South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania, the contributions being based on the population figures.

New Zealand was joined to the continent by a cable laid in 1876, the length being about 1,191 miles. The line has its Australian terminus within sight of the spot where Captain Cook landed on the shores of Botany Bay, and within a stone's throw of the monument of La Perouse. The New Zealand terminus of the cable is at Wakapuaka, near Nelson, on the Middle or South Island, whence another cable, 109 miles in length, is laid to Wanganui, in the North Island, with an alternate line from White's Bay across Cook Strait to Wellington. For the first ten years after its opening, the New Zealand cable was subsidised by the Governments of New South Wales and New Zealand, their annual contributions being £2,500 and £7,500 respectively. Under agreement, dating from the 1st January, 1893, the Company which laid the cable was guaranteed £26,258 per annum in return for the reduction of the cable rates from 8s. 6d. for the first ten words and 10d. for every additional word to 2s. and 3d. respectively, the Company to bear one-fourth of any loss. On the 1st May, 1885, an amended agreement came into operation under which the guarantee was reduced to £20,000, and the Company ceased to share in any loss. This agreement expired on the 30th April, 1900, and the Company in proposing a renewal claimed that the guarantee should be increased to £26,000. This was absolutely declined by New Zealand, and the Company then determined on a uniform word rate of 3d., and abolished the minimum charge of 2s. for the first ten words. This was agreed to pending the laying of the Pacific Cable.

As a direct result of the completion of the Pacific cable of which the sections, Queensland-Norfolk Island and Norfolk Island-New Zealand, were opened for business on the 23rd April, 1902, the charges for New Zealand-Australian telegrams, except to and from Tasmania, were reduced to one uniform rate of 44d. per word, and to Tasmania to 51d.; the additional 1d. to Tasmania is to cover the transmission over the Australia-Tasmania cable. In addition to the reduction of the rates for telegrams to and from Australia, the opening of the Pacific cable has benefited senders of cable telegrams to places beyond Australia, by bringing about a general reduction of the rates in New Zealand to the more favourable rates obtaining in New South Wales and some of the other Commonwealth states. The rates on ordinary telegrams from New Zealand to Europe were reduced from 1st June, 1902, from 5s. 2d. to 3s. 4d. per word.

A cable connecting New Caledonia with Queensland at Bundaberg was opened in October, 1893. It was constructed by a French company, and is guaranteed by the French Government to the extent of £8,000, and by the states of New South Wales and Queensland to the amount of £2,000 each annually for a period of thirty years, in return for which the Governments of these states are entitled to use the cable for the transmission of official messages up to the amount of the guarantee.

During the year 1890 the states opened negotiations with the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company for a reduction in the cable rates to Europe, which at that time were 9s. 4d. per word for ordinary messages and 2s. 8d. per word for press messages sent from New South Wales; and at a conference of the postal and telegraphic authorities a proposal to reduce the tariff to 4s. per word for ordinary messages and 1s. 10d. per word for press messages was agreed to, the states contributing to the subsidy undertaking to make good half the loss which the company would sustain by this reduction in the schedule of charges, and New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand at the same time agreeing to pay to South Australia a proportion of the loss to the revenue of that state which the lower charges would cause in the working of the overland wires. The amended tariff came into force in May, 1891, and the amount to be guaranteed to the company for the portion of the year during which the contract was in existence was £158,491. The sum earned by the company for the same period was £120,141, so that the deficiency on the eight months' business was £38,350, one-half of which was made good by the contributing states according to population. But this sum, combined with the amount of the subsidy, was more than the states were prepared to bear, and on the 1st January, 1893, the rates were fixed at 4s. 11d. per word from Sydney to London for ordinary messages, and 1s. 10d. for press messages. Even at these charges there was a loss to be borne, the total amount payable to the cable company being £21,778 in 1893 (as compared with £27,520 in 1892), and £6,191 in 1894; and to the South Australian Government £7,675 in 1893 (as compared with £10,415 in 1892), £822 in 1894, and £1,125 in 1895. Since the years mentioned the amounts guaranteed— £227,000 to the cable company, and £37,552 to the South Australian Government-have been met by the revenue, and the states have therefore not been called upon to contribute. Queensland later joined the other states in the guarantee.

The agreement between the Australian Governments and the Company expired on the 30th April, 1900. In July, 1899, the Company offered to lay a cable to Australia, via the Cape of Good Hope, to reduce the tariff per word from 4s. 11d. to 4s. at once, and later to 2s. 6d. under a sliding scale, if the states would agree to certain conditions. South Australia, Western Australia, and Tasmania accepted the terms offered and now enjoy the reduced rates. The other states refused, but notified the Company that they also would accept if certain alterations were made in the agreement, these alterations being intended to safeguard the Pacific cable, to which these states were definitely committed. On the 16th January, 1901, New South Wales entered into the agreement.

The following table shows the amount paid by each state towards cable subsidies and guarantees during the year 1901. From the 1st

May, 1901, the whole of the subsidy in connection with the Tasmaniare cable has been paid by Tasmania.

The desirability of constructing a Pacific cable, which shall touch only British territory on its way from Australia to America, was acknowledged by the Governments of most of the Australasian colonies as well as by those of the United Kingdom and Canada, and an informal Conference was held in London in July, 1898, of representatives of Great Britain, Canada, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and New Zealand, when it was suggested that Great Britain should pay one-third of the cost of laying such a cable, Canada two-ninths,. and the Australian colonies the remaining four-ninths. This proposal was eventually adopted, and in July, 1899, a meeting was held in London by the representatives of the countries interested, and it was agreed that the cable should be laid and that the capital necessary to construct and manage it should be raised and controlled by a Board designated the Pacific Cable Board, comprising Sir Spencer Walpole, as president, representing the United Kingdom; Lord Strathcona, Canada; and the Australian Agents-General their respective states. A contract was entered into with the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company of Greenwich, and the Australian shore end of the cable was laid at Southport, Queensland, on the 13th March, 1902, and the cable was completed to Vancouver, and opened for traffic on the 3rd November, 1902. The cable comprises four sections, with a branch to New Zealand from Norfolk Island, the length of the sections. being: Brisbane to Norfolk Island, 834 nautical miles; Norfolk Island to Fiji, 961 miles; Fiji to Fanning Island, 2,093 miles; and Fanning Island to Vancouver, 3,240 miles, the branch from Norfolk Island to New Zealand measuring 537 miles.

The direct Cape cable, from Durban to Fremantle, which provides an alternative all-British route to that of the Pacific, was completed on the 19th October, 1901.

TELEPHONES.

In connection with the telegraph departments of the various states, telephone exchanges have been established in the capitals and other important centres of population. In order to popularise the use of the instrument, the charges in some of the states have within the last few years been reduced, and the result is seen in a satisfactory extension of this means of communication. Information regarding telephones in the different states during 1901, as far as can be ascertained, will be found in the following table :

In the Australasian states the rates for telephones at places of business range from £5 to £10 for the minimum length of wiregenerally one mile, the colonies with a half-mile radius being New Zealand and Queensland-and the charge is higher in the city than in the country. In New South Wales and Victoria the city and suburban rates are £9 per annum, and the country rates £8 in the former State, and £7 in the latter. In South Australia the city rate is higher, being £10; but in the suburbs and country the rates range from £6 to £8. Queensland, for a radius of half-a-mile, has a uniform rate of £6, which is also the charge made in Tasmania, for a one mile radius, in Hobart,

Launceston, and Zeehan, while for the suburbs and country districts the rate is a matter of arrangement. In New Zealand a distinction is drawn between exchanges continuously open and those not continuously open, the charges being respectively £7 and £5; while in Western Australia, in the towns of Perth, Fremantle, and Guildford, the rate is £7, and £10 where the exchange has less than 100 subscribers. The charges for telephones at private residences is, of course, less than for places of business. In New South Wales, Victoria, and New Zealand, the rate is uniformly £5; and in Queensland, £6. In South Australia the charge is £6 for the city, and from £6 to £8 in the suburbs and . country; in Tasmania, it is £4 10s. in Hobart, Launceston, and Zeehan, and a matter of arrangement in the suburbs and country; while in Western Australia, at Perth, Fremantle, and Guildford, the charge is £5, and £6 where the exchange has less than 100 subscribers.

POSTAL AND TELEGRAPHIC FINANCES.

The following table shows the revenue and expenditure of the Postal and Telegraph Departments of the States during 1901 :

In the expenditure shown in the table, interest on the outlay on postoffice buildings and telegraph lines and maintenance of buildings is not taken into account. If allowance be made for these, so far as is possible from the very imperfect returns concerning the expenditure on post-offices