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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
THIRTEENTH DAY.
MONDAY, 7TH DECEMBER 1896.
PRESENT:
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF SELBORNE, CHAIRMAN, Presiding.
The Hon. Sir DONALD SMITH, G.C.M.G. The Hon. Sir SAUL SAMUEL, K.C.M.G., C.B. The Hon. D. GILLIES.
The Hon. A. G. JONES, P.C. Mr. G. H. MURRAY, C.B.
Mr. W. H. MERCER, Secretary.
Mr. C. U. KINGSTON, Secretary to the Australian Mortgage, Land, and Finance Company, Limited, called in; and Examined.
Chairman.
3149. I THINK you are the Secretary of the Australian Mortgage, Land, and Finance Com- pany?--I am.
3150. And your Company does a large busi ness with Australia?—Yes, one of the largest, I think, in the colonies.
3151. With any particular colony, or spread all over the colonies ?-Well, chiefly with New South Wales, but we have connections with Victoria and Queensland also.
3152. And, therefore, are you fairly cognisant with the general conditions of business through out Australia?--I think I may any so; yes.
3153. You are aware of the general nature of the project which this Committee is appointed to consider? Certainly.
3154. Can you give any opinion as to the likelihood of the requirements of Australia, in the future, for fresh telegraphic communication? -There is a growing wish to use the cable. We have to use the cable more frequently than we did years ago to conduct our business. Business may be said to be conducted by cable now-a- days; of course the more expeditiously and cheaper we can conduct that cabling so much the better for our business.
3155. I should like to examine that point a little more. Do you mean that with the same business you and your clients use more tele- graphic communication now than you used to?— Oh, certainly.
3156. So that, quite irrespective of any growth of business, there is at present a growth in the telegraphic business in connection with the ex- isting commercial business ?-Unquestionably, I should say so, yes.
3187. And do the present telegraph lines enable you to communicate as rapidly and as readily as is necessary ?-In the ordinary way they do; but, of course, we are subject to breakdowns in the cable, which at times are very inconvenient.
3158. Is there any tendency for the messages
Chairman-continued.
or not?
to take longer in delivery than formerly, -Well, I have thought that the service lately has not been quite so good as it was years ago. I allude more particularly to the mutilation of cyphers, and the necessity for having messages repeated, as they were unreadable in the form delivered.
[
3159. But the messages themselves do not take longer in delivery? Well, really, I am hardly qualified to give an opinion upon that. should not think so; it depends so much upon circumstances, of course.
3160. What time of the day do you wish to send most of your messages?-We generally five telegraph as we are leaving business at, say, or six o'clock at night.
3161. And those would be delivered in the Australian morning?-Yes, they are on the desk of the person addressed the first thing the follow- ing morning.
3162. And when do your Australian correspon- dents send off their messages to you?—At about the same time-in the evening, as a rule.
3163. Of their day ?—Of their day, yes. 3164. And those will reach you- ?—On the following morning, first thing. We find them in the office when we get there.
3165. And that is what is done on both sides? Oh, yes, certainly.
3166. Messages are sent off at the close of business, and the answer is required, or the communication is required, at the opening of business? Generally speaking it would be so. Of course there are occasionally messages that are sent first thing in the morning. I have never known, of course, a reply the same day, but I have known telegrains sent, say, at six o'clock at night, and I have had the reply at half-past nine o'clock the following morning.
3167. Have you any opinion that you are pre- pared to express as to the probabilities of the expansion of Australian telegraphic business ?— My own opinion is that telegraphic business is
↑ December 1896.]
Mr. KINGSTON.
Chairman-continued. likely to increase, because markets now are governed by cable advices, and the man who has the first cable advice does the best business as a rule, so I think there is a growing tendency for business to be conducted almost entirely by cable
3168. Of course that expansion must have a limit some time?—Yes.
Of
3169. And there would remain the expansion from the expansion of business ?—Yes. course, as you are well aware, business has been very much contracted since the great smash three years ago.
3170. Was there any increase of business in 1895 over the business in 1894-That is rather a difficult question to answer. In individual cases no doubt there was, but speaking generally for the whole colony, 1 should doubt it.
3171. Then how do you account for the fact that, putting West Australia altogether out of the case, where the hoom was, of course, abnormal putting West Australia altogether out of the case, the increase of telegraphic business for the rest of Australasia was no less than 20 per cent. in 1895 over 1894? Was that the case; I was not aware of that.
3172. Can you give any explanation of that?— I should think that very likely the re-construe- tion schemes of the banks had a great deal to do with it. There was great communication going backwards and forwards in connection with the re-construction schemes that were before the public at that time, and I should think that that largely accounted for that increase, and the press also have used cable communication to a much larger extent since the crisis in 1893 than they did before, and I should think that that was a large factor in the figures you gave me.
3173. Have you any business connections with America-No, I may say none absolutely. We have communications with America, but on very
rare occasions.
3174. You are not prepared to express any opinion as to whether in the future there is likely to be any expansion of business between Aus- tralia, and Canada, and the United States ?- Yes, I think there is a growing tendency that way, because American buyers now go out largely to buy their wool in the colonies, and hitherto the system has been to bring the wool to London and then re-export it to New York; but I think that that is a state of things which must be done away with before very long; they
-I am.
Chairman-continued.
[Continued,
will get direct communication between Australia and America; in fact, they are doing so now; this Canadian Pacific Line of steamers has done a great deal that way.
3175. Already-Already; yes.
3176. Would that be wool for Canada or wool for the States as well -Chiefly the States, 1 should say.
3177. Then at present the American buyer goes to Australia, buys his wool, sends it to London, and from London to New York ?- That was the prevailing rule years ago, but i think now there are direct shipments to the States from Sydney and from Melbourne also.
3178. And you believe that the United States ?-Oh, look to Australia for its wool largely ?- unquestionably.
3179. Unquestionably?-Oh, yes.
3180. Then you think the probability is that the wool that the United States requires will in the future be sent over to Vancouver or to San Francisco?-I think there is a growing tendency in that direction.
3181. And therefore you think it possible that, supposing telegraphic communication to be made direct between the American continent and Australia, that would expedite the pro- cess? I do, yes.
3182. And that the business would bring a revenue to that cable? I should say so, certainly.
3183. Are you in a position to say, generally, what the view of commercial men is about this project? Well, those I have spoken to about it have expressed the general opinion that the route that is the cheaper and the most expeditious will be, naturally, patronised by them in sending their cables, and everybody, without exception, expressed the opinion that it will be an excellent thing to have an alternative route, so that in the case of war, or the destruction of the cable on the present line, they may have another route to Australia, instead of being, as it were, severed from the colony by sometimes a week at a time, as we have been in the past.
3184. I suppose cheapness is scarcely to be taken into consideration, the comparative cheap- ness; I suppose it is quite certain that whatever the rate of oue line the other would be ?-Bound to be, I should say.
3185. Therefore it is a question really of the efficiency of the service? Yes.
The Witness withdrew,
COLONEL HOZIER, Secretary of Lloyds, called in; and Examined.
Chairman.
3186. I THINK you are Secretary of Lloyds?' 3187. Have you any views on the subject of the proposed Pacific Cable that you would like to lay before this Committee in connection with your position ?-Well, my Lord, if Lloyds took
Chairman-continued.
a very narrow-minded view, we would rather have no more telegraphs, because wherever there is a telegraph we must have the infor- mation, and we have to pay for it and get nothing But we do not take a very narrow- for it. minded view, and as far as I know I think we
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