11
Imperial Government, and the other by the other contracting parties, also appear to his Lordship to be well considered.
14. Their Lordships will observe that the capital required for the line (No. 1) recomended, viz., from Aden to Algoa Bay, with station at Seychelles, Mauritius, and Port Natal, is estimated at 1,150,000l., involving an annual charge of 44,2321. for interest and of 23,0001. for a maintenance and renewal fund; of these charges Sir P. Julyan proposes that the Imperial Government should be liable for 22,558/. annually in addition to the value of the guarantee, estimated to be worth 11,0581. This apportionment, however, appears to be open to revision, for the sum of 67,2321. has been arrived at after taking credit for the Imperial guarantee, and by again deducting the sum of 11,058., the charge borne by the Colonies, is made to amount to 44,6741., as against the 33,6061. borne by the Imperial Government. The more correct way of apportioning the expense would appear to be by starting from the annual cost apart from the guarantee, viz., 78,2901., half of which would be 39,1457., and to deduct from this latter sum the estimated value of the guarantee, viz., 11,058, which would leave 28,087. as the sum the Imperial Treasury would be liable to contribute in cash.
15. On the other hand, Lord Carnarvon questions the mode in which it is proposed that the earnings of the cable should be divided. It appears to his Lordship that if this country bears half the expense it should take half the receipts, after all working expenses and the maintenance fund have been duly provided for.
16. Their Lordships will observe that in a schedule to Messrs. Hooper's letter of the 5th of November the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company are quoted as having estimated the receipts from messages at 81,0001; this estimate is probably exaggerated, but, though there is not sufficient information in this Department to enable any trustworthy estimate of receipts to be formed, Lord Carnarvon has no doubt that they will be sufficient to reduce to an inconsiderable sum the maximum liability as above stated, and the difference between receipts and expenditure may reasonably be expected to diminish annually.
17. With respect to the mode in which Sir P. Julyan divides the liability for the other moiety amongst the three Colonies of the Cape, Natal, and Mauritius, Lord Carnarvon is disposed to think that the terms imposed upon the two latter Colonies are too large, and that in making the public revenue the sole standard by which the liability is apportioned, the consideration that the Cape is more remote from the present system of telegraphs, and that Mauritius,has but a small interest in the section from that Colony to South Africa, has been lost sight of.
18. With respect to the question of the route to be adopted Lord Carnarvon, so far as at present he is in a position to judge, is disposed to think that the balance of advantage is in favour of one or other of the castern routes. It is possible that some support from Foreign Powers might be procured for the western route, but, on the other hand, Mauritius, the trade of which is in great measure with India and Australia, could not be expected to contribute to a line connecting St. Vincent and the Cape, unless a further cable were laid from South Africa to Mauritius, which would apparently be as costly as a cable direct from Mauritius to Aden or Ceylon. And Aden, for general purposes, is a better connecting point with the telegraphic system of the world than the Cape de Verde Islands. Moreover, the line recommended, No. 1, does not touch any where on soil not part of the British Empire, and would in time of war be less liable to interruption than any western route.
And 1 am to add that recent information has been received from the Cape to the effect that arrangements will be made in the next session for connecting that Colony with Natal by an overland line.
/
Before, however, coming to any final conclusion on these and other points, Lord Carnarvon would naturally wish to consult the Admiralty, and his proposal is, in the event the Treasury giving a general assent to the scheme, that a consultation should be held in which representatives of that Department and other Departments of the Imperial Government should confer with representatives of the Colonial Governments interested as to all the details of the scheme. In the event of their Lordships declining altogether to render any assistance in carrying out this undertaking, the Colonial Governments, if they were able to meet the heavy expenditure involved, which appears most doubtful, would naturally deal with any questions that may arise entirely from their own point of view, and his Lordship feels that he would not be in a position to press for any consideration of Imperial interests though they are obviously much concerned.
I am, &c. (Signed) ROBERT G. W. HERBERT.
The Secretary, Treasury.
SIB,
No. 3.
TREASURY to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Treasury Chambers, August 16, 1876. THE Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury have had before them your letter of the 26th May last* on the subject of the establishment of telegraphic communi- cation between this country and the Colonies of South Africa and Mauritius.
Their Lordships have not failed to remark the great care and attention which Lord Carnarvon has evidently bestowed upon this question, or to appreciate the clear and comprehensive form in which it has been presented to them; and they have endeavoured to give it all the consideration it merits, as well on this account as by reason of its intrinsic importance.
My Lords fully recognize the advantages, both to Imperial and Colonial interests, of telegraphic communication between the Mother Country and its Colonies-they are so obvious that it is needless to enlarge upon them--but they cannot forget that in other cases these advantages have been secured by leaving it to private enterprise to supply the requisite means of communication.
This is the principle which has hitherto governed the policy of this country, and the instances in which it has been departed from-those of the Malta and Alexandria cable, the Mediterranean Extension, and the Red Sea and India Telegraph cables-do not encourage my Lords to repeat the experiment.
They could only be induced to do so by overwhelming evidence of necessity, and, forcible as are many of the arguments which Lord Carnarvon advances, they regret that they are unable to concur with him in thinking that the establishment of telegraphic communication with Mauritius and the Cape is imperatively called for at the present moment on grounds of Imperial policy. They do not underrate the importance of those dependencies politically, commercially, or as naval and military stations of the Empire, but from no point of view does it seem to their Lordships that their importance is suffi cient to justify the Imperial Government in taking upon itself so serious a financial responsibility as the scheme sketched by Lord Carnarvon would involve. They hold most strongly that the financial test is the one by which to judge such schemes, and that only the most exceptional circumstances can justify the adoption of a scheme which does not stand that test satisfactorily.
It is clear that the one now under consideration is very far from doing so, even on the most sanguine estimate, but it is not equally clear that a time may not come, and that before very long when conditions may have so far altered as to make a cable to Mauritius and South Africa a remunerative investment for private capital. For their own part, looking to the rapidly developing resources of South Africa, on the one hand, and the great advances that are being made in the economical construction of deep-sea cables on the other, my Lords are disposed to believe that that time is not far distant, and they themselves should prefer to wait for it, rather than encourage, either by a subsidy or a guarantee, a premature attempt to provide a means of communication, which, however desirable, they cannot regard as indispensable.
I am, &c. Robert G. W. Herbert, Esq.,
Colonial Office.
No. 4.
(Signed)
W. H. SMITH.
EASTERN TELEGRAPH COMPANY to COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received July 6th, 1877.)
MEMORANDUM.
The Eastern Telegraph Company, acting in concert with the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, has had under its consideration the important question of telegraphic communication with the Cape Colonies, Mauritius, &c.
The Eastern Telegraph Company has also studied the different routes which present
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