CHRISTCHURCH TELEPHONES.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11877, 26 April 1904, Page 6

CHRISTCHURCH TELEPHONES.

The expression* of opinion as to tha Christchurch telephone service, which we published yesterday morning, are, we be- | lkjve, thoroughly representative of the views of a large majority of the mercantile and professional community. They show general discontent with the working of the system, and go to prove that, as worked in Christchurch, tne telephone is not an unmixed blessing. The sufferer, whose opinions were invited eeem to have been pretty well agreed that the fault lies within tho Exchange, and allegations of "cheekiness," inattention, gossiping, and preferential treatment were made. On the other hand, the officials say in effect, that subscribers are often to blame for the delays, through failing to "ring off" when they have finished using the telephone. The charge that the operators are inattentive and too much given to chatter is met by the assertion that they are under supervision the whole time, and could not gossip without being noticed. What would happen if they were detected in talking io not taentioned, but we imagine, from purely circumstantial evidence, that the penalty is not very severe. At all events, it does not absolutely prohibit. As for the alleged preference for bookmakers, wo should require very plain evidence to satisfy us that the charge is Justified. Subscribers, we are told, are to oome extent responsible for some of the telephone annoyances', owing to the manner in which they address the operators. The admission rather weakens the official contradiction of preferential treatment, but of course there can be no excuse for downright rudeness to the operator. There is a line to be drawn, however, between personal and impersonal impoliteness. That, if we may say so, is one of the drawbacks to the employment of young ladies in telephone exchanges; they cannot remember that when a business subscriber, annoyed at a five minuter delay, addresse% them in urgent, perhaps even in strenuous, though perfectly proper language, he is not speaking to a woman. He is talking to a machine, a system, of which, tvs it hapens, a young woman is, for the time, a part, and his reproachful E remarks are not intended to be taken by her as a personal insult any more than are his sotto voce comments on Edison and all subsequent inventors. Did occasion arise, as is sometimes the case, he would speak just aa freely to the male operators w. occupy the Exchange at night. To a _x__ in a hurry, exasperated by one of those waits which always seem so much longer than they really are—and they are long enough in reality—the person at the official end of the telephone is merely a voice and nothing more. It is a condition, we imagine, that is not without its compensations. It was suggested, in an officially non-com-mittal manner, that the delays are caused by the operators being overworked. The remedy, in that caae, is obvious. It is said that every operator in tha Christchurch

Exchange has 150 subscribers to look after, while in Wellington the number is 100. There ia no earthly reason why the Chriatchurch Exchange should be under-sfaffed, and we are glad to have Sir Joseph Ward's promise that if he finds this to be the case he will soon put matters on a better footing. In the meantime, what with the frequent unnecessary delays in getting an answer and the even more exasperating experience of being "cut off" in the middle of a conversation, telephoning in Christchurch is just now a weary and unprofitable business, and tlie sooner an improvement is made, the better it will be for tempers all round.