THE TEROWIE POST AND TELEGRAPH OFFICE.
South Australian Advertiser 4 May 1881.
"On Tuesday morning, May 3, a large deputation of residents in and around Terowie, with Messrs. E. Ward and W. B. Rounsevell, the members for the district of the Burra, waited on the Minister of Education (Sen. F. Basedow, M.P.), with regard to the proposed post and telegraph station at that township.
Mr. Rounsevell, M.P., in introducing the business of the deputation, said it was a matter in which the inhabitants of Terowie took a most lively interest. A memorial had been presented to the former Minister of Education, and deputations had waited on on him more than once to ask that the proposed post and telegraph office should be erected not in the railway reserve, as intended by the Government, but in the main street. The wish had been expressed in Parliament that wherever it was practical, post-offices should be built in conjunction with the railway stations, so as to save expense and trouble, but in the present case, the site chosen was a very inconvenient one, because the major portion of the business of the township was earned in the main street to the south-west of the railway station, and all the houses in the Government and private townships lay to the west and south-west of the railway station, so that most of the inhabitants would be better served by having the post-office between the two townships.
Most of the homes were in the private township, the Government township to the south having not yet been built over, whereas the railway station was at the north-east corner where the two townships joined each other; and as there were no houses to the north of it, and the population was rapidly increasing in the south-west and west, he thought the Government should depart from their usual course, and erect the post and telegraph station in the main street.
Mr. E. Ward, M.P.,had studied the question of the post-office site at Terowie, and had seen where the main business of the township was concentrated. If Mr. Basedow would run up to Terowie, he would have no difficulty in deciding as to which was the most convenient position. He believed several gentlemen wished to have the post office in the place that the Government had fixed upon, and these gentlemen had been his (Mr. Ward's) supporters, whereas those who were in favor of the main street site had opposed him during the elections and therefore when be stated himself to be in favor of this latter position, he could certainly not be accused of party spirit.
The Government of course wished to erect the building on land that they had at their own disposal, but as the people of Terowie were willing to present the Government with an allotment in the main street, the only reason the Government could now have for using the railway reserve as the site would be the convenience to railway travellers and to the railway officials. Mr. Baragwanath then read a memorial which had been drawn up at a public meeting over which he had presided. The memorial was signed by 122 house and landholders, and, in asking that the proposed offices should be erected in the main street, it stated that the former Minister of Education had promised that they should be built south of the railway reserve as there was not a single building to the north or west of it, but this promise had not been fulfilled.
Mr. Baragwanath then proceeded to describe the site proposed by the inhabitants of the township, and enlarged on the many inconveniences that would arise if the building were erected on the railway reserve. He pointed out that there were two townships in Terowie — the private and the Government townships — and that most of the buildings were in the private part, which was west and south east of the railway reserve, while of the Government allotments to the south and west very few had been built on. There was only one building near the railway station, and that, was a hotel; the chief shops and offices were all in the main street, some four or five hundred yards away; the school was at the other end of the township, so that children who were sent for their father's letters had to walk a good distance; and as the township was badly lighted it was a matter of some danger to go to the railway station by night. If the post office were erected on section 519 as was proposed by the residents, all these inconveniences would be done away with.
The road from Warner on which the farmers from the north-west districts travelled, also cut the main street near this section. A deputation had waited on the former Minister in January, and the Postmaster-General had considered the matter and had given it as his opinion that the Government site would be the best one as it would be obtained for nothing. Several gentlemen then promised to present a piece of land in the main street for the purpose, and the Minister said the offices would be built on that allotment. When the deputation returned to Terowie, a rival meeting, at which about twenty persons were present, was held, and a memorial was drawn up asking that the railway reserve might be used for the purpose.
On the same evening a meeting, attended by about 130 persons, was held at the institute hall, and the memorial he had presented was drawn up. The rival memorial was signed by about fifty persons, but very few of them were householders, and some were women and servants. He would ask that Mr. Baselow would test the signatures in each memorial. Mr. Baragwanath then read some paragraphs that had appeared in The Register on this subject during the month of February. The Rev. J. B. Sneyd, a resident of Terowie, said that nine-tenths of the inhabitants of Terowie lived to the south-west of the railway station. Mr. Stephenson J.P., concurred with Mr. Baragwanath, and said that the opposition had been started wholly by a solicitor and a discharged wheat buyer. Mr. G. Jenkins, J.P., testified to the general wish of the farmers in the district to have the post and telegraph office in the main street, and spoke of the amount of rubbish and earth which rendered the road to the railway station at night dangerous Mr. W. H. Sharland, J.P., as a visitor to the township, thought that if the Government had the interests a rising town at heart, they would choose the spot for a post-office which would serve the inhabitants best. He considered the site in the main street would do this. Mr. C. Hardy said he had practised as a solicitor in Terowie for about twelve months, and that a great number of persons had borrowed money from him for the purpose of building in the township south and west of the railway station, but none wished to build on the north of it. Nine tenths of the telegrams that were sent in the township were from the banks and the solicitors and auctioneers offices, all of which were situated near section 519. Messrs. J. Eglinton and Hoskinson also spoke is favor of this site.
The Minister of Education, in reply, said that of course the convenience of the inhabitants of the township must be studied first. He had carefully gone through the papers he had on the subject, and would have given his decision previously but for the fact that one of the members for the district had asked him to wait, because some action would be taken in the matter. The document before him showed the resolutions which had been passed at the meeting held at Terowie. It had been sent to his predecessor, and had, in the usual course, been sent on to the Postmaster-General for consideration. He (Mr. Basedow) had afterwards received the petition that he held in his hand, the signatures on which were not bona fide. (Mr. Baragwanath — "The signatures were bona fide, but the persons who signed were of no standing in the township".) He had also received a document thanking him for his decision in the matter but he had given no decision. (Laughter.) He however was in an awkward position, as the people in the township were divided, and he would have to investigate the matter thoroughly and find out what the real feeling was. When Mr. Todd had received the copy of the resolutions that were passed, he had selected the railway reserve as a site for the post and telegraph station in preference to section 519 because of its convenience to the railway department and to travellers as well as to save the expense that would occur in the carriage of the mails. He had therefore sent in a minute asking that the Architect-in-Chief should get plans drawn out, and that the erection of the building should commence. He would, on the first opportunity, take a visit to Terowie himself-(hear, hear)—but although the site in the main street seemed the more central, there was still the expense in the carriage of the mails to be considered. (Mr. Rounsevell — "The railway porters could manage that"). At any rate, he would see that justice was done and would do everything he could.
The deputation then withdrew".