CENTRALISING TELEPHONE SERVICES

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23447, 30 September 1941, Page 3

CENTRALISING TELEPHONE SERVICES

-—♦ — UNSATISFACTORY POSITION ON PENINSULA In reply to a letter to the Chief Postmaster, Christchurch, asking that the Banks Peninsula telephone services should be centralised either at Akaroa or Duvauchelle, and a continuous service provided, the district engineer, Mr H. G. Brent, replied to the Akaroa County Council that the provision of extra lines to the Duvauchelle exchange was impossible as war conditions prevented the obtaining of the necessary materials. He also said that an after-hour service was at present available by payment of a reopening fee, and an improved service could only be obtained if subscribers were willing to pay a higher rental fee for their telephones. Cr. C. B. Thacker said the council would have to accept the position if the material was not available to improve the peninsula telephone services, but he considered there was room for much improvement. Although the line from Akaroa to Le Eon’s Bay had been metalled where it was parallel to the power lines, the line from Le Bon’s Bay to Okain’s Bay, which also linked the Little Akaloa and Chorlton exchanges, went through paddocks and was often in a very bad condition. This line should be run along a main road where it could be properly serviced. Cr. Mora said that one dislocation at the top of Laverick’s Bay would cut off three bays and in places the line was so low that a man on horseback could not ride under it without losing his hat. Cr. Thacker said that from a Home Guard and emergency precautions point of view, the condition of this line was most unsatisfactory.-