131
Receipts.
Revenue of the Eastern Extension Company from existing traffic
between India and Australasia
5,500
making it impossible for the public to use such a route except at a greatly increased
cost.
The only subsidies other than the 32,4001. above referred to received from the British and Colonial Governments are:-
Amount per Aunum.
Government,
For
£
3,5,000
British
South African Cable.
15,000
Cape of Good Hope
5,000
Nutal.
Do.
Do.
19,000
British
African Direct Cable.
19,600
British Colonies
West India Cables.
1,000
4,200
British Tasmania
98,800
Malacca connexiou. Tasmania Victoria Cable.
and without which subsidies the cables could not have been laid, as the traffic would have been totally inadequate to justify the necessary expenditure.
The statement that the existing tariffs are calculated on the basis of millions of mis-spent capital displays Mr. Heaton's ignorance of the subject, in proof of which may mention that the whole of the cables of the Eastern and Eastern Extension Companies now stand in their books at an average value of less than 2001. per knot, which would be very little in excess of the contract price of the present day for similar types of cable.
SIR,
No. 39.
PROPOSED NEW CABLE TO CANADA.
The Canadian Cable Company (Limited),
13, Delahay Street, Great George Street,
Westminster, S.W., April 23, 1887.
In accordance with a request contained in a letter from the High Commissioner of Canada, dated the 12th April 1887, I have the honour to submit, for the con- sideration of the Colonial Conference, the prospectus and plans of the company for a submarine cable between this country and Canada, making the starting point either at Glasgow or the north-west coast of Ireland, and terminating in the Gulf of St. Lawrence via the Straits of Belisle, either at Gaspe or at a point to be determined upon a little further south.
The object of this cable would be to form a connecting link and route, entering through British territory for the Canadian and Canadian Pacific telegraph lines, and also from the Trans-Pacific and Colonial cables, which Australian Colonies, China, and Japan, and maintain the same at a maximum rate of is hoped may be laid to the 6d. per word between this country and Canada. The figures and returns which I should be glad of the opportunity of laying before the Congress, and explaining the same, fully prove that 6d. per word is a sufficiently remunerative rate for Trans-Atlantic messages for any company not burdened with unproductive capital, or trammeled with engagements made under pressure of competition. Landing rights have already been granted, and a concession is held for an alternative route via Iceland to be subsequently laid, and it is hoped that the question of connecting Bermuda with England viâ Canada will be deemed of sufficient importance to be provided for by the English Government, when the subsidy, which it is understood Her Majesty's Government were prepared to give, may be granted to this company.
I enclose three draft prospectuses which set forth the commercial aspect of the question, and may add, in conclusion, that it is so influentially supported that no doubt need exist as to the completion of the cable so soon as the necessary preliminaries are settled.
The Secretary, Colonial Conference.
Yours faithfully, (Signed) WALTER WOOD.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
CO. 8855 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
No. 38.
PROPOSED CABLE FROM VANCOUVER ISLAND TO AUSTRALIA.
Pacific Telegraph Company (Limited), 34 Clement's Lane,
London, April 20, 1887.
SIR,
We are deputed by the Pacific Telegraph Company (Limited), to furnish to you, for the information of the Conference, a proposal which it is intended to submit on behalf of the Company to the Imperial Governments, and to the Governments of Canada, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania.
We are also deputed to attend the sittings of the Conference in person if desired, in order to give any further information that may be wished for.
Proposal.
The company to lay and maintain a cable from Vancouver Island to Australia, touching at the Sandwich Islands, Fanning Island, Samoa, Fiji, and New Zealand.
The company to reduce the existing through rates from Great Britain to Australasia by at least one-half.
The Imperial Government and the Colonial Governments above referred to to furnish to the company, in such proportions as they may agree upon, a subsidy of 100,0001. per annum for 25 years; each Government to have during that period the free use of the company's cable for Government messages to the full amount of its proportion of the subsidy at current rates.
The company to give Government messages precedence over ordinary messages.
To the Right Hon.
&c.
Sir Henry Thuratan Holland, M.P., &c.
&c.
We have, &c.,
(Signed) MURRAY FINCH HATTON.
RANDOLPH C. WANT.
No. 40.
TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH AUSTRALIA.
The Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company (Limited), Winchester House, 50, Old Broad Street, DEAR SIR HENRY HOLLAND,
WHEN I was at the Conference last week I gathered the impression that the various
London, May 4, 1887. papers submitted by the Eastern Extension Company had not been quite correctly understood by some of the delegates. I have, therefore, condensed the figures into one paper, which is forwarded herewith, and at the same time amended the propositions so as to give the Colonies the fullest possible advantages with the minimum of responsibility.
You will observe that I have taken the figures up to the end of 1886, and as some of the Delegates during the discussion wanted to know the limit of the Colonies' liablility, I have, in proof of my confidence in the natural developement of telegraphy, agreed to take the whole risk of any possible falling-off of the traffic below the present number of words, in addition to accepting one-fourth of the guarantee risk. Consequently the liability of the Colonies under the most unfavourable circumstances would not exceed 78,7501., in addition to the subsidies, viz :—
Victoria
Payable by-
For Duplicate Australian Cable.
For Tasmania Cable.
For New Zealand Cable.
Total.
£
£
£
£
14,478
14,478
12,617
2,500
15,117
4,805
4,805
498
498
5,000
5,000
4,200
4,200
Total
32,400
4,200
7,500
44,100
* Not printed.
New South Wales South Australis Western Australia New Zealand Tasmania