SOME REMINISCENCES BY RETIRED TELEGRAPH OFFICIALS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 32, 8 February 1915, Page 20

SOME REMINISCENCES BY RETIRED TELEGRAPH OFFICIALS

WHEN THE SERVICE WAS YOUNG In a reminiscent mood, Mr. J. A. Hutton supplies the following information of interest regarding the early days of t the service :— "In. the early sixties the district of Southland was separated from Otago and became a province. The' Provincial Government of the day decided upon a vigorous public works policy. The pro gramme included among other .works the construction of a railway between' Bluff and Invercargill also of a line of telegraph between the two places. This was towards tho latter part of 1863. There ■was also in contemplation a continuation of both lines to Winton. For the construction of the line of telegraph th* Government' secured the services of Mr. A. M. Weldon, a younger brother of th> late Commissioner of Police at Dimedin. Mr. Weldon had had considerable experience of line construction in Victoria, and- camo over as Provincial Director of Telegraphs to carry out any approved works. I bad the pleasure of meeting him one day in Warrnambool in the Western district, where I was then stationed as a junior in the telegraph office. He mentioned to mo his early departure for New Zealand, and invited me to come over at a later date and take service with him. To this I consented, and so, on the 6th day of January, 1864, found myself on board the City of Hobart, bound for the Bluff, at which place I armed on the 12th, a six days' passage. GETTING INTO HARNESS. "The coach journey to Invercargill at that timo had to be made by way of *he Mokomoko, an arm of the' New River Harbour, nnd was only possible *.\hen tho tide favoured. Reaching lnvpruirI gill on the following day. I at once- \i out into harness. As the line was lar I'ioin completion. 'I was given pome cleiical Work on tho staff of his Honour. Dr. Menzies, the Superintendent of the Pro- | vince. 1 was shortly informed, much i to, my alarm, that I 'would bo held re sponsible for the due opening of the line i when completed, also that the appaiatue ■ which was being imported was different altogether from that to which 1 had been accustomed in Victoria. My unfortunate plight will bo apparent to any i young telegraph officer pojbessin^ n'> i technical knowledge who may read these | lines. However, tho tfisk di<l not tutu out so difficult after all. When *ln> mn- ' I^rial was landed soni« weeks Liter. 1 pot hoM of tho invoicrp and thf cases. and, Although at> the tiiet appearance >

of the apparatus I devoutly wished myself back in Australia, I happened to find in one of the cases a book of directions, and after some experiment was able to g«t a couple of instruments on a table responding to each other. Eur«ka! The difficulty was solved, and one of tho sets despatched to the Bluff, with tho result that on tho following morning at 9 o'clock I was called up by my old friend, the late Mr. J. W. Mason, for many years officer-in-charge at Christchurch, who had crossed over from Aus. traha shortly alter me to work tho Bluff end ; and so one of the earliest telegraph lines in the country was opened without any fuss or formality, I cannot now give the exact date, but fancy it was about the 12th February, 1864. A DOZEN MESSAGES A DAY. "We charged Id a word with a minimum charge of one shilling, and exchanged at first about a dozen messages a day, and so things went on for a year or more until we heard of the approach of constructing parties from the North running the first General Government trunk line. In due time the wire from Dunedin reached Invercargill. and was led into my office. On tho off>chance of anything transpiring, a galvanometer was placed in circuit, and one day the needle gave indications of some one being at the other end of the wire ; on cutting in with a spare set of instruments I had very faint signals from a Mr. Faraday (a very suggestive name from an electrical point of view), a gentleman then employed in the Dunedin office of the private wire between Dunedin and Port Chalmers, then owned by Messrs. Driver and M'Lean, a firm whose name will be familiar to old Dunedinites. With a little arrangement we soon got on good speaking terms. On making the fact known outside the office, I was asked to accept telegrams, which, although I suppose grossly irregular, I did. Having now, however, gone over to the official majority I cart afford to smile at the recollection of my youthful audacity. OTHER PIONEERS. " The first wire sent from Invercargill to Dunedin was one from Mr. Leggatt, manager for Dalgety, Rattray, and Co. to Iho Dunedin branch. I continued thus for some days, making what revenue I could, until there arrived on the scene Mr. Alfred Sheath, the first

General Superintendent for the General Government, together with the Electrician, Mr. Theophilus Varley (a brother of the well-known electrician of that day, Mr. Cromwell Varley) and Mr. Henry Smith, Mechanician, the lastnamed being for many years a household word in the telegraph service. They were nono too pleased to find I had been first in. and I had to take a back seat until the new General Government apparatus was put in circuit and things f laced on an official footing. This was, think, in May, 1865. I nave an idea it was' the 26th, but am not sure.A. SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. "On the, official opening of communication between Dunedin and Invercargill, the Bluff line was also taken over, and the services of Mr. Mason and myself were transferred to the General Government. ' By this time Christchurch and Dunedin were also in touch, and so a good stretch of line was open. Tho stations then open were as follow : Bluff, Invercargill, Tokomairiro (now Milton), Dunedin, Oamaru, Timaru ? and Christchurch. Waikouaiti came in soon afterwards. Mr. Weldon, the Principal Director, became Inspecting Lineman for the entire route, which soon stretched as far as Nelson; and he made several completo trip 9 ,on horseback between Bluff and Nelson. A few words about this soldier, of fortune may not be uninteresting. Coming of a good Irish family, he was educated for the Church, but he went out to India as a young man, joined the' Volunteer Cavalry a<| Calcutta, and fought through the Indian Mutiny. Ho was a splendid horseman and a dead shot with a revolver, and he used to tell us such tales of Indian adventure that he came to be known as the Rajah of Gingerabad. He went to the Argentine in 1868, and rendered many years' service in the construction of the first trans-Andean telegraphs, finally meeting the constructing party working eastward from Lima. The occa* sion was one of great rejoicing between the two parties. He died some years ago at an advanced age in the Argentine. FIRST PRESS NEWS. ''The first press news wired from Dunedin to Invercargill was an account of the execution of Captain Jarvey for the poisoning of his wife. This was quite a cause celebre of the early days, and incidentally had far-reaching 'results.

The body of tho deceased was ex* humed and the stomach analysed by Dr. MAdam, at one time Postmaster* General of Victoria, also Analytical Chemist to the Victorian Government. He came ovei 1 to tho trial, and, if my memory serves me correctly, had to make a second trip across, and died, to tha best of my memory, on the return voy* age. "To pass on to tho humorous side or things, I may relate briefly an incident of the distribution of press news in the early days. Bluff was then the first port of call for Melbourne steamers, and the monthly budget of foreign news from the Melbourne Argus was wired to both Invercargill papers, the Times and News. There was keen competition to bo firs^ in. On one occasion a chapter of the Bible was handed in to go on with until the news proper should ar* rive. On another occasion a very sue* cessful ruse was played. One of tha paper agents went off to the steamer in. a pilot boat, hid under a tarpaulin, and a copy of the Argus was by come means smuggled down to him. He had a horse saddled down at the Point, and, immediately on landing from the pilot boat, galloped up to the Telegraph Office, and so out-manoeuvred tho other agent. Old Bluffites, if there aie any still there, will remember; but we will not mention names. Both agents, I know, are long since dead, and may have discussed the matter with each other beyond the Styx. OLD-TIMB CHARGES. "Before closing thejo few reminiscences, I may add a few words about the tariff of charges in force in the early days, before 1869. The charge was based on distance and was as follows:— Up to 25 miles, Id a word ; up to 100 miles, lid a word; up to 200 miles, 2d a word. And so on, adding an additional halfpenny for each 150 miles. This made the charges very high for long distances. The monthly revenue sheet under this tariff was somewhat difficult of preparation. We had to enter on a daily line the number of words to each station, the rate, whatever it might be, appearing at tho top o£ the column, and the final entry at the end of the line showing the number of words for tiie day and the daily revenue. This at \\he end of the month had to be totalled and cross-totalled. As the extra halfpenny was charged in all cases for odd words, it was a bit of a puzzle to account fop the odd halfpennies; but the monthly sheet had to be worked out to the bitten end and made to balance with the revenue collected." 11 HAPPY-GO-LUCKY DAYS." Mr. J. W. Gannaway, also late o£ the Post and Telegraph Department, writes :—": — " Southland got into, financial difficulties and the late Mr. John Mason, who was in charge at tho Bluff, used to relate how he had a bailiff in the office at one time. When a message was pre* sented at the window, he would count the number of words, state the charge, and the bailiff would take the money. If a fault occurred on tho lino Mr. Mason would apply to the local gaoler for a man, and with the prisoners aid would go out and effect repairs. Mi 1 . Mason always regaled tho prisoner with, a pint of beer. Those were happy-go-lucky days. The first lines in the Auckland province were military lines, worked by soldiers, and the needle instru* ment was used. Later tho lines were acquired by tho General Government and tho morse recorder substituted fov the needle instruments. The offices at Mercer, Hamilton, Cambridge, Alexandra, and Ngaruawahia (or Newcastle) were still in chargo of old military operators in 1871."