THE SUPERINTENDENT OF TELEGRAPHS has submitted to Government a most elaborate, interesting, and truly valuable report upon the telegraphic department of the public service. The report is accompanied by a chart, showing all the telegraphic lines the whole document reflecting great credit upon Mr. Todd, the indefatigable and zealous officer in charge of this department.
At the close of 1860, there were in operation 9141 miles of wire, traversing 597 miles of country as follows:
| Line | No. of miles of line | No. of miles of wire |
| Adelaide to Eastern border via Goolwa: No. 1 line. |
300 | 600 |
| Ditto Ditto via Wellington No. 2 line. |
109 | |
| Ditto Ditto via Kooringa (including a Branch to Stockade) | 123½ | 226 |
| Ditto to Port Adelaide and Beach | 10 | 34 |
| Ditto to Glenelg | 6½ | 6½ |
| Mount Barker to Woodside | 11½ | 11½ |
| Mount Gambier to Penola | 36½ | 36½ |
| Total | 597 | 914½ |
In 1860 the sum of £10,770 11s. 4d. was expended upon new lines, as follows:
The total amount spent from the commencement on telegraph works in South Australia is not stated but we believe it is about £55,000.
In reference to the working of the lines, the general report is satisfactory, although the defective state of the subterranean wires between the Port and the Beach rendered it necessary at the commencement of 1860 to substitute an over-ground line. With reference to the underground wires in Adelaide, we extract the following paragraph from the report:
" The underground wires in Adelaide have recently given some trouble and annoyance and may probably have to be renewed or overground wires erected in their place. On examining the portions of the cable taken up, the faults have been found to arise from the six wires, forming the cable, being compressed, so that the gutta percha coating has become amalgamated and the conducting wires only protected by a very thin covering, and in some cases nearly in contact - the gutta percha having been, as I believe, subjected to some great pressure and raised to a high temperature - most probably at the time of giving the outer serving of tarred hemp. I may observe that no faults were detected when the cable was tested in England or when again tested just prior to being laid down here. Indeed the cable laid under the streets of Adelaide showed no defects whatever for more than two years when it suddenly became faulty without any previous warning".
Excluding amounts payable to Victoria, we find that the total amount received in 1860, and applicable to South Australia, was £7,302 15s. 6d. and the total amount paid for salaries and maintenance, £6,950 5s. 7d leaving a profit balance of £352 9s. 11d. This profit balance would be much greater were it not for the number of country stations that only return a fractional part of their cost. Yet as the Telegraph service, like the Post Office, is not to be estimated by direct returns but is to be judged of as a public convenience and, indirectly by its effects upon trade and commerce, the result will not appear so discouraging. Still, as applications are constantly coming before Parliament for telegraphic extension, it is well to observe to what extent stations already opened are sources of loss or of profit. We now give a list of stations, showing the amounts received at each station in 1860 including also the amounts received at other stations for messages dispatched from the stations first mentioned. It will be understood that each station is credited not merely with the amount actually paid thereat for messages but also with the amount received at all other stations for messages sent thereto. In other words, it shows the amount of business done at each station as sending and receiving messages.
| Stations | Amount |
| Adelaide Central | .£5,112 16s 3d |
| Adelaide Railway | £68 16s 5d |
| Bowden | £32 12s 0d |
| Alberton | £2 13s 9d |
| Port Railway | £44 19s 6d |
| Port Central | £1159 5s 9d |
| Peninsula | £28 9s 6d |
| Salisbury | £39 9s 4d |
| Smithfield | £16 7s 6d |
| Gawler Railway | £27 16s 3d |
| Gawler Town | £458 15s 8d |
| Kapunda | £326 17s 7d |
| Clare | £228 17s 7d |
| Burra | £422 15s 6d |
| Glenelg | £61 16s 9d |
| Mount Barker | £68 16s 6d |
| Nairne | £27 15s 6d |
| Woodside | £25 3s 9d |
| Strathalbyn | £47 16s 9d |
| Willunga | £63 4s 10d |
| Port Elliott | £147 15s 3d |
| Goolwa | £230 17s 3d |
| Guichen Bay | £453 3s 2d |
| Mount Gambier | £631 13s 6d |
| Penola | £132 16s 0d |
| The Border | £3, 173 12s 9d |
The foregoing shows the ordinary business at or by means of the several stations and it will be seen that some of them do scarcely any business at all. In the above, press messages, messages on railway business and messages on Government service are not included. The receipts for press messages in 1860 amounted to £4,140. Railway subsidies swell up the aggregate receipts but, although the telegraph is indisputably of vast importance to railways, we cannot look on the value of railway messages in the light of receipts available for the purpose of showing whether the telegraph department pays or not.
On the 31st of December, New South Wales had completed 1,161 miles of wire, extending over 796 miles of line; and in progress, 797 additional miles of wire, over 797 miles of line making 1,938 miles of wire, and 1,593 miles of line. Victoria had 1,178 miles of line and wire. On the subject of the faithlessness of Victoria in reference to her pledge to suspend a second wire to meet those put up by South Australia and New South Wales, Mr. Todd thus writes:
" Provision was made on the Victorian Estimates for 1860 for a second inter-colonial wire to meet those erected in New South Wales and South Australia. Being informed of this, and that there was every probability of the work being (at last) immediately proceeded with, I thought it better, as the material was all deposited along the line, and the men on the spot, to continue our second wire from Mount Gambier to the Border. But I regret to learn now that, on a change of Ministry taking place, it has been considered absolutely necessary, in revising the original estimates, to strike out the item, notwithstanding the fact that about £16,000 has been expended by the Governments of New South Wales and South Australia, in supplementing their lines of inter-colonial communication, on the distinct understanding that Victoria would simultaneously carry out her section, without which the other lines would, of course, be comparatively useless."
On the very important subject of telegraphic communication with England, Mr. Todd expresses himself with much confidence. He is not dismayed by the failure of the long submarine lines. He believes that "the science is only in its infancy" and regarding submarine telegraphs as "a political necessity to Great Britain", he feels confident of ultimate success. Mr. Todd quotes the following extracts from the Report of the Select Committee on Packet and Telegraphic Contracts. The report was printed by order of the House of Commons in July, 1860.
" The circumstance that the Continental lines are subject to the supervision of the police and the control of the Governments through whose territories they pass; and the importance of having a line free from such control and supervision, for communications with Gibraltar, Malta and our Eastern possessions, induced our Government to resolve on the construction of a telegraph direct from Falmouth to Gibraltar with a view of carrying it on thence to Malta and ultimately extending it to Alexandria so as to connect this country by an independent line with the Red Sea and India telegraphs and, through India, with Australia and Hong Kong.
" In the beginning of the year however, the present Government decided on proposing to Parliament to transfer the cable, the manufacture of which had been proceeded with under the contract just mentioned, from the Falmouth and Gibraltar line to one between Rangoon and Singapore, which is the commencing point of a line to Batavia and, so far, toward Australia. Your Committee, however, desire to record their strong conviction of the very great importance of having an independent means of telegraphic communication, free from all foreign supervision or control, with our stations in the Mediterranean and our empire in the East, at as early a period as possible after the difficulties at present attending the successful laying of a telegraph cable for distances of considerable extent shall have been overcome."
" With regard to the Australian end of the line, Mr. Stuart's return to Adelaide, after successfully penetrating the interior to the 18th parallel and reporting the country as generally favorable for an overland line of telegraph, must necessarily be regarded as of great importance, even by those who so strenuously opposed the idea when first suggested here, and supported in preference, the route advocated by Mr. Gisborne. At the same time, there are some reasons why a land line round the coast, as proposed in my Report (July 10, 1860) on line to King George's Sound might be preferable. The first cost would, I think, be less and the after-cost for maintenance also less. In the first construction, the absence of suitable timber for poles on a coast line would not be so serious a difficulty as in the interior, as they could be easily convoyed by sea and landed at different points with the other materials, so that cartage over great distances would be avoided. I have no wish to discourage the idea of a line across the interior. I only wish to point out that, while in my opinion practicable - now that we know what to expect - and preferable to Mr. Gisborne's submarine scheme, it is nevertheless possible that a land line round the coast might be found more useful by connecting Western Australia - less costly in its construction and more easily maintained. In either case, the line traversing for the greater part of the distance unsettled country (at present), it would be necessary to have intermediate stations for batteries and effecting repairs but these might be furnished with supplies periodically more readily than if in the interior. As suggested in my report on King George's Sound line, a run might be attached to each station with advantage."
We must quote yet another paragraph, as it contains a hint well worthy of consideration. Of course the suggestion would only be applicable in a certain class of cases; but within proper limits the idea is, we think, an exceedingly happy one. Mr. Todd says:
(Ed: is this the earliest suggestion for Skype, Zoom, etc meetings?)" There is one use to which the telegraph, being in the hands of the Government, might possibly be here employed with advantage. It frequently occurs that persons are compelled to attend from a distance at the Supreme Court to give evidence which, though perhaps, very important, is not such as to require a very lengthened examination or severe cross-examination. I have thought that, with the wires brought into the Supreme Court, the telegraph, under proper regulations, might be used in such cases and so avoid the necessity of an expensive journey to and stay in Adelaide. The Special Magistrate for the district might attend with the witness at the nearest station and the examination might be conducted with the same facility as with the personal attendance of the witness in the Court. I merely throw out the suggestion."
Reference: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/833953?searchTerm=kooringa telegraph line&searchLimits=l-availability=y#pstart18379