THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 1910. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9680, 3 January 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JANUARY 3, 1910. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY.

The work of the Wireless Telegraphy Conference recently held in Melbourne has been " made public, Sir Joseph Ward having previously noti--1 fled the Commonwealth Government of New Zealand's acceptance of tbe proposals. State ownership and control have very properly been decided upon, the experience of the civilised world in every direction being that neither postal nor telegraphic facilities of any description can be adequately developed or fully popularised under the profit-making conditions essential to private 'enterprise In the face of the str ng commercial movement for the nationalisation of ah cables, it would have been highly detrimental to the public interest to permit 'private companies to initiate monopoly, however controlled, in the telegraphic system which must ultimately replace the submarine cable.' Under the wireless scheme adopted on behalf of the Commonwealth and Dominion Governments and approved by the Imperial j Government, high-power stations are proposed for Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, with medium-powered stations at the Solomons, the New Hebrides and Ocean Islands. Our New Zealand liability is limited to the local installation and to one-sixth of the cost of the Fijian station, the liability under this latter head being fixed at£2,ooo.'For this comparatively small investment—thanks to the intelligent co-operation of the Australian and Imperial Governments—vwe secure, as a commencement, the covering of a vast water area having our South Island, Queensland, and the Equatorial Pacific as its boundaries, w*\ich may be indefinitely" extended by the establishment of other

/stations at outlying points. We shall not only be able to communicate wirelessly with Australia and Fiji, but to keep in touch with any vessel within {the covered area, pi*ovided the vessel itself is able tu communicate as well as to receive. This opens up at once the question of maritime equipment bringing the making of "wireless regulation" within the domain of practical politics. It is to be oped that tbe Government will fol-

low the proposed Doubtless Bay installation by the establishment of a hign-powered station In the South Island; and that the Australian Government will take co-operative steps in Tasmania. When this is done the whole of Tasman's Sea and the coasting waters on the East Coast will be covered and maritime risks in our dangerous seas may be reduced to a minimum.