Events In History
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10 November 1871Telegraph Department cleared of 'hacking' charges
Events in 1870-71 led Otago Daily Times editor George Barton to claim in his newspaper that the government had been intercepting telegraphs for political gain. Read more...
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26 August 1866Telegraph line laid across Cook Strait
After two bungled attempts and near disaster at sea, the installation of the first communications cable between the North and South Islands of New Zealand was completed. A simple copper telegraph cable was laid on the sea floor from Whites Bay, north of Blenheim, to Lyall Bay on Wellington’s south coast. Read more...
Articles
The Vogel era
In 1870, Colonial Treasurer Julius Vogel launched the most ambitious development programme in New Zealand’s history. The ‘Vogel era’ was a decisive moment in New Zealand’s 19th-century transformation from a Māori world to a Pākehā one.
- Page 4 - Building Vogel's railwaysJulius Vogel wasn’t the first colonial politician to promise to fund public works and immigration with borrowed money. But the early 1870s offered better prospects for
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Main image: Telegraph services staff at work
Staff working at a telegraph office, circa 1910s