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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
TITLE C.O. 885
דייןווייון וויין
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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
26 November 1896.]
The Marquess of TWEEDDALE, Mr. II. A. C. SAUNDERS,
and Mr. F. E. IIESSE.
Chairman--continued.
much greater than the Governments anticipated, and they insisted on the tariff being raised in order to diminish such loss. The tariff was there- fore increased to 4s. 9d. on the 1st January 1893. a somewhat The guarantec arrangement, on modified basis, was renewed last year for a further period of five years. It may be said, therefore, that the 48. 9. tariff' was fixed by the Colonies themselves, and as it is the cheapest in the world in proportion to the distance traversed, with the exception of the Atlantic rate, we think that the 3s. tariff which has been sug- gested is lower than can be fairly justified.
1787. What proportion of the 4s. 9d, a word is retained by the associated companies?—The associated companies retain 3s. 7d. per word, the remaining 1s. 2d. being paid out to Government administrations as follows:-South Australia, 7d.; Java, ltd.; India, 34d.; Europe, 2dl.; Is. 2d., in all.
1788. Can you exactly describe the nature of the guarantees which the Australasian Colonies gave you on making this reduction of tariff ?— (Mr. Hesse.) The first arrangement was on the That basis of an income of 237,000 a year. was considered to be the income from the Australasian traffic to the associated companies, and any falling off from that figure was to be made up to the extent of one half by the guaranteeing colonies; and there was during the first year a loss of some 55,0007.
was
That was
made up to the extent of one-half by the Governments, and the companies, of course, had to bear the other half. The following year there similar loss, and later on the basis was modified to this extent-that instead of having to make up one-half of the loss, the Governments' loss was limited to 10,000f., and that is the present basis. (Marquess of Tiered- dale.) And the tariff was raised to 4s. 9d.
1789. The present arrangement is, with a 4s. 9d. tariff, that the Australasian colonies con- jointly makeup to your companies the difference between 237,0001. a year, and what you earn less than that to a maximum extent of 10,000/ If there was a falling off they would make up the difference between 217,000 and 227,000, the latter figure being adopted as the basis under the modified arrangement?—(Marquess of Tweed- dale.) Yes; but it never exceeds 10,0007.
1790. Did I understand the basis taken to be 227,000l. ?—Yes, the modified basis.
1791. Can you tell the Committee how that liability is divided between the colonies --Not easily; I could supply it, of course.
1792. How long yet does that guarantee holl good for?-For another three and a-half years ; it was renewed in 1895.
1793. And has three and a-half years to run now? Nearly three and a-half years to run.
1794. What has been the actual working of this guarantee; have you had to come down on the colonies for anything yet?-The first year we had to make up between us some 55,0007. The second year the figure was a little under 50,000, and the third year it was between then came the 12,000l. and 13,000.; and modified basis.
Chairman → continued.
26 November 1896.]
[Continued.
1795. And since then ?-Since then there has been no demand upon the colonies,
1796. Hitherto, since the tariff was re-revised, you have made no call upon them-No. That is mainly owing to the large gold-mining traffic with West Australia.
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1797. Now, when you use the term "associated companies, does that include the Indo- European Government Department?-Yes; they consist of the Eastern Extension Company, the Eastern Company, the Indo-European Company, and the Persian Gulf Department of the Indian Government.
1798. Can you tell the Committee what is the greatest depth at which your cables are laid? (Mr. Saunders.) The Eastern Extension cables?
1799. Yes, the Eastern Extension, of course; I am not concerned about the other.-Java to Australia, 2,300 fathoms; that is the only one I have here. (Mr. Hesse,) Well, the greatest depth is 2,700 fathoms. (Mr. Saunders. Oh, yes, I can tell you; I can give it you here. Botween Madras and Penang, 2,284; between Java and Australia (Roebuck Bay), 2,710; between Java and Port Darwin, 1,730; between Singapore and Hong Kong, 2,400; between Those are Australia and New Zealand, 2,600. the depths.
1800. Now, taking the cables lying at a depth of over 2,000 fathoms, have you had much re- pairing to do to those sections?—Yes; I have extracted here a few of the deepest water repairs. This will deal with the Eastern Com- The Ban- pany, and other companies as well, joewangi-Port Darwin section has been re- paired in 1.275 fathoms; the Madras-Penang in 1,044; the Eastern Company's cable between Portheurnow and Lisbon has been repaired in 2,700 fathoms. That repair, I may say, took 215 days, and we laid in, I should think, speaking in round figures, 300 or 350 miles of cable during that repair.
1801. What was the age of that cable - That cable was 11 years old.
1802 4. And what date was this?-It was laid in 1871, and the repairs were effected in 1882; 11 years old.
1805. I suppose cable manufacture has made The type some progress since then?-It has, of cable was not so good then, but that has been That cable originally unfortunate cable.
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was 800 miles long, and we have put into it about 830 or 840 miles of cable; that is one of the cases showing the necessity of surveys.
1806. What have been the causes ?—Irregu larity of the bottom, the cable having been laid over holes on bad ground generally.
your
1807. A great deal of this could, in opinion, have been obviated if the route had been better surveyed originally? If the route had been better surveyed originally, we should never have gone where we went with that cable. That is the extreme case on our system; we have had to more than lay the line again.
1808. I suppose that these particular breakages
The Marquess of TWEEDDALE, Mr. II. A. C. SAUNDERS, and Mr. F. E. HESSE.
[ Continued.
Chairman-continued. were due to the ordinary nature of the bottom, and not to any special volcanic disturbances ?— I have To the ordinary nature of the bottom. got
14 or 15 cases of volcanic action, but that was simply an ordinary inequality of the bottom; we never recovered the fault. but it 2.700 fathoms on that occasion.
was in
1809, How did you recover the cable then?—— We had really to get the cable in comparatively shallow water and abandon the deep-sea part of it, which was 250 miles.
1810. Was that before the process of raising the cable by cutting it was invented?--No, there was a means of doing it, but not su perfect as the present, but there was a means of cutting and holding at that time.
1811. At the present moment. I suppose, you would certainly raise a cable at that depth" by cutting it-Yes, by cutting and holding the grapnel cutting the bight off.
1812. Can you kindly give us the instances of volcanic interruption in "deep water that you were just going to refer to ?-Yes. One of the deepest water volcanic interruptions was between Aden and Bombay, where on the 3rd June 1885 both the No. 1 and the No. 2, in fact our only cables at that time, broke simultaneously at 119 knots from Aden at a depth of 870 fathums. Just at that time there was a violent typhoon blowing; a French man-of-war was lost in it and several
other ships. There were earthquake shocks felt at the time, but it must have been due to the sudden rising of the bottom, probably from the decreased pressure due to this typhoon. Another occurred in the Levant in 1885, in a depth of 1,500 fathoms, when the cable was broken by earthquake. Patras-Corinth was broken in 197 fathoms in 1888; again in 1889 it was broken in 400 fathoms. Marquess of Tweedtale.) The samne cable? (Mr. Saunders.) The same cable; and again in 1889 in 55 fathoms.
1813. What do you call deep water?—I shouki Bay from 1,500 to 2,000 fathoms.
1814. Anything deeper than 1,500?-Any- thing deeper than 1,500–1,500 to 2,000.
1815. Now, in your modern type of cables do you find that the deep water sections give you more, or less, trouble than the shallow sections? -The deep water sections do not give trouble so soon as in shallow water, but eventually we have trouble with them, and it gradually seems to go on getting deeper and deeper each repair that we have to make, but of course cables in deep water are decidedly less liable to accidents than in shallow water. (Marquess of Tweeddale) If the bottom is good. (Mr. Hesse.) But the repair is much more difficult. (Mr. Saunders.) You see the repairs on this Aden-Bombay section that I was speaking about, which was broken in 1,900 fathoms, occupied a very long perio; that cable was broken down altogether 251 days; the ships were at work on it. 103 days, and during the remaining 148 days we had to abandon repairs on account of the monsoon; we laid in 176 miles of new cable in that repair.
1816. I suppose it really amounts to this, that
Chairman-continued. the weather always is of great importance, but it is of more importance still the deeper the water? -Oh, in deep water it is of vast importance, because you have got a great weight and strain on your cable, and to raise it you can only work in comparatively calm weather.
1817. Now would you tell the Committee what the average number of letters per word is found to be by experience in Australian mes- sages? (Marquess of Tweeddale.) The average number of letters per word is 943, ascertained by careful examination. We have taken a week's ordinary Australasian traffic as a basis, and it gives the following result—9-43.
1818. That is taking all classes of messages? -Yes. That is taking all classes of messages— Government, press, and ordinary.
1819. Is the tendency for the number of letters in a word to lengthen rather than decrease?- Yes. Originally, five letters a word were taken as the average, and even now, in calculating, I think that that figure is generally used; but in practice, both in the Atlantic and in the Eastern Seas, nine and a-half is about the average. (Mr. Hesse.) The average is much higher in Austra- lian telegrams than in American and many othe classes of messages.
1820. Would that be because the use of the code has been developed to an even greater. extent? Well, it is the long distance and the greater cost of the message per word, therefore they use as long words as they can, and, of course, the very best codes. (Marquess of Tweeddule,) But the great rise is due to what Lord Selborne has said as to the increasing use of long words due to coding.
1821. Due to coding. Now what, in ordinary times, are the number of hours' working a day that you are able to get out of your cables to Australia -The maximum hours on the Aus- tralian lines are about 17, but between England and South Africa the maximum is about 14. The difference of time between South Africa and London is so slight that the business has to be got through during the business hours. The same thing does not apply to Aus- tralia, where there is a difference of nearly 11 hours, and the traffic flows one way, and then the other; it very seldom flows in both directions at the same time.
1822. So, really, you have more elbow room, if I may use such an expression, in dealing with Australian traffic than South African ? Yes; but we cannot make so much use of the line, you see. Duplex working helps us very much between the Cape and Great Britain, but not very much on the Australian lines, unless there is a block of traffic.
1823. Between what hours of the day are most of your messages from London handed in to go to Australia?-Between 11 o'clock and 5 or 6 o'clock; generally by 5 o'clock they are all int.
1824. Between 11 a.m. and 5 ?—Yes.
p.m. 1825. And what hours do those correspond
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