Letter from the Provincial Telegraph Manager to the Town Clerk, September 1865, informing him that telegraph poles for the new West Coast telegraph line would need to go into the Square. Before most city streets and footpaths had even been laid, somebody was digging them up and promising to put everything back the way it was, thus starting a tradition that has lasted into the 21st century. The first telegraph system in the colony was opened in 1862 between Christchurch and Lyttelton by way of the Bridle Path. Cook Strait was crossed in 1866, and a line from New Zealand to New South Wales was opened in 1876.

CH 343/45a item 2. Inwards letters Christchurch City Council