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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

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1141C.0.8855 PUBLIC RECORD OFFCE LONDON

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connexion with her national railway, brought Vancouver within telegraphic reach of England, and she has thus rendered it a comparatively easy task to complete the whole connection. It has cost in all about 40,000,0001. of public and private money to establish the railway and its adjunct, the telegraph, by which Vancouver has attained the commanding position which it occupies in respect to the Pacific cable scheme. The Pacific cable is, however, in some degree a corollary to the line across the continent, and it is reasonable 10 expect that the Canadian Government will readily co-operate in its esta sliment.

The following Governments are more or less interested in the undertaking :-

1. The Government of Great Britain.

2,

3.

4.

5.

6.

*

7.

S.

D).

10.

IL. 12.

Canada.

Hawaii.

Fiji.

Now Zealand.

New South Wales.

Queensland.

Victoria.

South Australia.

Western Australia. Tasmania. India.

-

It will not be possible to carry out the undertaking by a private company without Government assistance. As electric cables are perishable, provision must be made for renewing or duplicating them when circumstances require it. It is also obvious that the reduced charges which are proposed will require a greatly increased business to yield a sufficient profit to meet dividends on capital. The company would, therefore, require a subsidy for a term of years or until the business increased to such a volume as to render the line self-sustaining. But as the subsidy would be borne by so many Governments it would fail lightly on each.

The first step to be taken is to ascertain to what extent the several Governments would be disposed to co-operate in establishing the work.

SIR,

(Appended to Letter dated London. 10th July, 1886.)

TELEGRAPH from CANADA to AUSTRALIA.

LETTER to the PREMIER OF CANADA by MR. SANDFORD FLEMING.

Ottawa, October 20, 1885. I HAD the honour a few years back to submit to the Canadian Government a scheme for forming a great Inter-Colonial and Inter-Continental Telegraph systein, a prominent feature of which was the laying of an electric cable across the Pacific Ocean, from the western coast of British Columbia to Asia. The great object which the scheme had in view was the establishment of an unbroken chain of telegraphic communications between England and Japan, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, directly through Canada, thus connecting telegraphically all the great British possessions in every quarter of the globe without passing through Europe.

The accompanying memorandum, dated London, November 20, 1882, together with the documents submitted by the Secretary of State to the Canadian Parliament on the 20th February of the same year, will recall to your recollection the important public objects which the scheme had in view, and the efforts then made to carry it out.

You are aware that through various causes these efforts proved unsuccessful; but the time which has elapsed has in no way lessoned the importance of the project, or rendered it more difficult of accomplishment.

The political events which have so frequently assumed a threatening attitude in Europe, the difficulties which are never entirely absent from Egypt, point to the constant danger of interruption to existing communications by the Red Sea, and the

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immense importance of securing an independent line of telegraph removed from all Eastern complications. The projected line, extending from England through Canada to the Pacific coast, in the province of British Columbia, and thence across the Pacific to Asia and the Australian provinces, would supply an independent line of comanni- cation so much desired, and in so doing woud indirectly but--it is held-very materially strengthen the military and naval power of Great Britain, while it would directly promote the highest interests of every one of the great Colonial possessions.

Within the present year an overland line of telegraph will be completed along the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway, thus spanning the American continent, and there are a number of electric cables in operation across the Atlantic from England to Canada. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company have expressed a desire to facilitate tho despatch of through telegraphic business along their line in every possible way, and are prepared to enter into a permanent agreement which, with the competition existing on Atlantic lines, will secure exceedingly low tariff rates between England and the coast of British Columbia. There only remains to be established the submarine telegraph across the Pacific Ocean,

When the acccompanying memorandum was issued it was thought that the Pacifie cable should follow a northern route by the Aleutian Islands and Japan. It was generally believed that in the great central area of the Pacific Ocean subaqueous rocky Tedges and coral reefs prevailed to such an extent as to render the establishment and maintenance of an electric cable practically impossible. That opinion was based on an imperfect knowledge of the physical character of the Pacific Ocean, and on the charts which at one time were strewed with islands, reefs, and shoals, many of which were inserted on doubtful authority, and have consequently been omitted from the latest publications. Since then, also, it may be supposed that submarine telegraphy is better understood. Be that as it may, the view is now entertained that it may not be absolutely necessary to follow a northern route, and that the successful establishment of an electric cable running directly from British Columbia to the Australian provinces may be quite within the range of practicability.

There are, indeed, extensive coral reefs in the central and southern Pacific: but the most authentic hydrographic information establishes that those reefs are generally in great groups, separated by wide and deep depressions free from obstruction. It is further revealed by the latest bathymetric data that those depressions or troughs present (as far as ascertained) a sca floor precisely similar to that of the Atlantic, so suitable for submarine telegraphy, Those ocean depressions, alike by their geo- graphical position and their continuity, open up the prospect of connecting Canada and Australia by a direct cable. The course of the cable would be from Vancouver to the Fiji Islands, touching at the Sandwich Islands and Fanning Island as mid-stations. From the Fiji Islands a cable connection would be formed with the existing Australian and New Zealand telegraph systems.

Whatever routo be followed by the cable across the Pacific, the object will be to bring the group of Australian Colonies into direct telegraphic connection with Canada, and secure a means of communication between them and England independent of all lines passing through or in proximity to Europe. Messages will bo conveyed by the new line at lower rates than are now exacted, and the immediate effect which must follow its establishment is manifest. The cost of telegraphing between Australia and England will be reduced, intercourse will be facilitated between the sister Colonies and Canada, and an impulse given to commercial activity.

Apart altogether from the political advantages of the new independent telegraphic connection, the gain to the general commerce of the Colonies which it would serve would justify them in co-operating with Canada in promoting the undertaking.

The undertaking may be promoted by the several Governments agreeing to give for a term of years a subsidy sufficient to induce a company to embark in it. may be a fixed sum, contributed in equitable proportions, or it may be dependent on The subsidy the business transacted by each respective Colony, and on the reduction in rates which would follow immediately on the line going into operation.

It is quite obvious that the gross foreign telegraph business of any one Colony, reckoned at the difference between the present high rates and the reduced charges, would produce a considerable aggregate sum. That sum might be taken to represent

the year's savings accruing to the Colony from the establishment of the new lino of telegraph, and it would obviously well repay that Colony to share the amount so saved with the Telegraph Company. Suppose the accrued saving so reckoned in any ono year to be fifty thousand pounds, a moiety to the Company as a subsidy would be twenty-five thousand pounds, while the Colony itself would gain a direct pecuniary

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