292
H
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
mmm
Reference :-
C.O. 885
14
PACIFIC CABLE COMMITTEE:-REPORT.
81. The custom of the owners of cables is to put by such a sum of money every year as will enable their cables to be kept in continual repair, and the old cable entirely This they consider to be a replaced by a new cable within a certain number of years. sufficient provision for the replacement of their capital. The Committee have, however, suggested that in the case of a Pacific cable there should be what practically amounts to a double replacement of capital. They have recommended that a sufficient sum should be set aside for annual maintenance to ensure the complete renewal of the cable within 40 years, so that at the end of that time the associated Governments should either be in possession of a new cable, or, if the old cable had not been wholly renewed, of a reserve fund sufficient to replace such part of the original cable as still existed. And, further, they have provided for the complete extinction of the original loan at the end of 50 years. These facts must be borne in mind in considering the financial prospects of the cable.
82. The Committee cannot conclude this Report without expressing their strong sense of the value of the services rendered to them by their Secretary, Mr. W. H. Mercer. It has been mainly owing to his exertions that they have been enabled to carry through their work evenly and promptly since their regular sittings first commenced.
W. H. MERCER,
Secretary.
Colonial Office,
5 January 1897.
SELBORNE, Chairman. DONALD A. SMITH. A. G. JONES.
SAUL SAMUEL.
D. GILLIES.
GEO. H. MURRAY.
15
I.-MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS.
AT THE COLONIAL OFFICE, FRIDAY, 5TH JUNE 1896.
Pursuant to an invitation sent by direction of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the members of the Committee met at the Colonial Office, namely
-
The Right Hon. the EARL OF SELBORNE and Mr. G. H. MURRAY, C.B., representing the Government of Her Majesty;
The Hon. Sir DONALD SMITH, G.C.M.G., and the Hon. Sir MACKenzie Bowell, K.C.M.G., representing the Government of the Dominion of Canada;
The Hon. Sir SAUL SAMUEL, K.C.M.G., and the Hon. DUNCAN GILLIES representing the Governments of the Australasian Colonies.
The EARL OF SELBORNE was elected to the chair, and read the document in which the Secretary of State for the Colonies appointed the Committee and specified its functions. Mr. W. HEPWORTH MERCER, of the Colonial Office, was appointed secretary to the Committee.
It was agreed that at future meetings a shorthand writer should attend to take notes of the proceedings.
It was resolved that no communication should be made to the press with regard to the proceedings of the Committee except through the Chairman, and that the meetings should be private; but that each member should be at liberty to make reports to his Government, and that the other Agents-General for the Australasian Colonies and Mr. S. Fleming might be kept informed of the proceedings.
Sir S. SAMUEL and Mr. GILLIES explained that they were about to proceed to the Buda-Pesth Postal Conference, and that they would telegraph as soon as possible when they expected to return, so that the meetings of the Coinmittee might then be resumed.
The Chairman intimated that the Committee should assume that there was to be a Pacific cable, for the purpose of making the necessary inquiries and settling the best possible scheme, and that for that purpose it might be taken that the cable was desirable, if reasonably practicable. He observed that the foundation of the delibera- tions must be by evidence, and after discussion it was arranged that, in the, interval before the return of the Australasian representatives and the resumption of the meetings, a list of possible witnesses should be prepared, and that the Secretary might obtain from such witnesses written statements indicating the character of the evidence which they would be prepared to give to the Committee.
It was agreed that the Committee should, on resuming, sit de die in diem. The Committee then adjourned.
W. II. MERCER,
}
Secretary to the Committee.
6
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
B 4
16
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS, 8ra JULY 1896.