VS2 Transactions. 



The cost of carriage of materials alone amounted, in many parts of the 

 line, to upwards of £80 per ton, wliilst wages at the rate of two shillings per 

 hour were hardly sufficient to induce the workmen employed to continue 

 the work in the face of the hardships and privations to which they were 

 unavoidably exposed. Under these circumstances, the successful completion 

 of 'the line across the ISTew Zealand Alps is a work reflecting very great 

 credit on the Provincial Telegraph Manager, Mr. George Eird. 



With the exception of the delay caused by the failure of the lines at the 

 river crossings, the ISTew Zealand telegraph lines may be said to have worked 

 well since their erection ; the vexatious interruptions which occasionally 

 have occurred being caused chiefly by the great distances between the 

 stations, and not by defective construction. 



I would call your attention to the efforts now making in England to 

 abolish retardation in the working of submarine cables. Should these 

 efforts be successful, it is a question whether their greater efficiency would 

 not far more than compensate for the extra cost of using land cables, in- 

 stead of suspended wdres, at the crossings of our wide shingle-bed rivers, and 

 in exposed situations, where the maintenance of a suspended wire is liable 

 to interruption from violent storms, heavy falls of snow, or other causes. 



Postal CoMMUNiCATioisr. — I referred just now to the defective state of 

 our postal communication twelve years back. It is pleasant to compare our 

 then with our present condition. "We have now about fifty offices open for 

 the receipt and delivery of mails in our own province alone ; morning and 

 evening deliveries of letters in the principal towns, and constant communi- 

 cation, by powerful steamers, with the adjoining provinces and with Australia. 



The recent opening of the Panama route is a great boon to New Zealand, 

 as it not only puts us in direct communication with America, but brings us 

 practically a fortnight nearer to England ; and the announcement of the 

 authorities that all letters and newspapers shall be sent via Panama, unless 

 otherwise directed, is an earnest of the desire of the Grovernment to avail 

 itself to the utmost of the advantages offered by the new route. 



The success which has attended the first voyages of the Panama steamers, 

 the distance of 7,000 miles from land to land being run under twenty-seven 

 days, is further proof, if proof were needed, of the perfection to which 

 marine engines have been brought, although it may be doubted whether 

 the proportions usually given to the steamers employed in long sea voyages 

 are not calculated to insure speed at the sacrifice of other considerations 

 equally important. 



It must be a matter of deep regret to all, that up to the present time 

 the advantages that our province ought to derive from the visits of the 

 intercolonial steamers are, to a considerable extent, neutralized by the want 



