The Westport Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1872.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1022, 15 November 1872, Page 2

The Westport Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1872.

The advautage-s present and prospective, of telegraphic communication between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are hardly, as yet, fully impressed upon the public mind in New Zealand. It is, as ladies say, very nice to have news from homo only six or seven days in transit, to know all that transpires in England or on the continent, to get tidings from the East and from the West, to learn how the old world wags, how our American cousius progress, how the schemes of rulers of state or mighty potentates of commerce, the ever expanding power of art and science, tho machinations of abettors and doers of evil, tend, day by day, to influence the mighty pulsations of the world we live iu ; but it will take some little time at least to fully realise the fact that the electric bond of union connecting Australia with the older dynasties of the world is equally potent iu working out good results for New Zealand, and must ultimately lead to this remote colony being joined in closer communication with tho utter, most parts of the earth. New Zealand colonists may be content for awhile to hold a subordinate position in their telegraphic intercourse with other portions of the world, to receive at second hand the items of daily news infecting their social and commercial interests, but, as tho carnal appctito grows upon what it feeds on, so, too, will the i raving desire for news, the necessity fur obtaining equal benefits

to those enjoyed by our Australian brethren, impel the voice of public opinion to plead vehemently for the perfecting of tho connecting link that shall join New Zealand in the charmed circle by which science, aided by dauntless commercial enterprise, has annihilated space and bound the whole world in a bond of instant and intimate union. It was well, perhaps, that the effort made during the la?t session of parliament to devote some portion of the public resources for telegraphic communication with Australia was deferred, seeing that party faction would have inevitably ruined the best devised plan of operations, even as it did others of greater moment ; but now that the Ministry have time and opportunity to perfect the details of the great scheme of Public Works for which the.revenues of the Colony are pledged to an extent which make withdrawal or timorous action synonymous with ruin, it seems almost impossible that any such important subsidiary adjunct will be overlooked. Money in the English as in the Colonial market accumulates faster than it cau be profitably invested, aud there should be no great difficulty in obtaining English capital upon government guarantee of interest at a moderate price, and without necessitating any heavy outlay of public revenues. It was not long since that an English company offered to establish telegraphic communication between Australia and New Zealand, and although the offer was not accepted, from motives more clear to the objectors that Uj the general public, there -was very little doubt expressed that the investment would have been perfectly safe in a commercial point of view, aud one in which the Australian Government might have been induced to join with New Zealand in guranteeing the enterprising company against loss. Our present weekly inter-communica-tion with Australia, and thence with London, will work many changes in commerce, establishing our markets on a firmer basis than has ever before existed, in so much as the chances in favor of speculation are diminished ; but New Zealand will never obtain her proper position until through communication is accomplished. If for no other good purpose than to dispel the inherent and obstinate prejudices of residents in the home countries against emigration to New Zealand, telegraphic communication will act as oue powerful agent in inducing to our shores a tide of population whose presence here will be tho best assurance of national wealth and prosperity, now and hereafter.