425
6
to bear one half of the risk of any loss arising from the reduction and the Companies to bear the other half, and that the scheme should be tried for three years. The revenue was calculated at 237,000l.
It was also agreed that any deficiency in the revenue of South Australia arising from the reduction in the rate over her lines from 18. 2d. to 7d., which without any increase of traffic would amount to about 15,000l., should be defrayed by the contracting Colonies in proportion to their population. In the year ended 30th April 1895 the loss was 1,125l.
The arrangement came into operation on 1st May 1891, so that ordinary messages were reduced from 98. 4d. a word to 48. (Government and press messages being 38. 6d. and 1s. 10d. respectively). Her Majesty's Government declined to share in the guarantee, as also did New Zealand and Queensland.
The result of the first year's working (1891-2) was a loss of 53,040, of which the guaranteeing Colonies paid half (27,520.).
In 1892 New Zealand agreed to join in the guarantee, and with the view of further diminish- ing the liabilities of the Colonies the tariff was raised from 1st Jan, 1893, by 9d., (4s. 9d.). Queensland has also now joined.
In 1895 the arrangement was modified, and the Colonies guaranteed a revenue of 227,000l. a year, and to make up any loss below that amount, provided the total payment should not exceed 10,000l., the arrangement to be for five years.
The loss in the second year (1892-3) was 43,558.; in the third (1893-4), 12,3827.
In 1894-5
the revenue was 238,712/., exceeding the guaranteed amount by 9761, so that no contribution was required.
The following table shows the growth of the traffic since 1875 :—
INCREASE.
No. of Worde
Tarif per
YOAT.
transmitted.
Actual.
Per Cent. for Period.
Per Cent. Yearly.
Word.
5.
d.
1875
235,160
1880
353,348 118,188
50
10:0
9 4
1885
537,355, 184,007
55
11.0
9 4
1890
827,278
289,923
54
10.8
9
+
1801
1,275,191
54:0
9 4 and 48
1892
1,321,412
3.6
4 0
1893
1,401,293
6-0
4 9
1894
1,430,000
4 9
?
7
November 12th, 1895: Western Australian route interrupted between Israelite Bay and Esperance Bay.
November 23rd, 1895: Western Australian route interrupted to the westward of Israelite Bay.
January 14th, 1896: Port Darwin route interrupted for some hours. January 18th till January 19th, 1896: Port Darwin route interrupted.
February 18th, 1896: Western Australian route interrupted towards Roebuck Bay, and towards Adelaide. Still interrupted (Feb. 28.).
" 6
"Australian Land Line Again Interrupted.-From the Australian Press of March 13th we gather that "Communication has been interrupted on the Port Darwin line, north of Powell's Creek, since
p.m.
Parties will start inspecting at 6.30 am." It will be recollected that this is said to be the "most reliable" of the two trunk land lines on which our communication with Australia and New Zealand depends.
(4
Telegraph Interruptions in Cables to South Africa. The following are particulars of interruptions of the various sections of the Eastern and South African Telegraph Company's cables which unite Aden with South Africa. The interruptions have all occurred since 1890:-
Interrupted.
8/1/90 11/5/91
Aden-Zanzibar
13
"
5/12/91
35
*4
ور
12
Section.
Repaired.
10/1/90
20/5/91
28/12/91
10/9/93
20/2/93 9/8/93 21/12/94 2/9/95 24/12/95
25/2/93
9/10/93
10/1/95
13
1/10/95
"
4/1/96
26/9/94 11/11/90
Zanzibar-Mozambique
22/1/95
Mozambique-Delagoa Bay
11/11/90
18/11/90
+3
19/11/90
5/1/93
**
12/1/93
25/1/93
"
14
27/1/98
9/6/95
"
17/6/95
15/10/90
Delagoa Bay-Natal
15/10/90
10/12/94
22/12/04
See published correspondence
In 1893, the foreign telegrams sent from the Australasian Colonies cost 165,071, and those received there 151,580.
It may be mentioned that a telegram from Melbourne to London has to travel along 13,095 miles of wire, of which 2,704 are in Australia.
It is stated, and without contradiction, that the Companies with which the Pacific cable would Corpo, SiC compete have received Government subsidies and guarantees to the amount of 2,100,000, of which the Eastern Extension Company has had about 643,000l., and the African lines, forming an alternative route to Australia, 1,337,000Z.
Tupper and
Sir J Pender.
Telegraph Interruptions in Cables to South Africa.-The following list gives particulars of interruptions of various sections of cable which belong to the system running along the West Coast of Africa to Cape Town. These interruptions have all occurred since 1890:--
Section.
Repaired.
III. INTERRUPTIONS ON THE EASTERN SERVICE.
The Eastern Companies rendered great service to Australasia by establishing telegraphic con- nextion, and have succeeded financially. The Eastern Extension, Australasia, and China Telegraph Company (Limited) paid a dividend of 5 per cent. for the year 1895, and carried 129,3291. to the reserve fund, which now amounts to 561,5461. The length of their cables is 18,000 nautical miles.
The following lists of recent interruptions on the cables of the Eastern Companies, and the Australian land-lines connected with them, are taken from the "Electrical Review"
"List of Recent Interruptions to the Trunk Land-lines in Australia.—The lines, as our realers may know, are two in number, the Port Darwin route and the Western Australian route to Roebuck Bay :-
December 18th, 1894: Both routes interrupted for about 18 hours
January 18th or 19th till January 25th, 1895: Both routes interrupted.
July 28th till July 29th, 1895: Port Darwin route interrupted.
September 1895: "Fault still exists in Western Australian line between Bremer and Esperance Bay.
All business is much delayed."
Interrupted.
14/1/95
Conakry-Sierra Leone
14/1/95
Bathurst-Sierra Leone
15/1/95
14/7/92
Sierra Leone-Accra ·
22/7/92
2/7/94
26/7/94
"
"
"
18/11/94
18/11/94
13/1/96
15/1/96
"
11
77
21/5/94 Accra-Kotonou
21/6/94
12/8/95
19/8/95
"
21/5/94
Accra-Lagos
6/6/94
12/8/95
כן
12
24/8/95
22/1/92
St. Thomé-Loanda
19/2/92
13/9/92
22/9/92
"
24/11/92
12/1/93
*
ל
17/2/93
"
#
6/3/93
11/4/93
27/4/93
19
30/5/93
11
n
19/7/93
5/2/94
5/8/94
35
}
22/1/95
59
"
9/2/95
15/1/96
11
n
Still interrupted
16/6/90
Benguela-Mossamedes
2/7/90
16/9/94
26/9 '94
"
31
28/11/91
19
10/12/91
27/6/92
23/7/92
A 4
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
PLLC.O. 885
6
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDONPage 421
PUBLIC RECORD
OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
6
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
8
It will be observed that the communication was entirely interrupted in 1894 and 1895 The African interruptions are given, as the cable from England to Aden round the Coast of Africa is claimed to be an alternative route to the East.
IV. THE AMERICAN PACIFIC PROJECT. THE FRENCH ATLANTIC PROJECT.
In the spring of the present year the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate of the United States considered two Bills for the establishment of a cable to Honolulu and thence to Japan. In estimating whether a subsidy of 160,000 dollars a year for 20 years was reasonable, they found that the cost of the cable to Honolulu (2,433 miles), laid and in condition to be operated, would be at least 3,000,000 dollars; the cost of a cable steamer, fittings, &c., 400,000 dollars; the annual interest on these sums at 4 per cent. being 136,000 dollars. The maintenance of the ship, they considered, would cost 125,000 dollars a year; operating expenses, 75,000 dollars; repairs, &c., 250,000 dollars; making a total annual cost of 586,000 dollars.
The principal difficulty was to estimate the cost of repairs. One of the witnesses (Mr. J. A. Scrymser) gave some information with the view of showing that 250,000 dollars was a reasonable amount to reserve for this purpose. He said that one repair of the Direct United States Cable Company cost 58,8142., that the repair of the two interruptions experienced by the Western Union Cable Company cost over 500,000 dollars, and that the Anglo-American Telegraph Company expended 74,360l. in repairing its 1874 cable.
The specification submitted to the Committee is annexed, and may be compared with those sent in on the present occasion. The contract speed was to be 15 words per minute.
SPECIFICATION.
Core.
(a) Conductor.-The conductor to be a strand of copper wires weighing 400 lbs. per nautical mile, or within 5 per cent. thereof, and the resistance at 75° Fahrenheit shall not be more than 3,117 ohms.
(b.) Insulator.-The conductor is to be insulated with three coatings of gutta-percha of improved nductive capacity, prepared according to Mr. Willoughby Smith's system, alternating with three coatings of Chatterton's compound, and to weigh 300 lbs. per knot, or within 5 per cent. thereof. The resistance of the completed core to be not less than 50 megobms per nautical mile after one minute's electrification, when tested at a temperature of 75° Fahrenheit, after 24 hours' immersion in water, 14 days after manufacture, and the average inductive capacity per nautical mile throughout the entire length is not to exceed 0·414 microfarad.
(c.) Sheathing. The core of types A., E., and B. to be covered with Clifford's patent sheathing for protection against the ravages of insects.
(d.) Serving. The core of all the types to be served with a good and sufficient serving of jute yarn, steeped in cutch or other preservative mixture, and applied wet.
Outer Coverings. Shore End.
(e) Outer Coverings.-Type A.-Type B. to be served with tarred jute yarn, and again closed with 14 galvanised BB iron wires, No. 1 B. W. G., equal to three hundred one-thousandths of an inch when galvanised, or within 24 per cent. thereof.
Intermediate, No. 1.
(f) Type E.-The served core to be covered with 12 galvanised BB iron wires, No. 4 B. W. G., equal to two hundred and thirty-eight one-thousandths of an inch when galvanised, or within 2 per cent. thereof.
Intermediate, No. 2.
(g.) Type B.-The served core to be covered with 12 galvanised BB iron wires, No. 6 B. W. G. equal to two hundred one-thousandths of an inch when galvanised, or within 24 per cent. thereof.
Deep Sea.
(h) Type D.-The served core to be covered with 17 galvanised steel wires, each wire being taped and compounded. The steel wires to be No. 14 B. W. G., equal to eighty-three one- thousandths of an inch when galvanised, or within 2 per cent. thereof, and to bear a breaking strain of not less than 85 tons per square inch, with an elongation of not less than 4 per cent.
(i) Before being used for the sheathing of types A., E., and B., the galvanised iron wire is to be heated in a kiln or oven just sufficiently to drive off all moisture, and while warm is to be dipped into a hot compound or black varnish.
9
Outside serving.
(j.) Types A. and E., manufactured as above, to be covered with two servings of jute yarn laid on spirally in opposite directions, alternately with two coatings of Clark's compound.
(k.) Types B. and D., manufactured as above, to be covered with two of Johnson and Phillip's patent tapes, laid on spirally in opposite directions, alternately with two coatings of Clark's compound.
On May 6 the Committee recommended a Bill authorising the Postmaster-General to contract for the payment of a sum not exceeding 160,000 dollars a year, for 20 years, for a cable from San Francisco to Honolulu and thence to Japan, messages" of the United States" to be carried free of charge.
It may be added that the cost of the proposed French cable between Brest and Cape Cod is put by the promoters at 800,000l., and the total annual charge at 98,000l. The great length of this span makes the project interesting from the point of view of the Pacific scheme. An account of it is given in the "Electrical Review" of 10 and 24 April.
Arguments for and against the Scheme.
It may perhaps be useful to sum up shortly, for convenience of discussion, the arguments which have been adduced for and against the scheme.
ARGUMENTS FOR :-
I.-Political.
425
(a.) The line would directly connect Great Britain, Canada, and Australasia each with one another. It would form a new trunk line admitting of connexion with the West Indies and South (See ... Africa. Thus the different parts of the British Empire would be brought more effectively in touch C-7553, pp. with one another, and could communicate without having to rely on the sufferance of foreign seq.) powers.
(b.) If Great Britain and her colonies do not establish the line, the United States and France will probably lay a cable vid the Hawaiian islands to Japan, and complete the connexion vid New Caledonia with Australia. Such cables would consolidate various foreign interests in the Pacific against British interests.
II. Commercial.
(a.) The line would be an alternative route to Australasia, and would therefore, even if single, be in effect a duplicate line diminishing the chance of complete interruption.
(b.) Interruptions occur in times of peace and in the absence of extraordinary causes to such an extent as to show that the danger of the existing lines proving insufficient under more trying conditions is considerable. The submarine cables, though duplicated or triplicated, might easily be cut by hostile cruisers. The long land lines in Australia, over which all messages to the capitals are transmitted, are frequently interrupted. If the line from Bombay to Madras were froin internal disturbances or accidents to be cut or broken, all connexion with Australasia would be cut off except vid the Russian line through Siberia.
(c) The Pacific cable could be laid by the British and Colonial Governments at such a cost, and would obtain such a revenue, that after three or four years the earnings would meet or exceed all charges, including interest on the capital sum expended. So far as Australia is concerned, the amounts now paid to the Eastern Companies could, if necessary and desirable, at the end of the century be diverted to the Pacific line.
(d.) The rate between Great Britain and Australia could be reduced from 48. 9d. to 38., 80 that (assuming that the Eastern Companies would follow suit, as would probably be the case) the public, chiefly the commercial community, would save over 200,000l. a year on their present expenditure for such telegrams.
(e.) A new traffic (at say 28. a word) would be created between Australia and Canada, which would encourage commerce between these countries. The line would also receive the United States telegraphic business with Australia.
() An increase of commerce would follow from the lowering of the rates
III.-Strategical.
The existing lines pass either through shallow seas where they could easily be cut, or through territorial waters where they could not always be defended, or across foreign soil. The Pacific line would be mostly in deep waters, so that special apparatus would be required for lifting it; it would be in seas comparatively remote from European disturbances; and it might be laid entirely through British possessions.
94, 95, 142 et