A TELEGRAPHIC MYSTERY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81899, 4 December 1906, Page 3

A TELEGRAPHIC MYSTERY.

What is known as the "secret mail'' of India has for mare than a generation perplexed the British mind, ami i> still a profound mytterv, althougn nurnberle-- a'tempU have been mat!' 1 : .e expiate it- Evrivniie wiio fas lived long in Asiatic countries j, awate that accurate knowMgl. of important happenings at a distance is uften possessed by tlie natives a cinsulvialjle time before it is obtained by the G'.vernment, n-en though special facilities have bcrn provided for the j transmission of the news.

Thi> wat frequently and cotispicu-1 onsly illustrated throughout the S! poy rrh«'llinr t>r.cni occur-' ung- hyinl' 01 \u-re usually known in tiu> bazaar houi.s. and sometimes b»foie the ihws reached the aytboritiejs, ami the information obtained ua> as si trustworthy that the native >|» < filiated up'»n it, evin to th< full extent of their fortunes. Indeed, upon one occasion the s< i cr*t jnail beat the Government cou'ier by f'jlly v t ,v«- I vo hours, ah hough eviy endeavoi ! ,j kl been made to secure swiftest despatch. The Hindoos themselves say, when they consent to talk about it at all, that they depend neither upon hots? <ir man, and lihvc no secret code uf

signals; but that they ,i svstem «f thought Iran-mission which is as familiar as is the electric telegraph to the Western world. Anyone inav accept this explanation who will. | liu' though most people with Ires for the mysterious, and a b'tter fchowedgo of the weakness of the Hiiulvs for m:ikin>f riddles of th<' -impost facts, will look for a more prosaic explanation, it remains to be said that none ha« been forthcoming. The ''secret mail" is an indubitable reality, anil no European has ever succeeded t)i »o]ving its mystery. If news is transmitted by signal*, n< one has ever seen tli e signallers; nor if there is a vast system >f stages i" operation, covering hundreds and thousands of miles, has anyone ever come across its machinery. And. indeed, it would seem that some means of communication must be at the command of the natives mure rapid than "flortes or rungero.