Identifier: empirecentury00gold (find matches)
Title: The empire and the century
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Goldman, Charles Sydney Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936
Subjects: Imperial federation
Publisher: London, John Murray
Contributing Library: University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Digitizing Sponsor: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
iff had fallenfrom 4s. 9d. to 3s., or a reduction of 37 per cent. Itmight have been expected that this would have im-mensely stimulated the number of words sent. By nomeans. In 1902 the number of words was 2,358,000;the yield in 1902, owing to the reduction of rate, beingonly £246,000, as against £383,000 in 1896. Thisdemonstrates that reductions of rate do not necessarilyproduce increases of traffic. It was in December, 1902,after these serious reductions and losses, and whengreat increase of capital outlay had been undertaken byprivate enterprise, that the British Government enteredthe field against its own citizens. The result was, of course, disastrous. In 1903 and1904 almost all the profit from the Australasian cablesowned by private persons, and constructed after thirtyyears of labour and thought, was swept away. On itsside, the British Government, with the Colonial Govern-ments concerned, realized a loss of upwards of £200,000on the working of its Pacific cable. Such are the
Text Appearing After Image:
TASMANIA AND NEW ZEALAND 273 results when Colonial financiers, acting with * extremecaution, direct the policy of the Empire ! Meanwhile, afew words must be said as regards the connection ofTasmania and New Zealand with Australia. A cable was laid between Tasmania and Australia sofar back as 1869. It was duplicated in 1885. Thesecables have been laid by a British private companyunder a Government subsidy, the Tasmanian Govern-ment retaining the right to regulate the rate, which isnow Jd. a word, in return for a guarantee of trafficrevenue. But these arrangements expire in 1909. New Zealand was connected to the mainland bycable in 1876 under a ten years subsidy. Though thishad expired in 1886, the British company, in 1890, dupli-cated the line, and further, to meet the needs of thecase, reduced the tariff in 1893 from 8s. 6d to 2s. Od.for ten words, the Government agreeing to bear three-quarters of any loss that might result. The loss was soserious that in 1895 the Government cancelled

Note About Images