AUCKLAND'S RECORD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 218, 12 September 1923, Page 7

AUCKLAND'S RECORD.

APPRECIATES ITS TELEPHONES BT FAYING BUREAU FEES. NO UNPAID LIST.. Though "it is more blessed to give than receive." there is an exception in the matter of paying aeeounta. and. particularly must this apply to the telephone subscriber who. month after ! month, has. to stroll do'.vn to the post ! office to settle bureau feea. The teleI phone ia a great convenience, and it is at a premium in Auckland at the present day. with a lonjr list of prospective •uhsiTib'ers. and when one'e friends happen alonj and exploit your convenience and in a ring to Devonpi. r r . oiiplim/E. or .-imiiar bureau dis- !,■„.;. iic:tiii>r ciey nor the fortunate p,,..-f>,.;.,r tii ink much of the small monetary outlay involved. It U only at t!ie end of tilp month whpn the notice ! informing; thp -subscriber that he i≤ in- ! debt«d to the Department for a. few i ppn-e arrive*, that he wisnes that Mr., ! Mrs. or So-and-so pouW trot the I ac-rount down to "he fr.P.O. and settle ; ,-. As a matter of fart, practice shows riiat the su!>->Tiber pays regularly in j Auckland, anil it ia to the credit of ttie I cia-ht or nine thousand users of the 'phone in the city that for the last few venr- delinquent!) in payinpj their bureau ; accounts have been practically nil. This, :.- -omerhinj of a record for the Do- ' minion for in otner larjje cpntres, even ,n Uunedin. where the thrifty ?cot , abounds, there is quite a formidable list (>v«rv half year of ■aiibarribera who have tailed in realise the;r onlijations to the D.»parT.m.»nr. 1 Proojably the prime reason for this ni»210.-t is It is such a -mall matti'r to the subscriber, but muc.l more weijrhty to the officials of the Department, who are tryinsf to keep their returns square The Department has v.f>~, indifferen-'p, or whatever other •*atP'jjory it coiKes m —it is to summarily disconnect tne 'phone. They arc quite a body of men in the Department, however, and they allow the subscribers a certain amount, of inoilsen.-e. N'otiwa are issued jiving about fourteen-days'gTace, and should the iijbsrriher nos -come up :o scratch at the termination of that period. The Department, circulates what .is apparently an arbitary notice, that unless the settlement in made within a few .lays, tue official trump card —diaconnivt ion—will he played. Aa a matrer of practice, trumps have to be led ']u.te frequently, for the Depart- , ment finrlj about a thousand in its pack every month. Extremely rarplv does the subsonber fail to follow suit. Perhaps there will ho a tinal reminder from the (i.P.0.. hu: invariaibly the amount, he i- or small, drifts into headquarters. A.s haa been mentioned, the shortajje of 'piiones;' in t!ie pity and the conse.(■ien - appreciation Ait the luxury is a , sum.-wnt cne--k to the careless mdiii vidii.il, and ai' desire to keep it com-| pel?, his reluctant sie-ps ro the bottom of yueen Street. Wellineton is burilene.i. of .-our-.-, with its bia percentage of official subscribers, and what insigiiilicanc member of the Department would have the temerity to disconnect, for instance, a member of Parliament? Auckland, fortunately, is fairly free from individuals who «heiter behind the i harrier of officialdom, and this is another factor which can tie considered in the city's good rpcord. i