It miy be regarded, a. a matter of cer- Unity, that shortly the mast di.tant parts of the earth will be brought into telegraphic inter-communication. New Zealand and Australia will soon be br-ught within the European Tele graphic system. Already are busy brains at work devising proposals as" to the best routes; and any mail miy bring in telligence of some scheme being matured. It perhaps seems almost heresy fo say so, but these distant lines of telegraph may not be productive of unmixed good. Even when the distance is not very great, and when full advices follow speedily on scanty telegraphic messages, much injury has been occasioned by fahe telegraphic news. There is little room to doubt that during the late crisis at Hume, more than one large financial house waa laid low by means of telegraphic information forwarded with the express intention of throwing down the value of the shares. Even the short ex perience furnish-..- l>y t'-.e Atlant'C C_b!e shows how by the aid of a very heavy tariff false news may lis published almost with impunity. In this case the Press provides more protection than could h: expected from it. Some of the New York papers are v.ing the line at an cxpen .c at the rate of nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year. No Australian or New Zealand paper could afford anything like such a sum, "whilst the expense of tranatnis mi.-ion per word would be heavier. In short, were there a through line to Australia during the next ten years, room would be afforded fjr any amount of questionable transactions, based on tele grams formed for the purpote of unfairly influencing the markets. .So serious doe* the evil appear that it is hardly too much to affirm that it would be better fo have no through telegraph unless adequate prec-iut-ons are taken to guard against fictitious telegrams.
