Proceedings. A9D 
Mr. Alexander Macnaughtan, who transmitted the Report to be sub- 
mitted to the Society, gives the following extracts from the letter of a 
~ mercantile friend at home :— 
“My, Rankine has been engaged in the laying of wires extensively here 
and in other parts of the kingdom. 
“J can discover nothing at all impracticable in the Report, even with the 
limited knowledge at present possessed in the art of laying submarine 
cables. This mode of telegraphing is yet in its infancy; but so many 
scientific men are at work upon it, that we may reasonably expect a. better 
and cheaper line of submarine communication will be shortly announced. 
‘Suppose the wires Jaid as enumerated, and take for example the 
steamer Mormosa—she left Sydney on the 9th November, Victoria 16th, 
and Adelaide 19th, and arrived in England in time to send on her mail by 
the Precursor. By this means we had news from Adelaide to the 19th 
November published in the London Times on the 10th J anuary—only 59 
days (!!!) from Adelaide. Were the telegraph established, news from all 
the Australian ports might have been received to the same date. 
“In America they have a telegraph from New Orleans to New York, a 
distance of 2700 miles—nearly as far as from New York to Liverpool; and 
by each steamer that arrives we have news from New Orleans up to the 
previous evening of the starting from New York. 
“Tt has been pronounced practicable, and is in contemplation, to have a 
submarine telegraph from this country to America—from Orkney via Ice- 
land and Greenland; and I helicve it is only a matter of time, the having 
wires laid all the way from Britain to Australia.” 
Mr. Macnaughtan gives the following instances of the advantages to 
accrue from the electric telegraph :— 
To Goyrrnment—In communicating with the neighbouring Govern- 
ments, with ships-of-war, military authorities, police, &c., throughout the 
colonies. : 
Post-orrice Derarruenr—Communicating arrivals and departures of 
mails, times fixed for despatch of mails, &c. ‘ 
~ Banxs—Communicating with all the branches on the same day on the 
regulation of their business, fixing Exchanges, transactions with Govern- 
ment and with other Banks—without the delays and loss often arising from 
the ordinary mode of postal communication. 
Surerrn¢—Communicating arrivals and departures of vessels, names of 
passengers, nature and amount of cargo, &c. 
Mrronants—Communicating messages expeditiously to correspondents 
and agents, and generally to facilitate the diffusion of commercial intelli- 
gence; and 
Tue Pusrig ar LARGE—The instantaneous diffusion, by ‘the magic 
minister to knowledge,” of political, foreign, and general intelligence : 
discovering to one part of the world the requirements and necessities of 
another—operating as a detective of and deterrent from crime—diminishing 
the chances of surprise, and so lessening the probabilities and dangers of 
war, &¢, 
