On the Electric Telegraph between England and India. 53 



The cable, which forms the last link in our chain, if taken 

 from Normantown, will be about 1900 miles in length, and will 

 cost, when laid, about £500,000, and I do not think a good cable 

 suitable in every way for the sea in which it is to be deposited 

 could be successfully laid for less, the soundings, except in a few 

 places, are good, and the coral reefs can be avoided. 



From a letter received by Mr. W. J. Cracknell, of Brisbane, 

 from Mr. Alexander Frazer, dated Batavia, April 10th, 1869, it 

 appears application has been made by that gentleman to the 

 Government of Netherlands India, for a concession to land a 

 cable on the east coast of Java, to connect Australia, at the head 

 of the Gulf of Carpentaria, under a subsidy or guarantee at the 

 option of that Government ; if this is granted, which he has every 

 reason to believe it will be, he proposes to ask a similar guar- 

 antee ®f 7 per cent, per annum from the several Australian 

 Governments on the cost of construction, which, I think, may be 

 set down at £500,000, instead of £550,000 to £600,000, as pro- 

 posed by Mr. Frazer, one half of the guarantee to fall on the 

 Java Government, and the other half on the colonies jointly, this 

 would leave for the colonies a mere nominal sum of £17,500 to 

 be subscribed annually, which might for the first year be taken 

 rateably on the basis of population, or in accordance with the 

 proportions paid by each colony for Postal Communication via 

 Suez, until it could be ascertained to what extent this line was 

 availed of by each community, The proportion for this colony 

 would be the small sum of £4375 per annum, which I feel sure 

 we should never be called to pay, as the traffic will more than 

 cover the 7 per cent, after paying working expenses ; so that we 

 simply have to run the risk of being called npon to pay £4375 

 per annum, to obtain those inestimable benefits which we have 

 already secured to ourselves on a small scale, by our Inter- Colo- 

 nial system of Telegraphs, but which will be of ten-fold impor- 

 tance when we are within a few hours' speaking distance with 

 the civilised world. 



We shall find, by going back a few years, that we have already 

 promised to do even more than this. When Mr. Gisborne visited 

 Australia in 1860, the Legislature of this colony and that of 

 Yictoria, passed resolutions with a view of providing an annual 

 subsidy of £22,625 for the purpose of connecting Moreton Bay 

 with Java by a Telegraph cable, but the Home Government 

 having refused all encouragement to the scheme, the proposal 

 fell through, and owing principally to the small prospect until 

 lately of the Rangoon and Singapore section being undertaken, 

 the entire matter has been in abeyance. 



Mr. Gisborne's line from Brisbane to Java, was not well sup- 

 ported either in Victoria or South Australia. Mr. M'Gowan, 

 the General Superintendent of Telegraphs in the former colony, 



