TELEGRAPHING.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1302, 2 November 1880, Page 2

TELEGRAPHING.

Some 2000 telegraph message.* aro received daily hi Sydney, and the .Sydney Tdajraph gives an interesting account of the system of distribution. This under the management of Mr. King, who is officially styled overseer of messengers and despatch clerk. This gentleman is (jrneralhsbno of a little army consisting of about 50 boys, of whom 20 hold the position of "pony boys," while the remainder, whose duty it is to deliver the messages destined within a limited radius of the telegraph office, have to perform their journeys on foot. The emolument of these young fellows on entering service is 10s per week. By-and-bye,, when they show themselves to be both smart and careful, their pay is increased to los, and ultimately they receive the handsome hebdomadal reward of £l sterling. The fate of a telegraph boy after he has so increased in bulk and weight as to be ineligible as a rider of the light ponies employed by the department is governed by circumstances over which the youth himself may be said to have no control. If he is well educated he may be taken "upstairs" and developed into a telegraph operator. We say "may be" because this part of the programme depends largely on thq amount of political influence, that can be brought to bear in his favour. Political influence, in point of fact, is as potent a force in connection with the rise and progress of a telegraph boy as it is in relation to the higher ranks of the public service. A youth cannot hope to secure an engagement as messenger unless he is possessed of friends who can command the ear of Parliament; and his prospects of future advancement fe the service are of the gloomiest cfcmplexion unless his father and mother is an adept in the art of mystery of button-holing. Hence a great many of these telegraph boys pass out of the department altogether when they have become too big — either in a material or figurative Bense — to carry out messages. About thirty ponies are kept to carry the boys to the distant parts of the city. A telegraph pony enjoys a tolerably happy career withal. His average official life is five years, but some lasfc much longer. About six ponies are reserved for night werk, and the rest for day work. The former «ater upon duty at 6 o'clock in the evening and retire to rest at two o'clock in the morning. The day ponies aro held in rea&i-

neas from 9 in the morning until 6 in the evening. The cost of feeding the quadrupeds is on an average £sp<; a month ; about £10 ja 'disbursed' for ' shoeing, and between £ 1 and £2 a month is expended in securing medical advice for the horses.