Cable Rates Too High

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 252, 14 January 1928, Page 7

Cable Rates Too High

OPINION OF ENGINEER RADIO COMPETITION GOOD By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. Reed. 9 a.m. LONDON, Friday. Sir Charles Bright, the consulting engineer, who has been engaged on a number of cable-laying expeditions, and who reported to the Colonial Office on the Pacific cajfie scheme in 1897, in an article in the “Evening Standard” likens the cable scare of beam wireless competition to gas shareholders in the early days. The cable companies were heavily subsidised. For instance, Australia paid the Eastern Company £32,400 a year from 1879 to 1899. “Surely it was partly with an eye on future competition that the cable companies have built up large reserves,” he says. “Experience has shown that cable company amalgamations and working agreements have not been advantageous to the public, tending to keep up the rates. What is needed, especially from an interimperial trade standpoint, is more British cables offering alternative routes, and more wireless stations actually competing with the cables. Thus we should secure a reduction in the rates, which has been long needed in the interests of the public, and a more effective Press service between the Mother Country and the Dominions.” COMBINING INTERESTS Writing to the “Financial Times” regarding the dif I ilties of the cable and wireless companies, a correspondent hits at a possible solution by forming a company covering both wireless and cable interests. He suggests that if the two systems were under one direction either could he used, so that traffic could he directed in the quickest and most economical way while the saving in working costs might be £1,000,000 annually.—A. and N. 21.