Report by Mr. Todd as part of the 1857 Public Works Department Report.
South Australian Register 5 January 1858.
"With respect to the Magnetic Telegraph the report is extremely satisfactory. Comparison is made with the Victorian telegraph and it appears that the Melbourne and Williamstown line (afterwards extended to Geelong and the Heads), during a period of 32 months from its commencement, received 29,284 messages whilst the South Australian line received, during the first 17 months of its existence, 30,870 messsages. We assume that as the report is brought down to June 30, 1857, the 16,132 messages conveyed along the South Australian line in 1857 were conveyed along it during the first six months of that year, and, as the telegraph was only opened on the 18th February, 1856, the total interval included in the calculation is less than 17 months.
The messages in 1856 were 14,738. Those of the first six months of 1857 were 16,132 ; making a total of 30,870 - or as nearly as possible two messages for every one delivered in Victoria allowances being made for the difference in time but no allowance being made for the difference in population. It appears, therefore, comparing equals with equals and taking into account both time and population— that the electric telegraph is used in South Australia about six times as much as in Victoria. This is certainly result for which we were not prepared and which we think will astonish our Victorian neighbours even more than it does ourselves.
The monetary aspect of the South Australian Telegraph is equally satisfactory. The estimated receipts for 1857 were put down at £500 but they had reached £791 by the end of June only. The Gawler Town line, with its Dry Creek extension, was opened on the 13th April. This line, which is 28½ miles long, cost exclusive of the Gawler Town Station, £55 5s. 11d. per mile. It is estimated that by the end of the year a profit of 20 per cent per annum will have been realized upon the capital invested in the construction. Out of this, of course, the expenses of management and maintenance will have to come. But it is right to notice that all Government messages travel free of cost.
By order of the House of Assembly, several interesting reports from Mr. Todd, the South Australian Inspector of Telegraphs, have been printed. They bring down our information to the latest data. The report opens with a brief description of the Port line, of which we may state in a few words, that it was commenced in December, 1855, was opened to the Port in February 1856 and to the Peninsula in the month following. Between Adelaide and the Port four wires are suspended on posts of Singapore cedar or Swan River mahogany, thirty-two to the mile. These posts are well charred and tarred where they enter the ground. From the Railway Station in Adelaide to the Government Offices in King William Street, a six-wire cable is laid under ground in iron pipes, The same has been done at the Port and 700 yards of submarine cable are carried under the creek to the Peninsula. The necessity for so much subterranean and submarine cable has greatly enhanced the cost of the City and Port Telegraph which, including stations, materials, apparatus, &c, has cost £3,024.
The cost of the much longer line to Gawler Town has only been (exclusive of the Gawler Town Station) £1,576 or about £55 per mile. The Gawler Telegraph was commenced in January, 1856, and was opened on the 13th April following. The length of the Adelaide and Gawler Town Telegraph, including the Dry Creek branch, is 28½ miles. The posts are round, charred where they enter the ground, and planted at the rate of 27 to the mile. Those used on the railway are from 16 to 17 feet long, but from the Gawler Town Terminus to the Telegraph Office in Murray Streef the posts are of Baltic timber, square, and 22 feet each in length.
The progressive increase of revenue on the City and Port line is exemplified in the following table of receipts:
| Receipts 1856. | February (18 to 25) |
£2/9/9 |
| March | £8/-/6 | |
| April | £15/7/4 | |
| May | £21/-/2 | |
| June | £29/-/11 | |
| July | £20/1/- | |
| August | £39/1/9 | |
| September | £53/6/6 | |
| October | £53/12/10 | |
| November | £56/19/4 | |
| December | £60/7/- | |
| Total receipts in 1856: | £366/6/7 | |
| Receipts 1857 | January | £60/16/6 |
| February | £80/16/2 | |
| March | £60/12/9 | |
| April | £69/2/- | |
| May | £66/1/5> | |
| June | £89/2/1 | |
| Total receipts in 1857: | £425/11/4 | |
| Total receipts up to 30 June 1857: | £791/17/11 | |
The telegraphic messages on the City and Gawler Town line during April, May, and June realized £79 18s. 6d, the proceeds of each month showing a great advance upon those of the preceding. Mr. Todd estimates that the receipts for 1857 of the two telegraphs will be £1,200 and to this he adds £500 as the value of the Government and railway messages not charged for. The cost of management of the two lines for 1857, including half Mr. Todd's own salary, would be £1,232, leaving a balance in favour of the telegraph amounting to £468. Against this, however, we have to set the wear and tear of implements, decay or destruction of posts, &c., and also interest of capital (say £5,000) invested in the two telegraphs. In all probability the receipts will soon cover, or very nearly cover, the whole of these charges, leaving the revenue entirely uncharged with any expenditure what ever.
As the Port and Gawler lines have proved so successful, we may hopefully anticipate that the opening of the Melbourne and Adelaide line will be successful also. The sum voted by the Legislature of this province for constructing the telegraph to the Victorian border is £20,500 and the contract for the erection of the line has been taken by Mr. Thompson of O'Halloran Hill at £40 per mile for 300 miles. The works are vigorously proceeding and on the 6th November the first message was transmitted from the Goolwa Station to Adelaide.
There has been a deal of heavy clearing between Willunga and Port Elliot, as all who have travelled through that district will readily suppose. The bush posts consist of stringy bark and gum saplings. The line up the Coorong is supplied with posts from Mount Jagged. From the Victorian border a strong party are engaged meeting another party working outwards. The posts are already up from the boundary to Muirhead Flats and the wire is being suspended at that end. The submarine cables for the Goolwa and Lake Alexandrina have recently arrived. The cable is of a light description, weighing only 17 cwt. to the mile and 10 miles of it will be required at £80 per mile. Fifty miles of posts we obtained from Tasmania and landed at Guichen and Lacepede Bays for the Mount Gambier portion of the line. The whole work is expected to be completed in March next.
The table annexed is the proposed scale of charges between Adelaide and Melbourne, for messages not exceeding 10 words:
| Geelong | Ball. | Raglan | Warr. | Belfast | Port | Mt. Gam. | Guichen | Goolwa | Pt. Ell. | Adel. | |
| Melbourne | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Geelong | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | |
| Ballarat | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | ||
| Raglan | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 6 | |||
| Warrnambool | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ||||
| Belfast | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |||||
| Portland | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | ||||||
| Mt. Gambier | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | |||||||
| Guichen Bay | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Goolwa | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Port Elliott | 2 |
I' 1 i u Stations. . u E ?-: 5 ~ , x 4 ll!| III II 15 1 slilMlil III . ____ ? . ? 1_ _j ? . ? _ — S. S. 3. 8. S. a. f. S. S. 8. 8. Melbourne... 2 3344455 «6 Gaetonjr ...-223335586 8 BaBarat ... --[23334486 6 Baglan ... - - j - 3 2 3 4 4 6 6 -6 - WimiEnibooi -- --233365 0 Bellas* ' _ - ' - - j - - 2 3 3 5 5 's Portland ... ------3365 4 JIt.Gambler -------2333 GaicnenBay ]--!-]- - - - - 3 3 3 Goolwa ... ' - ---- - - - - 1 2 Bat Elliot... !--!-!-------;.
These rates have been framed jointly by Mr. McGowan and by Mr. Todd. It is further recommended that press matter be charged one penny per word for all distances not exceeding 300 miles and twopence for all greater distances. Government messages to go free.
Mr. Todd recommends that, in the event of the mail steamers touching at Kangaroo Island, a line should be carried to Cape Jervis or to some other part of the seacoast.
We congratulate our readers upon the prospect of speedily realizing so great a luxury as that of instantaneous communication with the adjacent colonies and also upon the fortunate circumstance that we have a public officer so zealous and enterprising in the discharge of his duties as Mr. Todd most undoubtedly has proved himself to be. We hope that we shall soon be in a position, not only to communicate by telegraph with Melbourne and Sydney, but that measures may be taken to connect Australia with the great Anglo-Indian telegraph and that we may thus renew those Iinks of connection with the parent country which the intervening ocean has hitherto severed".