The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1922. GOOD COMMUNICATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1922. GOOD COMMUNICATIONS.

When Lord Northcliffe was entertained by the Empire Press Union on his return to London after his trip round the world, he said that during his stay with the Governor of Indo-China he could talk to Paris quite easily, but on his visit to the Viceroy of India he found he could not talk to London at all for three days, owing to cable interruptions, and he expressed the hope that, as soon as the wireless system had been got into shape, there would be no interruptions of communications between England and the Empire. It is recognised that civilisation depends on transport, and it is equally well known that political unity and industrial efficiency depend upon good communications. Even the ancient half-prehistoric Empires of Asia discovered that a postal system was a necessary condition of their 'existence. More than one great realm has fallen in the past because its growth had made the existing means of communication too slow to secure co-operation between the head and the limb, or because its cpmmunications had been allowed to decay. There has even been a doubt suggested as to whether the British Empire could have endured so long without the inventions of the last hundred years. Wonderful strides have been made in rapid transport and means of communication, but it is quite in accord with British usage to seek for more rather than be content with each fresh development. When the Duke of York recently visited the central telegraph office in London, he was shown more than a thousand telegraph instruments of different kinds clicking out messages to and from every part of the world. From the whole course of the Imperial line of communications — which passes through Halifax, across Canada and under Ibe I acifie to Australia and New Zealand the Duke received messages of greeting, and yet it was not until 1837 that the invention of telegra-

phy took practical shape, while the age of submarine cables is little more than half a century. It is however, the advent of the wireless system that eclipses all other means of communication, and the promised development of wireless telephony will not only bring all the people of any country within talking distance of one another, but will link ud the whole world, for its possibilities appear to be infinite, fne outstanding difficulty appears to be not so much the perfecting of a continuous wireless chain, as to whether as soon as such a chain is complete there will be a greatly improved. more rapid and much cheaper radio system than has now been evolved. That, of course, is a risk inherent to all progress, and the only question is whether to wait or make the best of the system that is available. The world has z for so long been dependent on the telegraph cables, as a means of communication that it hardly grasps yet. the advent of a formidable rival. There is, however, one point in connection with the cable service that cannot be ignored. At the present time the cable rates to the Far East are onerous to a degree. thus pressing very hardly on men in business, and particularly so on the small newspapers, bej sides which the service is subject to interruptions of two or three days.

at a time. It is probable that the people of the Empire will endorse Lord Northcliffe’s statement “that the late Lord Burnham builded better than even he knew when he started trying to improve Imperial communications.” It is desirable that in this matter of rapid communication throughout the Empire, there should be both an efficient cable and wireless service, as it must not be forgotten that political unity and industrial efficiency depend on good communications, and there never was a greater need than at the present time for the prompt transmission of market conditions and other essential information.