Submarine telegraph 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 on 26 August 1866. The copper telegraph cable, insulated with natural rubber from Malaya, was laid on the sea floor from Whites Bay, north of Blenheim, to Lyall Bay on Wellington’s south coast.

A network of telegraph stations and wires had spread rapidly since New Zealand’s first overland cables had connected Christchurch to Lyttelton in 1862. In December 1864, Dunedin MP Julius Vogel introduced a motion in Parliament recommending the construction of a cable across Cook Strait to connect New Zealand’s soon-to-be capital with its economic heartland, the South Island.

Accompanied by a flotilla of MPs, the operation to lay the cable across the strait began off Wellington’s south coast on 26 July 1866. The initial attempt was abandoned after the cable snapped because it was being pulled too quickly, littering the cable ship Weymouth with broken machinery and decking. The second attempt came up short because the cable was laid out too slowly and drifted sideways in strong currents. Recycling some of the cable from the first attempt helped make up the shortfall.

The extended telegraph network covered such a large area – from Napier in the north to Bluff in the south – that a single New Zealand standard time became necessary. Prior to a parliamentary resolution in September 1868, provincial centres maintained their own local time according to longitude. This disrupted the operation of the telegraph system, as individual stations opened and closed at different times. New Zealand was the first jurisdiction in the world to implement a standard time.

The strong currents in Cook Strait continued to plague the interisland telegraph cable, frequently putting it out of action. Eventually, in 1880, a longer replacement cable was laid across the calmer South Taranaki Bight between Wakapuaka (near Nelson) and Whanganui.

Image: Telegraph cable (Alastair McLean, Te Ara)