies to the amount of £28,000, and further steps were taken to increase the amount to £35,000, to lay a submarine line between Java and Sydney. The government of Victoria, finding that the other colonial governments were dilatory in their action, resolved on acting for themselves alone, and suggested that if the home Government would find one-half the necesBary subsidy, the government of Victoria would contribute the rest. With this suggestion the Treasury refused to comply. Early in 1862 a proposal was advanced from a Rangoon and Singapore telegraph, with stations at Tavoy and Penang. The capital was to be £450,000, and the subsidy required was £50,000. This project also failed, and when a fresh plan was suggested later in the year the Treasury declined altogether to consider it. In July, 1862, the statement of the promoters of the Anglo- Australian and China Telegraph was drawn up. The works proposed were t — l. A cable from Rangoon to Singapore. 2. A cable from Singapore to Hong Kong, via Sarawak, Labuan, and Manilla, or via Saigon. 3. The extension of the Dutch lines which connect Singapore with Batavia and the east end of Java to the terminus of the telegraph system in Australia, the total cost of the whole work being estimated at £2,250,000- In 1863 the whole question was again laid before the Secretary of State for India, the Queensland Government having consented to co-oper-ate with the other Australian Governments. They preferred, however, that the cable should be carried from Port Essington to the colonies rather than by cables along the coast. Four routes were suggested for the land line :• — 1. Port Augusta, by Stuart's route to the Victoria river, Cambridge Gulf; 2. Port Augusta, via Cooper'screek or Carpentaria, by Bucke's or M'Kinlay's route, and thence to Port Essington or Cambridge Gulf. 3. Port Augusta to King George's Sound and Western Australia to the neighborhood of Exmouth Bay. 4. Moreton Bay to Port Essington or Cambridge Gulf. The total cost of the land line and cable for the Australian and Java sections would, it was urged, cost only £450,000, as against £l,loo'oo, the estimate for a cable round the coast to Brisbane. This plan was submitted to the India-oifice, as well as a fresh proposition for the laying of the Rangoon and Singapore section. Strange to say, the application was not entertained, though the chain of telegraph was almost complete from England to Rangoon, though Australia and Holland were willing to give financial aid, and though the Indian Government a short time before was contemplating laying a Rangoon and Singapore cable at its own risk. Why the home Government has so long discouraged the enterprise is inexplicable. — ' Timeß.'