OUR ACCURATE TELEGRAMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue LVI, 13 November 1925, Page 7

OUR ACCURATE TELEGRAMS.

FEW ERRORS OCCUR,

FvKPETITION THE SAFEGUARD.

Auckland and the rest of New Zealand is not troubled about the efficiency of the Post and Telegraph Department, in transmitting telegrams; and the position met with in England', where there has recently been a great increase in telegraphic errors, is non-existent here. Questioned on this point, a leading official declined to discuss the number of errors in our system, but preferred to leave it to the public to judge. The Department gave the best possible service, and, he believed, the result was general satisfaction. One point on which New Zealand had a great advantage over Eng'and was the absence of dialect. The New Zealander might speak a language distinct from other people; but within the Dominion there were no local dialects. If people, when using the telephones, did sometimes say an "f" like a "v," or a "t" like a "d," it was very seldom that such errors crept into the telegrams. That was because practically all telegrams transmitted by telephone j were checked over by repetition and a '' system they have of saying "P for Pat ,, or "B for Bill," or something equally definite. The repetition is, in fact, a I well-regulated process, and is by nc means an off-hand business. So efilcieni are the operators in transmitting mes sages by the aid of this check that it il doubtful whether any greater accuracj is obtained even by the telegraph.

Telephones to Small Centres. It is speed, not accuracy, that determines. t the time when a Country office will be ' fitted with a telegraph set; and speed, ! of course, does not become of great mi- .'■ portance until tiie trattic grows. New : ' Zealand is in a different position from I England on account of the growth of her i population. Whereas many centres in | England might be either at a standstill j or declining, there are very few villages in New Zealand that are not larger this « year than they were last year, or the ' year before; and experience shows that they are not backward in using this as an argument ior installing a telegraph ! instrument at the village post oflice. Every year there is an extension of the system in this way; but, as long as the telephoning work does not boconie too heavy, telephones must continue to be used for sending telegrams' from small centres. This makes it partly clear ] where the source of errors lies in ling- ; land. If the telephonist in a back district spoke a local dialect he would im- ; mediately be in trouble with the man receiving from him or transmitting to him from Auckland or somewhere else. From such a drawback our system is entirely free. Quickness appears to be the guiding principle in sending our telegrams; and, if messages do sometimes reach their | destination too late, they are seldom incorrect; andi the cause of the lateness might ibe the fault of the psople concerned and not of the Department. At ; any rate, accuracy is not reckoned so! much as a merit, but an essential, of the business. Fifteen Million Messages. Last year the number of telegrams sent by telegraphs and telephones in New Zealand was 15,471,850, an increase of a million on the previous year. Between the four centres the traflic is heavy, and to cope with this there are Murray Multiplex machines installed, that can handle, in the case of Auckland, a maximum of about 320 words a minute. How long any town or. country disrict must wait before it is granted better facilities than it possesses now, depends alone upon the amount of its increase in traffic; and, meanwhile, in very small centres, store-keepers, farmers, wives or anyone chosen, with the approval of the Department, often carries out the duties of local postal official. The sma.ll proportion of errors shows that their work is efficiently done and that they do useful service to the people who live in rural districts many miles from any township.