usa een coe When the rate of $2 a word was fixed for telegrams between China and Kurope in 1876 the dollar was worth 4 shillings.
The Cable Companies consequently collected 8s. " word in China, From this total they handed over to other Telegraph Administrations for further transmission beyond their own system 3s. 1d., thus leaving them a clear profit of 4s. Lid. per word.
The dollar is worth at present something like 2s. 94d., and the total charge, $2, cul-lected by the Companies in China is consequently now only 6s, 7d., whilst their out-payments to other Ai istrations have remaitied at 3s, Id. fixed in gold, leaving to the Companies 28, Gd. againat the former 4s. Lid., or an actual reduction of nearly one half.
The Companies have hitherto borne the constantly growing loss on these gold outpayments to other Administrations, and the addition of fifteen per cent will do nothing more than cover them for the present, whilst their own proportion of the total charge, as a matter of fact, remains unchanged.
'It must be considered that the so-called word rate is in reality a' code rate. The telegram vocabularies and code-books have been so extended and perfected, that it is probably no. exaggeration to affirm that
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.