THE NORMANTOWN AND NEW ZEALAND CABLES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 369, 1 July 1874, Page 3

THE NORMANTOWN AND NEW ZEALAND CABLES.

In moving the N. S. Wales Legislative Assembly into Committee, on May 27, to consider thrt subject of Australian and .New Zealand telegraphic cables, Mr Parkes informed the Assembly that the three Governments of N. S. Wales, New Zealand, and Queensland jointly guaranteed tive per cent, per annum upon a capital ot one million, which it was estimated w ould be the cost of laying a cable from Normantown to Singapore-, and another from some point on the coast of New South Wales to a point on the coast of New Zealand. What those points shall be will probably be determined when U.M.S. Challenger completes tne line of soundings which she is now running between Sydney and Wellington. It is estimated that the expenses of working the lines will amount to Ll2 000 per annum, and that sum is to be set aside from the first earnings ; all the receipts over that amount to go towards the guarantee. The experience of the Port Darwin cable goes to show that a very much larger revenue than a sum of L 12.000 represents will be earned by the Normantown line, and it is arranged that if the profits exceed ten per cent , the surplus is to be used for the reduction of the rate of charges, so as to make the use of the telegraph more easy. The rates of charge from the beginning have been so fixed that a message from Australia to England, which at present costs L 5, will be forwarded by the new line for L 2, so that the public will at once derive an enormous benefit from the competition of the two lines. Four weeks in each year are to be allowed to the owne s of the line for the necessary repairs to keep it in proper working order. The subsidy is only to be assured -Anile ie is in such order. If the northern cable at any time fails, and the New Zealand cable alone is at work, onethird only of the guarantee will be chargeable to the Colonies ; if the Singapore line is at work, and that in New Zealand is silent, the guarantee is to be twothirds. If both lines cease to work, then the liabilities of the guarantors also cease. b'or a message of twenty words from New Zealand to Australia the. charge is not to exceed. 15s ; the charge for the land lines for a message such as that referred to is not to be more than 7s, while the Queensland Government is to maintain the overland line at her own expense ; and between Normantown and Singapore the cost of a twenty-word message is not to be more than 40s, for the first two years, nor more than 35s afterwards. All the details are to be arranged ia London between the representatives of the three Governments directly interested. That the guarantee will prove only a nominal affair, Mr Parkes has ascertained on what appears to be good data. The Inspector of the Telegraph Department of JMew South Wales estimates that twenty-five messages will pass daily between New Zealand and Australia, the receipts from which will be equal to ihe sum allowed for the entire expense of working the double line. .§ He estimates, further, that singl«rate messages will go between Normantown and Singapore to the value of L 24.000 per annum. The amount of the guarantee is thus at onGe reduced from I 50,000 to less than one-half that sum. The increase of business which is certain to come about with the growth of the Colonies in prosperity — and the com ci cial iinportanre of Quo. nsland is now growing only lesa rapidly than that of New Zealand— will speedily reduce the guarantee to nothing, or at most a nominal sum . . The cables are understood to be ready — if, indeed, the QueeDS and and Singapore line is not already at sea ; and we may thus indulge the anticipation that early in 1875, if sot sooner, Wellington will ba is direct telegraphic communication with London.—' N. Z. Times.'

— i The Oam aru people are complaining of a dearth of coal.