South Australian Chronicle
12 May 1877
"On Wednesday afternoon, May 9, a deputation from Wilmington waited upon the Minister of Agriculture and Education (Hon E. Ward) and were introduced by Mr. P. B Coglin, M.P. The deputation consisted of Messrs. G.S: Blackwell, J. G. Gibson, A. Macdonald, and G. Hodgkiss, accompanied by Messrs. W.H. Dunn, M.P., P. B. Coglin, M.P., J. Darling M.P. Mr. C. Todd,C.M.C., was also present.
Mr. Blackwell said the object of the deputation was to obtain post and telegraph offices in the Township of Wilmington instead of at Davenport, half a mile away, where the offices were now situated. Mr. Blackwell said that on the 28th of September, 1876, he made an offer to provide an office for a telegraph station and post office next his store at Wilmington free of charge for 12 months, and stated that he was prepared to take charge of mails at once until an officer was appointed. He sent his offer by telegram to Mr. Todd but never received a reply. Messrs. Coglin, Dunn and Darling explained the grievances of the inhabitants and the necessity which existed for removing the telegraph office to the Government township. Mr. Gibson said it was a matter of importance to him, because he had expended several thousand pounds in the township in the belief that the Government offices would be placed on the Government reserves.
The Ministry, in reply, said he had taken a personal interest in this matter, and when he passed through Beautiful Valley, a deputation waited upon him and asked his aid in establishing a telegraphic station there. Knowing what a centre it was, he felt determined to get it established, and spoke to Mr. Todd upon the subject. The Superintendent pointed out to him that it would be undesirable to place the telegraph station to be opened at Wilmington in the hands of a storekeeper. He (the Minister) coincided with this view, and thought it well to engage a building until the Government offices were ready. He thought it very unjust to himself that he should have been subjected to misrepresentation over this matter. He had read a statement in a paper in Melbourne as telegraphed to the Register that there was great indignation at Wilmington because the offices were not established there; whereas, had it not been for his (the Minister's) action, the telegraph would not have been opened in that district until the Government offices were erected. He had taken pains to get telegraph communication opened months earlier than it otherwise would have been, and never had any other idea than that the Government offices should be erected at Wilmington. He considered, however, the present position of the temporary telegraph office was as convenient to the residents around as it would be in any part of the township of Wilmington. The Minister read minutes which he had made on letters in October, November and December last, wherein he gave instructions that steps should be taken to open the Telegraph Office, and arrangements were entered into with Mr. Marshall to rent a place. On the 7th of October, 1876 he (Mr. Ward) wrote a minute, as follows: — The Station Master at Port Augusta should visit Wilmington immediately and ascertain whether any satisfactory arrangement can be made for lease or temporary occupation of a building for a Telegraph Office; if not, a small wooden building may be purchased for temporary use there. It is important that a station should be opened there as soon as possible. On the 10th of December, in reply to an offer from Mr. Gibson to provide two rooms in a store for £50 per annum, and another from Mr. Marshall to erect a temporary room for the purpose, he (Mr. Ward) made another minute. 'I approve of Marshall's offer being accepted, at 5s. per week. Pending erection of an office in the Government township, I shall be glad if an operator can be placed at Beautiful Valley, and communication opened without delay. Provision for office at Wilmington to be noted for next Estimates.
Mr. Todd apologised to Mr. Blackwell for having inadvertently overlooked his offer, and not having drawn the Minister's attention to it. Mr. Blackwell said he was not personally interested in having the office near his store, but the grievance of the people of Wilmington was that the office was now contiguous to Davenport, and was not situated in Wilmington at all. He said that he, with others, purchased land at Wilmington at five times the price which they could have got land for at the private township of Davenport, in the belief that the Government offices would be established at Wilmington. The Minister explained that Mr. Marshall was an old servant of the department, and the Superintendent was justified in appointing him. Other members of the deputation said that great efforts would be made to retain the Post Office where it is and that land was rising in value in its neighborhood now. The Minister said the Government buildings would be erected within the Government township, but he could not pledge himself to any particular spot. If the public requirements could be best served by placing the Government offices on a block to the north of the site at present selected, the buildings would be erected there.
Members of the deputation again complained that they had expended large sums on their land on the understanding that the Government offices would be erected at Wilmington. They, however, thanked the Minister for the action which he had taken in supplying temporary offices. The Minister said it would only be fair that the other inhabitants of the township should have an opportunity of expressing their opinions upon the renewal of the temporary offices. He would not be justified in removing the temporary offices simply on the representation of the few gentlemen who now waited upon him. He would promise that the Government offices should be erected within the township of Wilmington, but would not pledge himself to the site. Mr. J. Darling urged that if the telegram from Mr. Blackwell had not been overlooked, or if it had been placed before the Minister, the temporary office would have been erected at Wilmington. The Minister said he would take into consideration the advisability or otherwise of removing the temporary office but he would not pledge himself until he had ascertained the wishes of the bulk of the inhabitants. Mr. Dunn said in that case the Minister could save the trouble of enquiry because most of the inhabitants were settling near the Post and Telegraph Offices in the private township of Davenport, while the Government township was losing its status. After a few more remarks, the deputation again thanked the Minister and withdrew".
South Australian Register
16 May 1877.
THE WILMINGTON TELEGRAPH OFFICE
"Wilmington is a place that is having greatness thrust upon it. In itself, it is but an insignificant township with a population to be reckoned by units and a trade which has not expanded into any very large proportions. But Wilmington has the misfortune or good fortune, whichever it may be regarded, of having a grievance and this grievance has secured for it a notoriety beyond its size.
Some time ago it was largely answerable for an outburst of virtuous rage on the part of the Premier which threatened, or at all events was intended, incontinently to shrivel up the Register, but which happily failed of its purpose. More recently advantage has been taken of its existence by the Minister of Agriculture and Education to bewail the misrepresentation of which he has been the innocent victim and to trumpet forth his own worthy acts.
One might have thought that so comparatively small a matter as obtaining a telegraph station for a township could be allowed to remain a silent witness to the zeal of the Minister who, in the regular course of official duty, happened to establish it or that, at all events, the Minister himself would not base upon it any heavy claim to local gratitude. But this is not Mr. Ward's way of working. In his consuming passion for publicity, his burning anxiety to be always before the public eye, he would much rather be abused than ignored and if, he cannot get the abuse, he imagines it to have the opportunity for a powerful reply and an opening for a blast of self commendation. In this case, he has had singularly little material to work upon but he made the most of it. He had, he repeatedly asserted to a deputation which waited on him on Wednesday last, 'gone out of his way' to serve the Wilmington people although, in reality, a few strokes of his pen were, at the outside, all that was necessary to ensure what had been asked for; and he was absolutely pitiful in his appeal for appreciation and sympathy.
Unluckily for him, while his zeal was cheerfully acknowledged, it was felt to be zeal in a wrong cause. The ground of the grievance was that he had sanctioned precisely what the deputation consisting of landowners in Wilmington had not desired. Relying upon the fact that they held property in a Government township, the allotments in which had brought higher prices because offered by the Government and because of a reasonable expectation that, whatever public money was expended in the neighborhood would be expended in it, the landowners had asked for immediate telegraphic communication with Adelaide and they had been rewarded by having the telegraph office established half a mile away at a spot closely adjoining the private township of Davenport. This was the question brought under review, and not the bounty of the Minister in promising that money should be placed on the Estimates to build an office in Wilmington itself.
The grievance was that in fixing the temporary office where it had been fixed, a direct stimulus had been given to a private township and a corresponding check to Wilmington, and the deputation pressed home the injustice done to them by proving that they had undertaken, free of cost to the Government, to provide unexceptionable accommodation for an operator. It is only fair to say that this fact had somehow been lost sight of and never was communicated to Mr. Ward, but it is manifestly unreasonable that the Wilmingtonians should suffer from an official oversight.
Their position is a strong one. They bought land and paid dearly for it in the district, understanding that the public buildings would be in Wilmington, some of them even giving an extra price for allotments near a reserve adjoining the main road which it was assumed would be the site of the buildings; they have gone to considerable expense in erecting substantial premises still in the faith that the township would have the full benefit of the Government patronage; and they are naturally mortified that, by the Government, an amount of favour should be shown to a private township which will have the present effect of diverting population to it and give it an undue influence in determining the final site of the telegraph building.
The Minister has definitely promised that that erection shall be in Wilmington, but he has not pledged himself to place it in the position best suited to conserve Wilmington interests. We should not think it worth while were it not that a question of principle is involved. We are constantly hearing of conflicts between private and Government townships in matters of public expenditure, and in many cases it is difficult to determine on which side the balance should, with a due regard to the general well-being, turn. Such conflicts are mainly due either to blundering in the original selection of the Government township or< to dilatoriness in fixing upon a site and disposing of the land.
Both of these causes can be averted if proper care and foresight are observed in the Survey Department, and we have little fear that, under the present permanent management, there will be any serious ground of complaint. In the case of Wilmington, there is certainly nothing to advance against the suitability of the site. It is centrally placed for the districts in course of settlement, it is bisected by the main North-road, and it is skirted by another main artery of traffic connecting it with Willochra. To judge from the statements of their spokesmen at the recent deputation, all that the purchasers of land in it wish is that its just claims as a Government township shall be fully recognised and, in asking this, they are seeking what no Ministry can in reason deny".