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Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 11 June 1924, Page 24 (Supplement)

When the telegraph office was opened in Timaru in ’65, a ten-word message to Christchurch or Dunedin cost 4/-; 11 to 20 woi'ds, 7/-; 21 to 30, 10/-; 31 to 40, 12/-. Reapers and binders were heard of as being made in America in 1875. In 1878 an advertising trial was made in a field on Wai-iti road, between a Woods and an Osborne machine; both wire binders. In 1879 six different makes of machine engaged in a similar exhibition, all using wire. In 1880 another such competition brought out seven machines, four using -wire, three twine. The Woods twine binder was placed first, McCormick’s wire hinder second. In 1879 Priest and Holdgate imported a shipment of 35 McCormick wire binders. The string binders soon beat the wire binders out of the market.