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3 December 1896.]
Mr. LAMB.
Mr. Jones-continued. half-rates; I think that is so; but as to the Eastern Telegraph Company, they are not bound, and as a matter of fact, as Mr. Gillies pointed out at the previous meeting, they do not do it.
2976. Yes, but as a matter of fact, if a company is incorporated under the Joint Stock Companies Act, there is an obligation on the part of that company towards the public, is there not ?-Not as regards rates.
2977. We were not speaking of rates.-Per- haps I have misunderstood you.
2978. I thought you held that they were at liberty not to transmit business? - No, air, Government messages at half-rates. The ques- tion, I understood, was whether those companies were bound to transmit messages for the Government at half-rates.
Mr. Gillies.
2979. The Eastern Extension Company is bound?-By agreement.
2980. To transmit messages for the Govern- ment at 3s. 7d. a word ?—Yes; but the Eastern Telegraph Company is not. However, as I said, I think the point is not very important, because the Government messages are so few in number.
Sir Donald Smith.
2981. Can you say what the proportion is of Government messages to the whole ?-About 2 per cent.
2982. And of press messages?-About 10.
2983. Two and 10 P-Yes. Now, in order to meet the questions which have been raised in the Committee, I have made a fresh series of calcu- lations based on Mr. Preece's figure of 4-82, and in these calculations I disregard the influence which the press rate and the Government rate have on the length of a fully-paid word. I take every paid word as being of the same length, and then, as quite a separate calculation, I estimate the maximum revenue to be derived from the practical working of the cable. Taking first of all the maximum speed of 107 words a minute for 24 hours, and 300 days a year, that gives you a maximum capacity of 4,622,400 words.
2984. That is in the year?-Yes; then the practical speed, simplex, of 4.82 for 24 hours and 300 days gives you 2,082,240 words. I am afraid I cannot estimate for 24 hours; I estimate for 15. 2985. That is in your last calculation?-No, the last calculation is full 24 hours. Now, to reduce that according to my view, you say 4-82 for 15 hours at 300 days, and that gives you 1,301,400 words. I am prepared to add two hours a day as representing the time for which the cable would probably be worked duplex. It would probably be worked duplex for a little more than two hours a day, but the addition would only be equivalent to two hours of simplex working, and for the purposes of the calculation that makes 17 hours a day. Now, 17 hours a day, at 4.82 words a minute, for 300 days, gives you 1,474,920 words, and this I call the full practical working capacity of the cable with duplex, on the basis of Mr. Preece's estimate of 4-82 words a minute.
[Continued.
Mr. Murray. 2986. The 1,474,000 words compare with the 1,350,000 that you gave us the other day, do they not?-They do; yes.
2987. It is a revision of that?—It is not my revision. The 1,474,920 words is arrived at on actual paying words, without making any allow- ance for the difference in press and Government messages, whereas my 1,350,000 made that allowance, as well as certain other allowances which Mr. Preece did not make. Then, to come to revenue, I now propose to set forth the maximum earning capacity of the cable.
Mr. Gillies.
80
2988. On this basis?—Yes; this is not estimate of probable revenue; this is an estimate of the maximum earning capacity. On the basis of the existing traffic, Government messages form 2 per cent., and press messages 10 per cent., of the total. If, therefore, the cable were worked at what I take on Mr. Preece's basis to be its full practical capacity, the money value of the words transmitted, taking Government messages at two-thirds of the full rate and press messages at one-fourth of that rate, would be as follows: ordinary, 88 per cent. of the total, or 1,297,930 words at 1s. 6d, gives 97,3451.; press messages, 10 per cent. of the total, or 147,492 words at 4fd., gives 2,7651. Then Government messages, 2 per cent. of the total, or 29,498 words at is, gives 1,475/. The total earning capacity for 1,474,920 words, is thus the sum of 101,5841.
2989. That is the maximum capacity of carry- ing ?-On Mr. Preece's estimate of 4'82 words a
minute.
2990. Of 1,474,920 words ?—Yes.
would depend to
Chairman.
2991. It never could earn more than that at those rates?—I think the capacity of the cable some extent on the system adopted. I think that as experience was acquired improved systems might produce a better result, but I doubt whether the result could be appreciably different from this, spread over 15 hours a day.
Mr. Gillies.
2992. Do you remember the Chairman asked you some time previously, in one of your last examinations, whether you could not work them for 24 hours by putting on relays of hands, changing them ?—Yes.
2993. So on some great occasion, some great struggle to get work through, whether that could not be done?—I can quite conceive on some particular day in a case of emergency you might work throughout the whole 24 hours instead of only 15, and if your cable were the only means of reaching Australasia, I. think people would have to accept such service as you gave them, and if you delayed their messages they would still send them, but if you are using this cable in competition with an established service which gives the people a fairly swift means of communication, I do not think that people would wait on your system. They would insist on your sending the messages in a
3 December 1896.]
Mr. LAMB.
Mr. Gillies-continued. reasonable time, and not holding them back so as to fill the cable.
2994. What I would like to get now would be what would be the receipts under the capacity that you have given of the cable for carrying messages; what would be the estimate without taking into consideration the reduction from the present rates, assuming that you carried at the present rates, what would be the result?--I could make a calculation, but have not made it have only made calculations based on 38.
2995. Another element in this I would like you to consider. Do you consider the chances would be increased of breaks happening now and again, not brought about by increased working, bu the constant working would it affect the large number of messages materially in the case of one break, say, that would last for a month? Yes, I think a break for even a month would very seriously affect the financial position of the cable. May I point out here that you have to con- sider not merely interruptions on the cable, but interruptions on the land lines across Canada. The Commercial Cable Company, in order to avoid interruptions on land lines on the other side, go to the expense of carrying cables from Causo to New York, and they make a point of that in their advertisements. They say that their routes avoid all long land lines on both sides of
the Atlantic.
Mr. Jones.
2996. Not on both sides?—Yes.
2997. That applies as much, then,to delay on this side as on the other?-On this side one of their land lines goes only as far as Weston-super-Mare, and from there by cable to Waterville, and that is what they are referring to on this side when they say that they have no long land line here. Another of their land lines is a good deal longer than that, but it is true that they have that short land line from London to Weston-super-Mare, and when you are considering communication between England and New York it is perfectly true that their system does avoid long land lines. But when you are considering Australasia, the new route would have between three and four thousand miles of land line in it.
2997*. What has the old route, the Eastern Extension?-Apart from England (and in both cases I exclude England) the other route would have about 790; that is, 90 miles in Egypt and 700 miles in India. I only desire to mention that the route to Australasia riâ Canada is liable to interruption, not merely in the cable but also in the land lines.
2998 Is there not a long land line across Australia, 2,000 miles ?-Well, it depends on the point which you have to reach, and by either route, of course, you would have to Australia for certain points.
Sir Donald Smith.
cross
2999. Have you any experience of the inter- ruptions that have taken place in the transmission messages through Cañada by the land lines; any data?--I have no knowledge whatever, and
of
[Continued.
Sir Donald Smith-continued.
I merely suggest that evidence on that point might be useful.
3000, The notice of the Commercial Cable Company you mention refers to messages for the United States, not to the transmission of messages direct to Canada? I think they mean communication between England and New York.
3001. And New York, yes.-And there what they say is perfectly true, and they are quite right instating it. They do give cable coinmunica- tion, practically, between England and New York. I was not suggesting that there was the least thing improper in what the Commercial Cable Company are doing. I was only using it as an illustration of the desirability (which this company recognises) of avoiding the land.
3002. We quite understand that all messages for and through Canada by the Commercial Cable do not go to any point in the United States--that the messages to New York direct are intended only for the United States, and that messages for Vancouver would not touch any part of the United States ?-That is so.
Mr. Jones.
3003. I think it is only fair to admit, as we wish to get at the facts, that actually there are very rarely temporary interruptions to the land lines, but it is very unusual and for a very short time. I should not like to say that there never was interruption.-Yes.
Chairman.
3004. Is not this really the fact of the case: by the Eastern Telegraph Company there is a very long land line across Australia from Port Darwin to Adelaide ?—Yes.
3005. In the case of the proposed Pacific cable there would be an even longer land line from Montreal to Vancouver, but whereas the South Australian land line passes over a desert the Canadian land line passes the whole way along a railway, and therefore the facilities for repairs are infinitely greater in Canada than they are in South Australia ?-In addition to that, of course the communication by the Pacific cable route from the coast of Queensland to the more distant colonies would involve a passage over land lines.
Mr. Gillies.
3006. Following up that question that has been raised about a double cable, what is your view of the probabilities of requiring a double cable?—I think that at the end of 10 years you would have to lay a second cable, whether you
wished to do so or not.
3007. That is, increase of work?-In order to meet the growth of work, but before that time arrived, long before that time arrived, I should say that if you desired to maintain your service in the public estimation, and to secure the traffic steadily, you would have to provide a second cable as a matter of policy, not of necessity.
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