42

revenue of £62,500 for the first three years. After that, allowing , liberally £50,000 for maintenance, the total annual charge against revenue would be £112,500. It is estimated that the revenue, at the end of three years, will reach something like £160,000. Dr COCKBURN That is allowing for an increase of 15 per cent, every year Mr THYNNE: It is estimated on a gradual increase of that kind. Now, Sir John Pender has made several reports and estimates ridiculing the proposals which have been made by Mr Fleming, but one after the other the objections have been raised and fallen down, and we have come now to the question of the cost of the cable, after all the bogies which have been raised to deter the different Governments from carrying out this scheme have melted away and disappeared. I stated a short time ago that the charges against revenue were estimated at £119,000 or £120,000, that is, of course, calculating the interest on the capital at 2| per cent., and if proper arrangements are made I have no doubt we can get the money at that rate. There is another question to be dealt with in connection with the matter, and that is the question of route. We are met first with the query whether we can get from Vancouver to Fanning Island, or one of the Hawaiian Islands. If one of the Hawaiian Islands could be obtained for the purpose there is a manifest advantage in favour of taking the cable in that direction, because there is first of all a saving of distance in the first long stretch of the cable, and in addition to that there is a very large trade to be anticipated from Honolulu. Shipping in Honolulu amounts to a very considerable quantity every year, for it is a depot or port of call for every vessel in the Pacific Ocean, as well as a station for the Naval Service of Great Britain and the United States, and other powers, as China and Japan, and Russia also. We can at once see that a port with that trade and that business would be a very useful one to have connected with the cable at the present time. The Imperial Government, in dealing with the Hawaiian Government, is restricted by the treaty rights of the United States, and it is necessary to get the sanction of the United States to the cession qf any of the islands of the Hawaiian Group. But if we can rely on the information received by the press, the matter seems to have gone to this extent, that the President of the United States has recommended to the Senate, which is the treaty power of that country, a modification of the treaty with Hawaii to allow of the cession of one of the islands to the British Government, and that message has been referred in the usual manner to a committee. This committee, however, did not report favourably upon it, but, notwithstanding that report, I am informed that the Senate has adopted the message which the President has sent them, and the power now exists to make the cession which is required by Great Britain. It would be very grateful information to us to know that the treaty has been entered into, inasmuch as it would promote more friendly relations with our United States cousins, and also remove some difficulty and expense. But if we are unable to make satisfactory arrangements for obtaining a site in Hawaii, we are able, fortunately, to fall back on the Fanning Islands, securing thereby the great point that our messages will pass through no other than British territory In the first paragraph of the resolution I advocate the work being undertaken by the Colonies as a joint national and public work. It seems to me that there can be no question as to the necessity of this work being undertaken in that way rather than by subsidy or guarantee, because if we subsidise any company or guarantee a certain amount of work on it, the Governments who enter into that guarantee leave themselves practically at the mercy of the company they subsidise or make the guarantee to, and expose themselves to any combination that may be entered into between competing companies, thereby throwing on the guaranteeing Governments a heavy loss. Companies of this nature, having similar objects, are apt at times to amalgamate, which would bring about in this instance a combination of that monopoly in cable traffic from which Australia has suffered so much. I have no hesitation in saying that the Colonies have had to pay a great deal more for their cable messages than they ought to have done; but I will not detain the Conference by entering into the details of that question. I believe there is a general sentiment amongst the members of the Conference in the direction I have just spoken of, that the time has come when Australia must be relieved from the very heavy tax imposed on the mercantile community for the transmission of cable messages. The charge some time ago was 9s. 4d. a word, and that is the charge to-day from Queensland to Great Britain. I have no hesitation in saying, according to the estimates of those who have devoted so much of their time and attention to this proposed cable, that the rate suggested at the Conference in New Zealand last year of 3s. per word could be carried out by the new cable profitably and remuneratively We are paying three times as much for cable messages as we ought to be called on to pay I thank the Conference for the patient hearing it has given me, but I felt it my duty, as being familiar with this question, to take the earliest opportunity of bringing the matter before the Postal Conference in as practical a way as possible. I will conclude by moving paragraphs (a) and (b) of the motion of which I gave notice, as follows :— " That in the opinion of this Conference it is desirable that (a) the construction, working, and maintenance of a submarine cable-through British territory or under British control from Vancouver Island to Australasia be undertaken by the Governments of Great Britain, the Dominion of Canada, and the Australasian Colonies as a joint national and public work ; (b) the cost of its construction, working, and maintenance be borne in the following proportions, viz : —Great Britain one-third, the Dominion of Canada one-third, and the Australasian Colonies one-third."