THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1909. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3108, 5 February 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1909. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

Like the age of romance, the age of miracle is past. It is true that modern science has far outstripped the magicians and wonder-workers of old in performing what has been deemed the impossible—for example, by sending messages across thousands of intervening miles, between ships at sea and the porta behind or ahead of them, without the aid of any con-

necting link, visible or invisible, says the "Scotsman." But these triumphs of the human intellect over the limitations of time and space are instantly reduced to system, placed on a commercial' basis, and turned to the common service of the world. Wireless telegraphy, miracle-worker of ten years ago, has to-day become the commonplace drudge of the General Post Office. The opening, by the Postmaster-Gen-eral, of "the first real commercial Pose Office wireless station," at Bolt Head, on the South Devon coast, is a signal that the system with which the name of Marconi is so honourably associated has passed finally through the experimental stage, and is to be reckoned among the great agencies of civilisation that have been placed at the disposal of the public. The Marconi and other systems have been working their way for yearn past into the public service in several countries. Considering the shortness of the time since the invention first attracted notice, it has undergone remarkable developments and extensions. Apparatus for the capture, transmission, and decipherment of the secrets of the "Hertzian waves" have been fitted up on board of the great ocean steamships. Wireless telegraphy has been turned to account by the Admiralty and by the War Department, and is now among the recognised agencies and conditions of war as well as of peace. It ia from the practical and popular point ot view that the opening of a new station at Bolt Head, with a range of about 250 miles, for pjublic communication with ships at sea, is seen to be an event of importance. It signalises the change from the tentative to the definite acceptance of wireless telegraphy as par'c of the work of the Post Office. It has become a business affair for the Department and •for the public which it serves. Mr Buxton emphasised the fact that the opening of the Bolt Head station is part of the deliberate policy of the Post Office authorities, who are resolved that there shall not be allowed to grow up, in regard to wirelessn telegraphy, as in the case ot the telegraph, and the telephone systems, anything of the nature of monopoly. In one light, the step may be regarded as another blow dealt at "individualism" —at private enterprise and control. But the reasons that underlie the action of the Deparment entirely justify it, whether the question is regarded from the point of view of public convenience or national policy. Wireless telegraphy now forms' an essential portion of the nerve system of the country. Its importance, in the present and still more 1 in the future, is such that the risk of these delicate ganglions and tentacfes of 'the nation's thought and life falling irito irresponsible and possibly hostile hands is one that cannot be taken.