| Show A GREAT PROJECT THE united states has deliberately thrown away a splendid commercial and international opportunity A syndicate organized for the purpose gave this country the first chance to subsidize an ocean cable com company alyf the original design of which was the con lection of san francisco with australia by such means while our statesmen were engaged in futile dalliance with the subject and evinced quite plainly by their action or rather lack of action thit that if any steps were taken at all it would be after our habitual long think over it the proposition was extended to the briton and he seized it with such avidity that steps have already been taken for the actual and practical commencement of the work it is a mighty undertaking this I 1 spanning with the tae electric belt as it will more than one third of the globes circumference ference and verifying at last the prophetic pleasantry of puck ill put a girdle round the earth etc the cable will extend irom the western terminus of the Ca nadina pacific railway direct to honolulu some 2500 miles this is rot not so long a circuit as that of any of the atlantic cables except the first one laid from hearts content newfoundland to valencia bay ireland in 1866 this is much shorter being a little less akan 2000 miles in length from honolulu klano lalu the next stopping jig place will be the fiji islands and from there on to the nearest practicable australian shore although the south pacific in that part is literally flecked with islands of more or less magnitude there will probably be no stations in any of them except that named for the reason that there is not enough civilization in most of them and too little population in any to make such landings either profitable or secure when the eastern shore of the great insular continent is skirted tu to its southern limit and melbourne victoria and ane other large cities are reached the bond that binds the ex reme west to the faraway far away margin of the east completes the chain which unites civilized mankind and makes as one onetime time the glory ot of our noonday noon day and the shades of antipodal midnight it is a great pity this enterprise could not dot have taken root and had its western resting place upon our own shores a 9 pity for more than one reason its profits will of course be enormous but this is secondary it is an of enterprise iu in which our nation should have maintained its priority and established itself in the lea and it would have placed us on almost direct speaking terms with our race in the other parts of the earth all these are considerations which no great nation can afford to ignore but to neglect and defer until it is too late and a neighbor has rea reaped ed the advantages we could have ha had ed does but emphasize the ali misfortune fortune and add glory to the one tha that reaches out and grasps the opportunity when it comes within reach but whether considered as an ea english or an american enterprise me the anglo australian cable will be a conspicuous feature in the vast progress 0 of this very progressive age ae it will addo add one nemore more to the great achievements of science aided by inspiration and cause us instinctively to repeat the first message ever sent over a telegraphic wire what hath bath god wrought |
