Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Thursday 15 February 1900, page 5


THE CABLE QUESTION.

LETTER FROM THE EASTERN EXTENSION

COMPANY.

MODIFICATIONS ACCEPTED.

(By Telegraph from Our Correspondents.) MELBOURNE. February 15.

The manager of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company has forwarded the fol-lowing letter to the Postmaster-General :-"Referring to my letter of the 7th instant, I have the honour to inform you that my board has agreed to the modifications re-commended at the Premiers' Conference recently held in Sydney, subject to certain slight amendment, as follows : A. That Mr. Chamberlain's suggestions be agreed to. B. The rights to open local offices to be exercised only on the laying of the Pacific cable, or on the laying of any other competing cable, and, in the meantime, for-mal notice of not less than six months to be given to the Eastern Extension Company, to enable them to prepare for opening their offices simultaneously with the competing cable. C. That clause 9 of the draft agreement, page 8, is to read : " Stationery and goods of the Eastern Extension Com-pany, or their assigns which, are used solely for the purpose of cable business extension, &c." D. The landing sites in Perth, Fre-mantle, Adelaide, and Glenelg to be sub-ject to satisfactory arrangement approved by the Government of Western Australia, and South Australia. E. The question of the removal of the Roebuck Bay cable to be left to the West Australian Government, and the company to settle after the com-pletion of the Cape cable. I am authorised to say that the reduced rates could come into force within three weeks of the sign-ing of the contract. This interval is necessary to enable the International Tele-graph Bureau, at Berne, to notify the Tele-graphic Administration Internal Union of the alteration to be made in the Australia tariff."