403
239
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
ĥ
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC. COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PACIFIC CABLE COMMITTEE:
catablishing telegraphic communication between the shores of Queensland and New Caledonia. Now this indenture witnesseth that the said Company do hereby for themselves and their successors covenant with the said Postmaster-General and his successors in office, and the said Postmaster-General, for and on behalf of the Government of New South Wales, doth hereby covenant and agree with the said Company and its successors in manner following: that is to say:—
1. The said Company shall, within eighteen months from the date of these presents, manu- facture and lay down & submarine telegraph cable between the shores of Queensland and New Caledonia: Provided always, that if after shipping the said cable the said Company are prevented by an inevitable accident or other cause beyond their control from laying down the said cable within the time herein-before mentioned, such further time shall be allowed as may be agreed upon by the said parties of these presents.
2. The said Company shall work and maintain the said cable at their own cost.
3. The said cable shall form part of the main Pacific cable, connecting Queensland with Vancouver, Sau Francisco, or other such places in North America as may hereafter be determined.
4. The said Company shall keep the said cable in good working order, and if it should become silent, or unable to be used, and remain so for twenty-one days, then the guarantee berein-after mentioned shall cease from the expiration of such twenty-one days until the said cable is restored and is again in good working order.
5. The expenses of working the said cable by the said Company shall not exceed 2,400%. per year, which sum shall in no case include expenses in connexion with repairs or renewal
of cable.
6. The amount of the working expenses of the said cable (other than the expenses in connexion with repairs or renewal of cable) shall be a first charge against the amount received for all messages passing over the said cable.
7. The said Company having agreed to manufacture and lay the said cable on the express conditions that the Governments of France, New South Wales, and Queensland should guarantee that the said Company shall receive the sum of 12,000l. per year, over and above the said expenses of working the said cable for a period of thirty years, two- thirds of the said amount to be guaranteed by the Government of France and one- The sixth each by the respective Governments of New South Wales and Queensland. said Postmaster-General for and on behalf of the said Government of New South Wales, subject to the conditions and provisos herein-after contained, doth hereby guarantee the payment to the said Company for the period of thirty years from the date when the said cable shall be opened for the transmission of messages, the yearly sum of 2,000l., or such smaller sum as shall, together with one-sixth of the net sum received by the said Company for messages passing over the said cable during the year (after deducting the working expenses) amount to the sum of two thousand pounds (2,0001.).
8. The Government of New South Wales shall have the free use of the said cable for all Government messages, provided that the value of these messages sent over the said cable shall not during the said year exceed the sum of 2,000%.
9. As soon as the main Pacific cable connecting Queensland with North America as aforesaid shall be completed, the guarantee herein-before mentioned shall be rearranged, and shall form part of any joint guarantee which may be given by any other countries or colonies in consideration of the main Pacific cable.
10. The minimum rate to be charged by the said Company for the transmission of messages from Queensland to New Caledonia shall be for messages of ten words or less (including the address and signature) 78., of which the said Company shall receive 6s. and the New South Wales Government 18., and for every additional word 7d. (sevenpence), of which the said Company shall receive 6d. and the New South Wales Government Id. (one penny).
11. The gross amount received by the said Company in each year for all messages trans- mitted by the said cable during the year shall be applied first in paying the expenses of working the said cable, such expenses not to exceed 2,4001. per year, and of the balance of such receipts one-sixth part shall be applied in reduction of the amount to be paid by the New South Wales Government under the guarantee mentioned in clause 6 of these presents.
12. The said Company will at all times keep accurate and regular accounts of all moneys received by the said Company in each year for all messages transmitted, and of all expenses incurred in working the said cable, and will on the first day of January and the first day of July in each year deliver to the Postmaster-General a true statement of such accounts for the preceding half-year, and will, if required, verify such accounts by the statutory declaration of the manager or responsible officer of the Company in Queensland, and by the production of the necessary books, papers, and vouchers to the agent of the Postinaster-General. The said Postmaster-General shall not be bound to pay the sums named in clause 6 until such accounts as aforesaid have been delivered to him, and, if required, verified as aforesaid,
• This period subsequently changed to thirty days.
PAPERS.
13. The said Company undertakes to reduce the charge for the transmission of messages by the said cable as soon as the increase in the number of messages transmitted shall reasonably warrant such reduction.
14. In the construction of these presents, the expression "The Postmaster-General" shall mean and include the Postmaster-General for the time being of the Colony of New South Wales.
"In witness whereof the said Company hath hereunto affixed to these presents its common seal, and the said Postmaster-General has hereunto set his hand and seal the day and year first herein-before written."
Société Française des Télégraphes Sous-Marins, by its attorney--
(L.S.) AUDLEY COOTE
Signed with the name and sealed with the seal, and delivered as the act and deed of the said Company, by its attorney the Honourable Audley Coote, duly constituted and appointed by deed, dated the 12th day of December 1891, in the presence of—
(L.S.)
S. H. LAMBTON,
Secretary, Post Office,
Sydney,
(L.S.)
JOHN KIDD.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the said Postmaster-General, in the presence of—
S. H. LAMBTON,
Secretary, Post Office,
Sydney."
The United States Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations, after considering certain Billa referred to it to facilitate the construction and maintenance of cables in the Pacific Ocean, in May last reported a Bill authorising the Postmaster-General to contract for the payment by the United States of a sum not exceeding 160,000 dollars a year, for 20 years, for a cable from San Francisco to Japan vid Honolulu. The contract was to be let by advertisement for sealed proposals, and the whole line was to be finished by 1st July 1900. Other particulars of this Bill have been given in evidence.
The Bills which the Committee had considered were represented by Messrs. Z. S. Spalding and Wager Swayne, and Messrs. J. A. Scrymser and E. L. Baylies.
In the same month the Committee of the House of Representatives on Interstate and Foreign Commerce reported a Bill authorising the Postmaster-General to contract with the Pacific Cable Company of New York (of which the two last-named gentlemen are President and Vice-President respectively) for the transmission in perpetuity of official messages of the United States for a payment of not more than 100,000 dollars a year for 20 years over a cable from San Francisco to Japan vid the Hawaiian Islands. The cost of this cable was estimated at 7,500,000 dollars.
Neither Bill passed during that session of Congress.
The present position of the matter is explained in the following extract from the New York Sun of 12th December 1896:-
12
THE PACIFIC CABLE.
"Allied to the question of the annexation of Hawaii, and yet by no means dependent on it, is that of Government aid to the establishment of a magnetic telegraph line between our Pacific shores and Honolulu.
"Since the first session of the present Congress & noteworthy change in this project has occurred through the action of President Dole's Government. Last year Hawaii gave to a company headed by Z. S. Spalding the exclusive right to lay a submarine cable between its shores and the United States, and also between the different islands of the group, on certain specified conditions. A subsidy of 40,000 dollars a year was to be paid to the company during 20 years, provided the United States should grant substantial assistance to the same enterprise. A rate of tolls was established, and a contract drawn up with President Dole of Hawaii, which contained minute particulars as to the character of the cable and the period of its completion.
When this project was presented to Congress, it encountered another, brought forward by a company of which Mr. J. A. Scrymser was President, offering for the same bonus to lay a cable clear across to China and Japan by way of Hawaii. In addition, lower tolls were ensured, and the privileges of telegraphing given to the Government were greater. The result of this competition was that the Committee on Foreign Relations reported a Bill directing the Postmaster-General to contract with the lowest bidder for a cable to Hawaii and the Midway Islands and thence to Japan, at a price not exceeding 160,000 dollars a year for 20 years, with all Government messages for ever free of cost. "This Bill was not further acted upon, but is now before Congress. What Hawaii has recently done to facilitate its progress is to refuse to renew her concession to the Spalding Company, while she has also, if we do not mistake, indicated her willingness to co-operate in a subsidy
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