F.— 4.

1879. NEW ZEALAND.

DUPLICATION OF TELEGRAPH CABLE FROM PORT DARWIN. (FURTHER PAPERS RELATING TO.)

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency. No. 1. Memorandum relative to Duplication of Cable. We are of opinion : — 1. That tire duplication of the cable, as proposed by the Cable Conference, should, under all the circumstances, be agreed to by New Zealand, in conjunction with Victoria, New South Wales, and South Arrstralia, and such other of the colonies as may become parties to the contract with the Eastern Telegraph Extension Company. 2. That the reductiou in the charges for the transmission of messages between Port Darwin and London by 75 per cent, for Press messages, and 50 per cent, for governmental messages, without additional subsidy, is very liberal, and may, irr the discretion of Messrs. Berry and Burns, be modified to the extent proposed by the Company, if its Directors cannot obtain the like concession for its use of the Dutch and Indian lines. 3. That it is unnecessary to keep a steamer constantly at a port in New Zealand or Australia specially for the New Zealand cable; and that the Company should bo relieved from this obligation without prejudice to the other conditions of the articles of agreement, which we think are sufficiently stringent to insure the maintenance of communication by cable between New South Wales and New Zealarrd. 4. That the Company should reduce their charges for the transmission of messages by the New Zealarrd cable to the rates which we have proposed to Colonel Glover in a separate paper. 5. That the repairing ship of the Company should be at all times available on reasonable notice for the repair of the Cook Strait cables. All the expenses of tho ship, less her charges for a corresponding period if she were laid up irr port, to be defrayed by the Government of New Zealand, which Government should also indemnify the Company, or provide by insurance, for any damage to the steamer, her machinery, or gear, in connection with the repair of the said cables. J. T. Burns. J. T. Eishee. Wellington, 11th July, 1878. J. G. Glover. Subject to the scheme for the duplication of the cable between Port Darwin and Europe being agreed to, and effect being given to clauses 3 and 4 of the memorandum of the Postmasters-General of New South Wales and New Zealand, the following reductions in the tariff on the New Zealand cable have been assented to by the representative of the Eastern Telegraph Extension Company, Colonel Glover, and the Governments of New South Wales and New Zealand by their respective Post-masters-General : — i i

J. G. Gloyek, Managing Director, Eastern Extension A. and C. Telegraph Company. J. T. Burns, Postmaster-General of New South Wales. J. T. Fishes, Wellington, 11th July, 1878. Postmaster-General and Telegraph Commissioner, New Zealand. I—E. 4

Present Bates. Proposei Rates. Eirst Ten Words. Each Additional Word. Eire* Ten Words. Each Additional Word. !able Company Jew South Wales few Zealand s. 7 1 I d. 6 0 0 s. d. 0 9 0 1 0 1 s. d. 6 0 0 6 0 6 s. d. 0 7 0 1 0 1 9 6 o 11 7 o 0 g