CO885-(16-18) — Page 268

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

سائيليا

C.O.

Reference :-

+885

17 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

tions shall have averaged during the three previous consecutive calendar years a

sum of £330,000 per annum or any sum in excess of that amount the rates for the transmission of the Commonwealth traffic to and from Europe via Singapore and Suez or Teheran or via Cape Colony and St. Helena shall be reduced to 2s. 6d. per word for ordinary telegrama 18. 4. per word for Government telegrams and 18. per word for press telegrams which reduced rates and their apportionment are specified in the Schedule hereto Table Band such rates respectively shall be considered in the respective cases in this Clause defined to be the maximum rates for the time being for the purposes of this Agreement.

(6) Nothing herein or in the said Schedule contained shall prevent the Extension Company from varying the apportionment of any rate provided the total rate is not increased and the proportion payable to the Commonwealth is not reduced beyond the liniits contained in the said Schedule.

(7) If and whenever the said rutes are reduced in pursuance of Clause 5 the terminal charges payable to the Commonwealth in respect of telegrams transmitted at such reduced rates shall be reduced according to the scale set forth in the said Schedule hereto.

(8) After any reduction in the rates for Commonwealth_traffic, and in the terminals shall have been made under Clauses 5 and 7 hereof or by the Extension Company or Cis-Indian Administrations of their own motion the said rates and terminals shall not again be raised except as provided in Clause 9.

(9) From and after the opening for traffic of the Pacific or any other competing cable nothing in this Agreement contained shall prejudice the right of the Extension Company and the Cis-Indian Administrations to at any time reduce their proportion of the rates for the Commonwealth traffic including Government and press telegrams and at pleasure to raise them subject to the maximum limits in each case fixed by this Agreement.

(10) In the event of the full rates for the Commonwealth traffic being at any time reduced by the Extension Company and the Cis-Indian Administrations the charge per word for Govern- ment telegrams shall not exceed the full out-payments for the time being charged by Govern- ments and Administrations and one-half of the rate retained by the Extension Company and the Cis-Indian Administrations for their own use and benefit.

(11) The Government of the Commonwealth shall in respect of telegrams transmitting the Commonwealth and not forming part of the Commonwealth traffic be entitled to be paid out of the rates charged for transmitting such telegrams the same sum as they would for the time being be entitled to receive had such telegrams formed part of the Commonwealth traffic.

(12) The Extension Company shall within three months from the expiration of the year 1902 and within a like period from the expiration of each subsequent calendar year send to the Federal Government an account showing the receipts of the Extension Company and the Cis-Indian Administrations from Australasian traffic during such year after deducting out- payments charged by other Governments and Administrations and such accounts shall when required by the Federal Government be verified by the production in London of the account books of the Extension Company kept in respect of or relating in any way whatever to the Australasian traffic and when so required by a Statutory Declaration made by the Manager Secretary Traffic Accountant or other duly authorised officer of the Extension Company.

(1) The Commonwealth shall have the right to use the Extension Company's cable from Glenelg to Fremantle at the rate of 5d. per word such right only to arise in the event of the land lines not being in working order it being understood that precedence shall always be given to international traffic. The ruble between Fremantle and Glenelg shall not as long as the land lines between the states of Western Australia and South Australia shall be in working order be used to transmit inter-state telegrams not forming part of the international traffic.

(14) The Commonwealth shall so soon as the next following Clause comes into force provide and maintain in efficient working order at its own expense for the transmission of the Australasian traffic special wires on the Government posts between Adelaide and Melbourne and between Adelaide and Sydney. The Commonwealth shall also if and when the Extension Company's traffic (number of words) to and from Queensland shall during one calendar year have amounted to three times the Extension Company's traffic to and from Queensland during the year 1902 provide and thenceforth maintain in efficient working order and at its own expense for the transmission of the Extension Company's traffic a special wire on the Govern- ment posts between Sydney and Brisbane. The said special wires shall be respectively con- nected with the offices of the Extension Company in the several cities where they terminate and shall always be at the service of and be worked by the staff of the Extension Company. The charges therefor to be paid by the Extension Company to the Commonwealth shall be the terminal rates mentioned in the said schedule and shall be reduced under that Schedule as occasion shall arise on reduction by the Extension Company of their cable charges.

(15) The Extension Company shall on and after the opening for traffic of the Pacific Cable or any other competing cable he entitled to open local offices and to collect direct from and to deliver direct to the public in the rities of Perth Adelaide Melbourne Sydney Brisbane and Hobart any telegrams forming part of the Australasian traffic and shall pay to the Common- wealth the terminal rates specified in the said Schedule in respect of all such messages so collected or delivered.

(16) The Federal Government shall at all times afford to the Extension Company similar advantages and facilities to those (if any) afforded to any competing cable as regards uniformity of terminal rates by all routes.

(17) The Australasian traffic shall be transmitted via the new Cable or vià Port Darwin as the exigencies of the traffic of the Extension Company may require but traffic received viâ Port Darwin for transmission to places beyond Adelaide shall handed to the Extension Company at Adelaide for such transmission so soon as the Company have their own offices and special wires as provided for in Clauses 14 and 15 hereof.

(18) The net charges of the Extension Company and the Eastern Telegraph Company Limited after deduction of out-payments for telegrams between the Commonwealth and Durban- or Cape Town shall not exceed 28.

(19) The Commonwealth shall pay to the Extension Company such sums as will be sufficient to recoup:

(1.) Any moneys which the Extension Company are required to pay in any part of the Commonwealth for Customs duties on goods of any kind of the Extension Com- pany which are used solely for the purpose of the cable business of the Extension Company or for laying repairing or working any of their cables land lines or cable ships and (2.) Any moneys which the Extension Company are required to pay in the States of

New South Wales South Australia Western Australia and Tasmania for

(a) Wharfage rates on all goods of any kind of the Extension Company

used solely as aforesaid or

(b) Port or light dues in respect to any vessel used by the Extension Com- pany for laying or repairing any cable or any vessel belonging to or chartered by the Extension Company in which goods of any kind of the Extension Company used solely as aforesaid are carried or

(c) Any income tax and any rates parliamentary or otherwise except rates and taxes on premises occupied as local offices for the purposes referred to in Clause 15, hereof.

(20) Subject to the consent of the Federal Government nothing in this Agreement contained shall prevent the Extension Company from closing their station at Roebuck Bay at any time hereafter and taking up the cable which lands at that place.

(21) The Federal Government may at any time after Clause 15 is in operation and so often as it pleases appoint a confidential officer to peruse and inspect all telegrams received at the offices of the Extension Company within the Commonwealth and all messages handed to the Extension Company at its said offices for transmission.

(22) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Agreement the Extension Company shall with respect to the treatment over their whole system of cables of telegrams originating in or destined for or passing in transit through the territories of the Commonwealth observe the provisions of the international Telegraph Convention of St. Petersburg of the 10th-22nd July 1875 and any Service Regulations which may for the time being be in force in relation to the Commonwealth under the said provisions and the Extension Company shall be deemed to be bound by the said Convention and Regulations as though the Extension Company had been a party to the said Convention.

(23) The Extension Company will not sell assign or dispose of any of the cables of the Extension Company ordinarily used for the transmission of messages between the Common- wealth and the United Kingdom or from one part of the Commonwealth to another without first giving to the Government of the Commonwealth and of the United Kingdom or either of them the option of purchasing such cable or cables and all property rights and privileges of the Extension Company in connection therewith at a price which if not mutually agreed upon shall be fixed by arbitration.

(24) This Agreement is made subject to the approval of the Parliament of the Common- wealth of Australia which may be evidenced either by Act of Parliament or by the passage of Resolutions affirming this Agreement in and by each House of the said Parliament and shall take effect from the date on which such. Bill shall have received the Royal Assent or such Resolutions shall have been adopted in the House which last affirms this Agreement.

(25) This Agreement shall remain in force until the 31st day of October 1913 and thence- forth until terminated by two calendar years' notice in writing by either party such notice to expire at the end of some calendar year.

In witness whereof the Right Honorable Sir Edmund Barton, P.C., G.C.M.G., K.C., on behalf of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia has hereunto set his hand and seal and the Extension Company has hereunto caused its common seal to be affixed the day and year first above written. Signed sealed and delivered by the above-named Right Honorable Sir Edmund Barton, P.C., G.C.M.G., K.C., on behalf of the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia in the presence of

ATLEE HUNT.

EDMUND BARTON. (L.N.)

The Common Seal of The Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company Limited was hereunto affixed in the presence of

J. DENISON-PENDER, Director.

F. E. HESSE, General Manager.

The Seal of

the Eastern Ex- tension Austral- asia and China Telegraph Co..

Limited.