SLOW HASTE.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12353, 17 November 1905, Page 4

SLOW HASTE.

The. Pest and Telegraph Department have accumulated, in Christohurch, £10,000 worth of material for use in the installation of the metallic circuit eys-

torn in" connection with the telephone servioe, and the work, we are told, is to be commenced "shortly." That pleasant prospect has, however, been held up beforo ua for so many months I that confident anticipation is beginning to give place to a feeling of depressed wonder as to whether telephone communication in Christchurch will ever be better than it is now. Everyone who uses the telephone has daily experience of the intolerable annoyance caused by the failure by tbe Telegraph Department to provide against the effect of the electrio tram service. It was known more than .three years ago that the city intended adopting that system, and that it would inevitably so disorganise the telephone service as to make communication unpleasant, if not almost impossible. Yet here we are, nearly six months after tbe trams first began to run, and tlie Department still hopes to commence "shortly" the work of altering the telephone system so as to meet the new conditions which at present make it an infliction,, rafher than a convenience. Even when the installation of the (metallic circuit ia begun, it will, if the experience of Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin is anything to go by, be years before it is completed. In Auckland the fitting up of the new system is being pushed on with such little haste that the Department is only just keeping ahead of the number of new subscribers, and in Wellington metallio circuits are understood to have been fitted up in only a few of the premises nearest to the telephone exchange. This ia a matter which affects everyone using the telephone in the four centres, but the mercantile community is chiefly concerned, and we must remind Sir Joseph Ward that his reputation as a business man is at stake over it. He has earned the credit of endeavouring to manage Che Post and Telegraph Department on sound and businesslike lines, end to have succeeded very largely in his aims. The neglect to recognise in time the needs of tbe community when electric trams should become established, and the inexcusable delay that has occurred in installing tho new system, constitute, however, a blot on his otherwise successful administration. We hope, for his own credit and for the convenience of all who use the telephone, that the Minister will use his authority to hasten the work which now proceeds in such leisurely fashion. It has to be done, and that being so, there is no reason or common-sense in prolonging it over a term of years when, if matters were expedited, it could be completed in twelve months or less.