EARLY TELEGRAM.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 404, 10 April 1937, Page 3

EARLY TELEGRAM.

DISPATCHED IN 1862. City of Wellington. A copy of one of the earliest telegrams dispatched in New Zealand is in the possession of a Wellington resident. It was sent on July 25, 1862, from Lyttelton to Christchurch by the captain of a coastal schooner to his wife' in Christchurch. The telegram itself contains nothing of historic interest, but the conditions' under which it was handled provide a vivid reminder of how 1 New Zealand’s telegraphic system has developed in 75 years. This early telegram was sent within six Weeks of the line being opened between Lyttelton and Christchurch. At that time the only other telegraph circuits were between Port Chalmers and Dunedin (controlled' by the Provincial Government of Otago) and from Auckland to Drury (under the control of the military authorities). The cost of this telegram, was 2/6, for which a maximum of 25 words wag permitted, and there was tree delivery within the town of Christchurch. It came to- the recipient on a formidable blue form, foolscap size, hearing a large representation of the Royal coat-of-arms in red ink. Five Million Messages a Year. The message was written in ink in the clear handwriting common in those pre-typewriter days. Times of transmission in 1862 were limited to half an hour from 8 a.m. and from 10 till 4 p.m., and it was a regular requirement that the sender must write the telegram In ink on a printed form duly supplied. The development of the telegraph proceeded at a fairly fast pace soon after the sending of this early message, for in 1865 the Bluff-Nelson trunk line was brought Into operation with 13 stations, and in 1866 a cable was laid across Cook Strait. There was at this diate. a big gap in communication, and it was impossible to telegraph to Auckland, the line from the northern city only extending south/ into the Waikato. Telegraphic communication between the two chief cities of the North Island was established in 1871. To-day the telegraph has a healthy rival in the handy telephone giving opportunities for closer contact with distant points, even fax overseas. However, a telegraph is still to valuable a medium of communication that the Post Office handles nearly five million messages annually, excluding its cable business, and the system is now so well organised and equipped that it dealt with a rush of Christmas and New Year greetings involving delivery of 341,000 telegrams within a few days.

The old hand-key methods of telegraphy commenced to disappear In New Zealand in December, 1921, "hen the Murray-Multiplex printing system was introduced! at the four centres. Motor-driven Equipment, Experience has shown' .that the modern method of transmission enables a. skilled operator to deal with exactly twice the number ofi telegrams by the printing-telegraph system as he could have handled! under the old Morse key system, and this without increased effort although with a greater degree of concentration. In the old days there were rows of long tables of Morse telegraph instrument®, an,d‘ a large number of telegraphists worked side by side in operating this apparatus in the old familiar hand-telegraphy way. The instrument tables now contain motordriven equipment, elaborate balancing apparatus and twinkling lights to give a visual indication to .the supervising officer that the apparatus is functioning satisfactorily.