CO885-(15-16) — Page 109

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17995.

SIR,

No. 84.

(Canada-New SOUTH WALES).

LAW OFFICERS TO COLONIAL OFFICE.

Royal Courts of Justice, 23rd May, 1901. WE were honoured with your commands signified in Mr. Bertram Cox's letter of the 15th inst., stating that with reference to our Report of the 30th March" in connexion with an Agreement entered into between the Government of New South Wales and the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company, he was directed by you to inform us that the substance of that Report was communicated to the High Commissioner for Canada on the 6th instant, and that he was to transmit to us for our consideration a letter from the High Commissioner, dated May 9th, enclosing a letter received from Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and a Report of the Minister of Justice of Canada upon the legal questions' dealt with in our Report.

That Mr. Bertram Cox was to request us to take these matters into our consideration and to advise you

1. Whether in view of the Report of the Minister of Justice we saw any reason to modify the opinion expressed by us in our Report of the 30th March?

2. What answer should be made to the arguments advanced by the Minister of Justice ?

3. Generally,

In obedience to your commands we have the honour to

Report-

1. That we have considered the opinion of the Minister of Justice, and the arguments therein. We are unable to agree with his view of the Agreement, or the construction put upon it. It is quite true that the Agreement confers certain rights on the Extension Company upon the opening of the Pacific, or any other cable, e.g., the right to lower their rates (Section 9), the right to establish local offices (Section 15), but such rights do not imply any undertaking upon the part of the Government to send messages by the Extension Company's line; on the contrary, the fact that under Section 9 the Extension Company is to have the right to lower their rates would seem to point to the opposite conclusion. As to Section 16 referred to by the Minister of Justice it merely has reference to the new cable to be constructed under Section 12, and gives the Extension Company the right to use alternative routes according to their convenience.

We would further point out that if the construction of the Minister of Justice is correct it would apparently follow that not merely Government, but all telegraphic messages from New South Wales should be forwarded by the Extension Company's lines, as there is no distinction drawn in the Agreement--whereas the Agreement itself in the recitals, and in Sections 9 and 15, refers to, and plainly contemplates, the Pacific cable as a competing cable. We see no reason therefore to modify the opinion expressed in our Report of 3rd [? 30th] March, 1901.*

2. We think the above opinion answers the arguments advanced by the Minister of Justice.

We have, &c.,

The Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.

&c.

&c.

&c.

No. 81.

9310-25-6;1901 W 352 D&S

R. B. FINLAY. EDWARD CARSON.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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