Two newspaper reports detailing the thoughts of Charles Todd are important to the establishment of the Telegraphic Money Order system in Colonial Australia and to its operational characteristics. They are both reproduced below:
Report 1: The South Australian Register of 26 February 1858 not only discussed the postal system but also - so early in the development of telegraphic communication in the Australian Colonies - endorses Charles Todd's early proposals:
MONEY ORDERS PER ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
The want of something analogous to the money orders issued by the Post Office in England has long been felt in this colony, although it must be confessed the introduction of postage stamps has, to some extent, mitigated the inconvenience formerly so generally complained of. But neither postage stamps nor Burra orders are always available, and we should be glad to see some more facile means of transferring small sums, or credits equivalent thereto, from one part of the colony to another. Following the precedent set in the mother country the Post Office would appear to be the best medium, and certainly the Post Office would enable a system of orders to be much more widely diffused than they possibly could be by any other means. It appears, however, that we may not have Post Office money orders. Within our own provincial limits, no attempt is made to organize such a system, although the suggestion has been several times made, and as between the colonies and the mother-country the hope that was excited by the offer of the Home Government has been unceremoniously dashed to the ground. The London postal authorities having kept open for a long while their suggestions for establishing an imperial office, have withdrawn their offer, so far as the colonies are concerned, and there is now, therefore, no hope of our having a system of money orders under the joint management of the Adelaide and London Post-Offices. We shall not, however, altogether give up the expectation of one day seeing this useful and popular method of transmitting small sums made available between the colonies of Great Britain and the parent country.
But passing the Post Office, we have before us a scheme by Mr. Todd for establishing an electric money order department. The plan is exceedingly simple, and its details would be worked at each telegraph station by the person in charge of the wires. On receiving a sum of money, he would give the depositor a receipt for the same, entering the particulars in a book, and immediately telegraphing to the station required a duplicate of these particulars, with an order for payment. The clerk at that station would telegraph back the fact of payment, also entering the particulars in a book and taking from the payee a proper receipt. In this way, it is believed, a perfect check would be maintained, whilst a great public convenience would be effected.
We have no doubt that this plan would prove very convenient on the line of route between the termini of our several telegraphs and especially between Adelaide and Melbourne. If, however, the business done was extensive, and especially if large amounts were advised by means of the wires, a greatly increased responsibility would rest upon the telegraph clerks, who ought in that case to give security, and who, giving security, would require higher salaries. Then comes the enquiry as to whether it would pay. The question is, to a great extent, one of detail and of estimate; but if Mr. Todd's scheme is submitted to the Government we doubt not it will secure the attention its importance demands, and that its practicability and general merits will be strictly investigated before any steps are taken towards realizing the idea.
Report 2: The South Australian Register of 31 March 1858 reported as follows:
"The remarks we recently made on Mr. Todd's proposal to establish a money order system in connection with the telegraph department have been noticed rather extensively in the neighbouring colonies. We are glad to find that from the Press the proposal itself finds nothing but favour. So far as we are aware not a single word of disapproval, even as to details, has been uttered in any quarter.
Some of our contemporaries refer to the project as a new proof of the activity in all matters connected with social improvement characteristic of South Australia and, one of them in particular, assuming that here to propose and to execute are almost simultaneous operations, anticipates the advantage of seeing the plan tested by actual working here before they are called upon to adopt it in the other colonies.
Without sharing the hopefulness of our contemporary, we must acknowledge that his sanguine expectation seems one of the most natural things in the world. The proposal is one of a not very numerous class of schemes which require no argument in their support. It strikes every one at once as a simple, cheap and easy way of meeting a felt necessity.
Experience of the working of the post-office money order system in England has prepared us all to see at a glance the immense advantages which a telegraph money order system would secure us here. The principle is identical in both cases and whatever circumstances exist to make the post-office serviceable as a medium of financial intercourse, exist in a higher degree in connection with the telegraph. In both cases there is a system of intercommunication established which is carried on by and under the direct control of the Government. In both cases, therefore, the establishment is a national one, and may properly be used for all convenient social purposes while at the same time it affords the largest amount of security against malversation and therefore inspires the greatest possible degree of public confidence.
But the telegraph has important advantages over the post-office in almost every respect. Communication by means of the former department is direct and regular and any failure of delivery would be detected within a short time. But the communication by telegraph is so much more direct and rapid that failure of delivery might be rendered absolutely impossible. The payer in Adelaide might summon the payee in Sydney to the station there and while the one party was handing over the sum to the station-master in the Adelaide office, the other party might be receiving the cash from the station-master in the Sydney office. In fact, all the facilities of a hand-to-hand intercourse might thus be obtained by persons 1,000 miles apart, at a trifling cost both of time and money.
Another of the principal circumstances which has rendered the post-office available for the transmission of money by the order system is the necessary trustworthiness of the persons in charge of post-offices wherever they are established. It is clear that the postmaster must invariably be a man of good reputation and, to some extent, competent to the management of accounts. He is also required to find responsible securities prior to his induction into office. Here, then, the public have guarantees that no frauds will be practised upon them in their use of the post-office for remitting money.
But these guarantees are afforded to a much more satisfactory extent by the telegraphic department. The postmaster is required to respect the secrecy of a letter - no difficult task seeing that he cannot violate it without committing an overt act of fraud by breaking the seal. But the telegraph clerk is bound to respect the secrecy of a message which he has to read and transcribe and which, if it be a matter of any interest or importance at all, must inevitably pass into his mind and find a place in his memory. The gentlemen directly engaged in working the telegraph are often entrusted with the knowledge of facts of infinitely greater moment to merchants, statesman and private citizens than any pecuniary consideration could possibly be, and yet the cases of breach of confidence are rare indeed. It is obvious that mental and moral qualifications of a much higher class are requisite in the manager of a telegraph than the master of a post-office, and consequently that the security which the post office allows will be enjoyed in even a higher degree in connection with the telegraph. It cannot be necessary to extend our remarks on the probable results of a system whose superior advantages must be almost self-evident.
But there is one consideration to which it may be desirable to refer, and that is the question of cost. The post-office money order is restricted to a maximum sum of £5, and although the restriction is an arbitrary one, it must be assumed from its retention that it is a needful check upon the operation of the system. Presuming then, that a similar limit will be fixed to the telegraph money order, it becomes a serious question: will the cost of transmission require to be so high as to lessen the value of the facility? It has been stated on good authority that the charge in the colony would be at the rate of one-half per cent. This would give 6d. as the cost of a £5 order - the same amount precisely as is charged in England. As that rate has not been found to militate against the usefulness of the post office system in England, there is no reason to suppose that it would be felt injuriously in connection with the telegraphic system here.
But we are not sure whether the proposed rate is to cover the charge for the message, or whether that is to be paid for extra. The purchaser of a post office money order has to pay for its transmission by post, and it may be inferred that the purchaser of a telegraph order will have to pay for the telegram that conveys it to his correspondent. But if it be so, the cost cannot, in nine cases out of ten, be a serious consideration, inasmuch as the message will ordinarily contain nothing but the names and the amount - "John Smith to Thomas Brown, £4 16s. 6d." Under the existing telegraph regulations, the name of the sender and receiver are not charged as a part of the telegram, and the actual message will, therefore, be reduced to the figures specifying the sum to be paid. Even supposing that the full ordinary charge should be made in such messages, the enhanced cost will still bear no comparison with the advantages which would be conferred by such a system of money orders. Probably some short working of the system would be requisite before the charges could be equitably fixed, but we are convinced that not only the easiest - and incomparably the quickest - but even the cheapest way of making small remittances to distant places will be found to be " by magnetic telegraph". We only ask that the experiment may be tried without needless delay".