SOUTH SEA NETWORK

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 517, 21 November 1928, Page 14

SOUTH SEA NETWORK

LINKING BRITISH POSSESSIONS A network of wireless transmitting and receiving stations now covers the British possessions in the Southern Pacific, with Sydney as headquarters. With the authority and at the expense of the Imperial Government, Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia), Ltd., is engaged in remodelling the radio transmitting and receiving station at Fiji. Radio telegraphic traffic between Australia and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea ranks next in importance,, so far as purely point to point telegraphic service is concerned, to the beam service between Australia and Britain, but it is expected that, when improvements are completed, the Fiji station will be second only to the beam station with respect to wireless telegraphic traffic to and from Australia. The scheme now being put into effect will permit of the linking up, through the radio station at Suva, of all the British possessions under the control of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, as well as the linking of the Fijian Islands with the various territories administered by Australia and New Zealand, under mandate from the League of Nations. The new station.at Suva will he sufficiently powerful to provide direct traffic between Sydney and Suva, and to all ships travelling between Sydney and San Francisco.

The importance of the new Fijian radio Staton can be realised when it is mentioned that this station will he able to communicate with the Mandated Territory of Samoa, with headquarters at Apia, and other stations at .Ofu, Tau, and Tutulia; Friendly Islands (Tongan Government), with headquarters at Nukualofa; Society Islands (French Administration), with wireless stations at Papeete, Atuona, Makatea; Cook Islands (French Administration), with headquarters at Rarotonga Union Islands (N.Z. Administration), with headquarters at Fakaofa; Gilbert and Ellice Islands (British Administration), with headquarters at Ocean Island, and stations at Tarawa and Nauru; Solomon Island (British Administration), with headquarters at Tulagi; Santa Cruz Islands (British Administration), ‘with headquarters at Vanikoro; New Caledonia (French Administration), with headquarters at Noumea; New Hebrides (British-French Condominium) ; and Hawaiian Islands (American Administration), with headquarters at Honolulu. New Guinea Service

The chief station in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea is located at Bitapaka, near Rabaul, on the island of New Britain, and is connected by direct land line and telephone with the headquarters of the Commonwealth Administration at Rabaul. This station clears the major portion of its traffic through Townsville but a considerable volume of business is done direct with Sydney. The Rabaul station not only maintains direct radio communication, commercial and administrative, with Sydney, but is also in constant communication with the following radio stations, which are controlled and operated by Amalgamated Wireless, Ltd., on behalf of the Federal Government: —New Guinea: Aitape, Madang, Bulolo, Salamoa, Marienberg. Admiralty islands: Manus. Bougainville Islands: Kieta. New Ireland: Kavieng. The Rabaul station also communicates with the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (British Administration), with headquarters at Ocean Island, and subsidiary stations at Tarawa and Nauru; the Solomon Islands, with headquarters at Tulagi; and the Santa Cruz Islands (British Administration), with headquarters at Vanikoro. In addition, this station communicates direct with the following wireless stations in the Japanese Mandated Territory in the Caroline Islands:

Angaur, Papaos, Ponape, Truk, and Yap, and Jalouit 'ln the Marshall Islands. Aid to Development Exploration for oil in the Papuan district has made big demands on wireless communication, as has also the rapid development of the goldfields in New Guinea. Small transmitting and receiving sets were installed by Amalgamated Wireless, Ltd., for a number of expeditions, to enable the explorers to maintain direct communication with headquarters at Rabaul. These have been found to work very satisfactorily, and to lessen appreciably the dangers and risks of the exploring parties. At the present time communication to Papua from Australia is made through Amalgamated Wireless, Ltd.’s, radio station at Cooktown, to the Papuan stations at Port Moresby and Samarai. These stations in turn communicate direct with wireless stations on the oilfields of Orlomo and Popo. An interesting installation is that of the wireless telephone service that operates between Ocean Island and Nauru. This service is used by the British Phosphate Commission in much the same way as the ordinary telephone is used between the ofllce and the works of any commercial manufacturing firm in Sydney. The Commission’s ship, Nauru Chief, also has a wireless telephone installed, by moans of which the ship communicates with the headquarters of the Commission, and receives instructions to call at various points of Ocean Island and Nauru Island, as business requirements demand. It is believed that this was the first ship in the Southern Hemisphere' to have wireless telephonic apparatus installed, and it has, proved of wonderful assistance in the development of the business of these two islands.