COMMERCIAL AND INDl'S'lRf.] I.. 



1415 



mails from Adelaide to London is thirty-five days, and one day less for seven trips 

 during the prevalence of the south-west monsoon. The time allowed from London to 



Adelaide is thirty-five days. 



TELEGRAPHS. 



" T "HE use of the electric telegraph in New South Wales dates from 1851, and two 

 : years later the work of construction was commenced in Victoria. It was not till 

 1854 that the first wire in Victoria that between Melbourne and Williamstown \\;is 

 brought into active use by Lieutenant-Governor Latrobe. A proposal to unite Sydney 

 and Melbourne by telegraph was made as early as 1845, but it was only in 1858 that 

 the plan was carried into execution, Melbourne and Adelaide having been connected in 

 1856. In South Australia the first line from Adelaide to Port Adelaide, about 9^ 

 miles, was constructed by Mr. McGeorge, but it was soon superseded by a Government 

 line. Tasmania introduced the telegraph in 1857, and two attempts were made to 

 connect Tasmania with Victoria by cable one in 1859, anc ^ ^ le second from Cape 

 Otway to King's Island, and so on to Tasmania, in 1860 each resulted in failure. 

 New Zealand established her 

 first telegraph in 1862 ; and 

 a line was opened in Queens- 

 land from Brisbane to Rock- 

 hampton in 1864. In June, 1869, 

 Western Australia opened a 

 line from Perth to Fremantle ; 

 and in May, 1869, the first 

 message from Tasmania to 

 Victoria, through the medium 

 of the new electric cable, was 

 successfully received. In each 

 colony inland telegraphs have 

 been constructed, and are 

 worked by the Government, 

 and every important township 

 is included in the system. 

 There is an unbroken line of 

 wire from the Gulf of Carpen- 

 taria, round the east and south 

 coast, to Roebuck's Bay, on the west coast. It is only on the north-west coast, 

 where there are no settlements, that there are no telegraphs. 



A great event in the history of Australia was the establishment of the first cable 

 between England and the Colonies. It is almost impossible to realize- now that Irss 

 than twenty years ago there were no cable messages, no European telegrams in the 

 morning papers, of events that had happened the day before, and an entire absence -of 

 that intimate acquaintance with the everyday progress of Old World affairs, that is to be 







A TELEGRAPH MESSKM il.R, SVDM V. 



