Australasia have lowered their rates to one-half of what they formerly were, or even less. But no one supposes that the limit of reasonable reduction has yet been reached. The growth of commercial interests, the interchange of news, the exchange of views between statesmen and governments, the growth of national sentiment founded on intimate mutual understanding, are all hindered by the necessity of paying large dividends on watered stock to companies enjoying in parts of the Empire a practical monopoly of the work to be done. Making all due allowance for the business energy which established cable communication in its earlier stages, and granting that the reward of this energy should be large, still the question now arises whether the debt of gratitude has not been sufficiently paid, and whether the national necessity does not outweigh the continued claims of the individual or the company. If patent laws fix a limit to the rights of an inventor; if copyright laws define a time when a writer's exclusive profits cease; if Governments exercise the right of eminent domain in expropriating at a fair price, in the interests of the public, land lines of telegraph, or ground required for the public service, surely a stronger argument can be made for a nation assuming the control—at least on its main lines—of what has become its own nervous system. This is what is aimed at in the establishment of a system of Empire cables, kept under national control, maintained at national expense, and worked for national ends. Sir Sandford Fleming has described such a system as consisting of four divisions, as follows:
1. From the United Kingdom to the Pacific, embracing a cable across the Atlantic, and land lines through Canada.
2. A cable across the Pacific from Canada to New Zealand and Australia, with land lines through Australia to the Indian Ocean.
3. A cable from Australia across the Indian Ocean to South Africa, with a branch from Cocos Island to India.
