ELECTRIC CABLE COMMITTEE.

13

P.—No. 4,0

pore from Eangoon by a submarine cable, or to attempt land lines. One or the other of these two modes will unquestionably be carried out before long ; and, after careful perusal of your memoranda, I. think that such a concession as you propose from the Government of Batavia, with a certain working arrangement, would put us in a fair position for extending the lino from Java to Australia. This Company does not buy concessions, but is always ready to find a largo amount of capital for carrying out submarine telegraphs, and to assist gentlemen in whose bond fides they have perfect faith, in bringing forward such undertakings. We are now very busy making a cable 3,600 miles long, to be laid across the Atlantic from Brest, in France, to New Tork, and I thoroughly believe that by next Christmas we shall be sending out a cable of a similar description to Bombay, for the Bed Sea line. I shall only be too glad to work with you in effecting such a communication as you propose, the importance of which, commercially and politically speaking, is very great, both to the Dutch and English colonists." The survey recently made by IT.B.M.S. " Serpent," of the sea between Java and the North coast of Australia, to the South of the Eastern Islands, removes all doubt as to the existence of the best soundings for the immersion of a submarine cable for forming the proposed telegraphic connection. With regard to the system of telegraphic land lines in Australia, all the Colonies between South Australia on the one hand and Queensland on the other arc connected ; and in 1867 the terminus of the system in Queensland had been brought as far North as Cardwell, whence to Burke Town, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, there are only 400 miles, which had at that time also been prospected, so that if this extension is not yet completed, there is no doubt that it will be so within the time required. With reference to the concession applied for, the following remarks are offered :— The connection of Europe with Australia is quite practicable without passing through the Nether-lands-Indian possessions ; and a proposal has already been made to lay, for this purpose, a submarine cable from Galle to Perth, in Western Australia, about 3,200 miles long, whence to join the Australian land lines in South Australia is an easy matter. It does not need to be pointed out that, if this proposal were carried out, the Netherlands possessions in the East would be virtually isolated from the world's great net of telegraphic communication, and lose all direct participation in the commercial, political, and financial advantages which this communication must bring with it; whilst, on the other hand, if the connection proposed in the concession now asked for is carried out, Java would at once become the centre of communication between Australia and Europe on the one hand, and all parts of the East, China, and Japan on the other. The financial advantages arising from the transmission of messages over the Government land lines would in that case alone become a matter of considerable importance, if the calculations of the projectors of the British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company arc to be depended upon. This Company proposes a charge on all messages of twenty words between London and Bombay, of £3, or 36f. They estimate, on information from the most competent authorities, that at this rate there will not be less than 150 messages per day, averaging thirty words each, working 330 days in the year, and only twelve and a half hours per day —this estimate not including the additional traffic to be expected on further extensions of the telegraph to Australia, Java, and China. When it is now considered that the European population in British India does not exceed a few thousands, whilst the population in the several Australian Colonies is almost exclusively European, and still connected with Europe by the closest commercial and family ties, amounting, in 1867, to 1,645,000 souls, with an export trade of upwards of 360, and an import trade of upwards of 400 millions of guilders, —it is hardly to be expected that, on a moderate tariff (say £5 from London to Sydney, which would be in proportion to the proposed charge between London and Bombay), telegraphic communication would be less frequent between these Colonies and Europe than between India and Europe ; but, for the sake of a safe calculation, taking the number of messages passing through Java to and from all quarters of the world at only one-half the number expected as a minimum between London and Bombay, or seventy-five messages of thirty words per day each way, working 330 days in the year, and twelve and a half hours each day, the revenue to the Government, at 3f. for each message of twenty words, would be annually 222,750f'., which, after deduction of working expenses, would probably cover the whole amount of the subsidy asked for in Article 2 of the proposed concession. It is not to be anticipated that the concession now asked for can be otherwise than agreeable to the Imperial Government and the Legislature in Holland, the former having showed its interest in the matter by the concession granted to Mr. F. Gisborne, in 1862, with a subsidy of £8,500 for thirty year's, for laying a cable only 525 miles long between Batavia and Singapore ; and the latter body, having signified its sense of the importance of a direct communication between Java and Australia, by assenting almost unanimously to a vote of 600,000f. per annum for the partial support of a monthly steam communication between Java and Australia, should any such be established. It is, of course, quite unnecessary to draw any comparison as to the relative importance between a monthly steam communication and the constant and instantaneous communication offered in the concessiou now applied for. With reference to Articles 2 and 6, the intention is to require from the Australian Government a similar amount of support to that specified in Article 2. Should less favourable terms be obtained, the amount of the Java subsid}' will be reduced in proportion. Should the amount obtained from Australia be larger, the Java subsidy will not have to be increased. The capital required to carry out the proposed connections is estimated at about 7,000,000f., to obtain which at once a guaranteed interest of 7 per cent, per annum on this amount would be sufficient; and should the Government prefer this mode of support to that of the subsidy, dividing the guarantee equally with the Australian Colonies, the undersigned is quite prepared to accept of it. The obligations undertaken by the undersigned in Articles 3, 4, and 5, are based upon the promised support and co-operation of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company of London, before referred to. The other articles of the concession have been principally borrowed from the provisional concession granted, in 1862, by the Netherlands Government to Mr. F. Gisborne, and before referred to. 4