MURUPARA TO USE WHAKATANE & TE TEKO EXCHANGES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 19, 7 August 1950, Page 5

MURUPARA TO USE WHAKATANE & TE TEKO EXCHANGES

The laying of the new telephone system to serve Murupara and neighbouring districts has been almost completed and is expected to be in operation shortly. Since work was commenced 18 months ago a gang has been employed continu-. ously, and nearly 3000 poles have been erected and about four miles of underground cable laid. The Murupara rural automatic exchange will open with 140 subscribers, of whom 114 will be residential and 26 business connections. The exchange will provide a 24hour service and subscribers will dial Rotorua directly for their numbers.

For the Bay of Plenty, they will have an outlet through Te Teko until midnight and thereafter, through Whakatane. The present line with Murupara, including Ruatahuna, Te Whaiti and Papuera, will also have it’s outlet through the Te Teko exchange. When the Murupara rural automatic exchange has been completed, it is proposed to run extra circuits to Te Whaiti and also to build a telephone line into Minginui village which jyill considerably improve the service at that end.

The Kaingaroa telephone office is due to be opened at any time now. Twelve miles of line from Murupara to Kaingaroa had to be reconstructed to connect with carrier circuits there and thus dialing outlets for the rural automatic exchange were released.