Australia - International.
Reuters Telegram Company.

The following references are included on this page:

      1. a brief summary of the main aspects of Reuters establishment and early history in Australia.
      2. a listing of the addresses of Reuters' Offices in Australia;
      3. examples of advertisementsoutlining their services in Australia.

 

1. Brief overview of the early history of Reuters in Australia.

The well-known Reuters dates from a text news service founded by Julius Reuter in 1851. He established an office to transmit information between the London and Paris stock exchanges.

The Reuters Company operated in Australia from 1860. By 1869, the Company had obtained exclusive rights to Australia and the Far East.

For the first few years, Reuters operated though its appointed Agent Greville's Telegraph Company. It then operated independently as a Telegraphic Company in Australia for a number of years. (Further background at http://ketupa.net/reuters.htm). The focus of its service was solely concerned with messages between England, other Reuter’s bases in the British Empire and Australia and not with domestic services.

In 1872, the cost of a cable to London was 10/- per word. An agreement to supply news to major Australian dailies took effect from 21 October 1872.

There was an exclusive arrangement between Reuters and Australian Associated Press which in turn allowed the Argus and the Sydney Morning Herald to be the only newspapers to receive the foreign news. John Byron, who had formerly worked at Greville's, opened an office in 1877 in London to provide foreign news to those newspapers who had been excluded from the arrangement. Reuters offered to buy Byron out but he refused. Reuters soon began to regret the exclusivity of the arrangement and tried to modiy their contractual obligations.

Reuters profitability in Australia depended not so much on the news services but on commercial activities, especially private telegrams.

The continuing dominance of the telegram over other forms of communication was reiterated when Reuters reported the Armistice which ended World War I in many places of the world even before the British Government’s official announcement.

 

2. Location of Reuters Offices in Australia.

The company opened Offices in:

Colony/State Address  
Melbourne
(Central Office in Australia)		 The Exchange. Melb
Cover to Reuters Telegraph Company in Melbourne - note an address was unnecessary to include.
28 August 1897.
Has a Melbourne datestamp over a Postmaster-General Frank stamp in black.
Brisbane    
Sydney 110 Pitt Street. Sydney
2 July 1902.
Provenance: Max Watson.
Mossgreen April 2017, Lot 395.
Hobart    
     
Launceston    
Adelaide Broken Hill Chambers,  
Perth    
Kalgoorlie No. 4 Westralia Chambers.  

 

3. Examples of early advertisements promoting Reuters services.

Advertisements were lodged in various newspapers to promote the company's services. For example, the following advertisement appeared in the Kalgoorlie Miner of 9 July 1896:

REUTER'S TELEGRAM COMPANY, Limited.
KALGOORLIE AGENCY
No 4 WESTRALIA CHAMBERS.

The Company offers special facilities for the transmission of Telegrams to the United Kingdom, the Continent of Europe and America. Telegraphic Addresses of Sender and Receivers registered free of charge under one word. The Company's extensive codes of 350,000 phrases placed at the disposal of Senders by which the cost of Telegrams can be greatly reduced. Money remitted to and from the United Kingdom on lowest terms. Special cyclist employed for the delivery of telegrams throughout the district.

W. K. DAVIS.
Agent.

 

The following advertisement in the Adelaide Register of 1 May 1906:

REUTERS TELEGRAM COMPANY LIMITED
BROKEN HILL CHAMBERS, ADELAIDE.

REUTER'S free Cable Addresses embrace both sender and receiver.Great economy effected by using Reuter's new code of half a million phrases.

Messages in this code translated before delivery.

Mail and telegraphic remittances at lowest rates to all places within and beyond Australasia.

Phone 511.

(JJ COULD PUT THIS NEXT TO JOHNSTONE TASMANIAN RECEIPT)

As would be expected, the Company used advertising at every opportunity.

A very nice advertisement was the use of collar stamps on mail. It is not known whether all mail was treated in this way or just special mail.

The rare collar stamp shown at the right has a 2d violet Stamp Duty modified Naish design first issued in 1886. The final printing was made in January 1901 from which this stamp has probably come.

Collar stamps (or Advertising Collars or Name Rings) were used in Australia in the early 1900s. The NSW Post Office Monthly Circular for August 1908 noted:

"Correspondence bearing around the postage stamps, announcements in the form of circles, squares, embellishments etc, printed, embossed or attached, or other kinds of designs of the kind generally known as name rings, etc, not being admissible into the United Kingdom, Postmasters and others concerned are herby notified that correspondence so marked must not be forwarded for despatch thereto".

For the collar:

Used: 23 January 1902.

Size: 45 × 41 mm.

Rated: RRRR.

Number in the Census: 1.

Collar stamp
Reuters Collar stamps containing a 2d Naish Stamp Duty Naish design.

23 January 1902.