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F.—B

The same sentence transmitted between Australia or New Zealand and Canada as a Press message would be charged, — (1.) Under the Empire cable tariff — 157 letters at id. ... ... ... ... 4s. 4£d. ($1.09) (2.) Under present tariff — 32 words at 9d. ... ... ... ... 245. ($6.00) Without departing from the policy of maintaining transmission-charges by the Empire cables sufficiently high to cover all working-expenses, we have in these calculations a distinct indication of the very marked cheapening in oversea telegraphy which is quite possible in the near future. At the present day the cost of cabling is much too great for the majority of people. It is practically prohibitive to emigrants, as well as to many others; and those who are forced to use the wire in extreme cases resort to it as seldom as possible. Owing to geographical circumstances, cheap oversea telegraphy, equally with cheap land-telegraphy, concerns the British in various parts of the world more than any other people, and they cannot have cheap telegraphy too soon. A stage has been reached in the history of the w-orld when their wishes and their wants, their aims and their aspirations, seek the freest and speediest means of expression. While it may be difficult at first sight to grasp the full significance of some of the foregoing statements, it may at least be averred that they are made with the utmost confidence in their soundness. There is reason to hope and believe that time will make them plain, and reveal the inestimable value to be attached to an unbroken chain of State-owned cables connecting the self-governing British communities in both hemispheres. It is believed most thoroughly that the proposal will eventually be consummated, and that by bringing the several governmental units, now separated by great oceans, into one friendly neighbourhood, electrically and telegraphically, results will follow of the most satisfactory character —commerce will be quickened, the ties of sympathy will be made more effective, the bonds of sentiment will become more enduring, and, by this means, unity, strength, and permanence will be assured to the family of nations constituting the new Empire. S.F.

Concluding Note. This jubilee appeal of the Board of Trade of the City of Ottawa has direct reference to the co-operation of His Majesty's Government in the Mother-country with his Governments of the selfgoverning dominions beyond the seas in a common object. As an educational medium, this appeal is designed to familiarise the public mind with the proposal to institute an Empire girdle of Stateowned cables as an indispensable means of commercial and political unity. The reader of the pamphlet will be struck with three points of high importance which are clearly brought out, — (1.) It is demonstrated that a low uniform charge for transmitting correspondence, irrespective of distance sent, is far more applicable to a State telegraph service than to a State postal service. (2.) As penny postage has already become the rule throughout the Empire, it may reasonably be anticipated that a similar low uniform charge for all distances by the girdle of Empire cahles will become the final goal of State telegraphy. (3.) Thus, by a tremendous force of energy and sympathy induced by and through the slender electric nerve-wire, the co-operating sister communities will gain the possession of a potent agency in the development of the great Empire of friendship and peace.

Approximate Cost of Paper. —Preparation, not given ; printing (1,525 copiee), £40 Os. 6d.

Authority : John Mackay, Government Printer, Wellington.—l9oB.

Price, Is. 9d.]