PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
112
The average receipts of the Eastern and Eastern and South African Companies for South African traffic-Natal and Cape Colony-during the last three years were as follows
Westward traffic Eastward traffic
£ 78,000
2,538
80,538
Of this amount 16.6427. is the proportion of the Eastern Company.
It is estimated that the South African Company would require the following sums guaranteed :-
Interest on capital of 400,000/. at 6
t
24.000
Ordinary expenses
16.500
Average expenses of cost of ship and repairs, including
2,5001. for ships' reserve fund
22.500
Interest and sinking fund for debentures
43,500
Amount required to be put aside annually to replace cables at end of 20 years-4,554
knots at 150A
683.100
Less present reserve fund 125,000.. which at
end of 20 years would, at 39 °, he worth
248,625
ť
434.475 15.400 121.900
60,000 20.000
Less subsidies
Local Traffic--Zanzibar, Mozambique, &c.
Estimated amount to be guaranteed 20th January 1887.
Enclosure.
80,000
41,900
The Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company, Limited,
Winchester House, 50, Old Broad Street. SIR.
London, E.C., 23rd December, 1889. As the question of Imperial intercommunication, which will doubtless embrace submarine or international telographic communication, is referred to in the published despatch addressed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Colonial Governors, as one of the subjects for consideration at the Conference proposed to be held next year, and as the Eastern Extension Company, over which I have the honour to preside, is the pioneer of telegraphic communication with Australasia, and is anxious to further serve the Colonies in every possible way, I take an early opportunity of placing before you the accompanying information in regard to the existing Submarine Telegraph Cables, and as to the best manner, in my judgment, of establishing cheap tariffs, in order that your Government may be in possession of all the facts of the case before deciding upon the instructions which they may deem it right to give to the delegates who will represent them at the Conference.
The Australasian Colonies are at present in telegraphic communication with the rest of the world by means of the Eastern Extension Company's Cables as far as India and China; with Egypt, Africa, Europe, and the rest of Asia, by the lines of the Eastern Telegraph Company, the Indo-European Government Telegraph Department, and the Indo-European Telegraphic Company (with which Administrations the Eastern Exten- sion Company has a working agreement), and with America, North and South, by the numerous cables laid across the Atlantic.
This communication between Australia and the outer world was established by the Eastern Extension Company in 1871, without subsidy or assistance of any kind from the Colonies or the Imperial Government, and, subsequently, when the importance of telegraphy became more fully recognised, and a duplicated system a public necessity, not because a single line was unequal to the transmission of the traffic, but in order to provide against the interruptions inseparable from a single line of cables, the Colonies of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, and Western Australia agreed to give
113
the Company a subsidy of 32,4007, per a mum for 20 years, to enable it to duplicate the cables between India and Port Darwin. Since then external submarine telographic communication may be said to have been practically uninterrupted, a result due to the duplication, and in some sections triplication, of the Company's cables, and to the fact that they are laid for the most part in shallow water, and consequently easily repaired at almost all seasons of the year.
Thus the Colonies are at present furnished with a complete and efficient telegraphie service by the existing cables, which are not only equal to the transmission of much larger traffic than they now carry, but enjoy the immense advantage of being under English control and worked by English operators throughout their whole length. It is true that objections have been made to the present communication on the ground of its being dependent upon a single land line through Australia, but this defect could be at once and at no great cost remedied by connecting the telegraph systems of South Australia and Queensland, a proposal which the Eastern Extension Company has long urged, and to carry out which has offered to lay a cable at its own expense from the River Roper to Normanton.
I may here point out that while the route between Australia and China and Europe followed by the cables of this and the allied Companies is incomparably the most secure in time of peace, it would be the more surely and easily protected in time of war, inasmuch as it is one of the sea routes most frequented by the Mercantile Marine, and would, therefore, be the special object of the vigilant care of the Royal Navy.
I would, therefore, submit that the existing Company, as the pioneer of telographic communication with Australasia, is entitled to a large share of consideration at the hands of the Colonies, and should have the earliest opportunity afforded to it of learning the views of the Colonial Authorities as to any increased telegraphic facilities which may be desired, so that it may endeavour to meet their wishes as far as lies in its power.
With regard to the question of cheap tariffs, which has for some time past engager the attention of the Colonies, there is no doubt that the existing charges are an obstacle to the general use of the telegraph. The Eastern Extension Company and its allied Companies cannot, however, be reasonably asked to run the risks which a large reduc- tion would involve. sceing that theirs is a commercial enterprise, and that after 15 years working they are only enabled to give a moderate return to their shareholders. They have already considerably cheapened telegraphy by reducing the original rate of 91.9s. for 20 words to a word rate of 9s. 4d. for public messages, and 28, d. for the Press, which for the distance traversed is one of the lowest Press rates on record. The latter reduction the Companies had long striven to bring about, and were only lately able, after patient and persistent effort, to overcome the opposition to it by certain Govern- mental Administrations. They have, moreover, shown in every possible way their desire to further reduce the tariff, and amongst other propositions submitted to your Government, the Eastern Extension Company has, subject to the assent and co-opera- tion of the other interested Administrations, offered to make the rate any figure acceptable to the Colonies down to the limit of their outpayments (at present 2s, 4d. per word), provided the average receipts for the last three years are guaranteed to them by the Colonies. The acceptance of this offer would, of course, reduce the Companies' risk to a minimum so far as the traffic is concerned, but their responsibility of main- taining an efficient service would remain unchanged; on the other hand, it would give the Colonial Governments full control over the tariff, and enable them to establish a cheaper rate and on more favourable conditions than could be obtained in any other
way.
If the tariff were reduced to 4s. per word, and 100 per cent. increase of traffic took place, the amount of guarantee required would be about 55,000, which, based on the 1884 Census, and spread over all the Colonies, would be from—
A
51431.
Victoria
·
New South Wales -
New Zealand
South Australia
Queensland
Tasmania
Western Australia -
£
16,353
15,672
9,599
5,321
5,274
2,221
5,60
55,000
T