TELEPHONE CALLS IN EMERGENCIES

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27637, 19 April 1955, Page 11

TELEPHONE CALLS IN EMERGENCIES

PLANS TO INTRODUCE NEW SYSTEM (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 18. New Zealanders will be able to dial the number 111 for emergency assistance when the Post Office can go ahead with plans to introduce the system. Masterton will get the new service first, probably near the end of this year, according to a statement by an officer of the Post and Telegraph Department today. The emergency number will eventually be the one to ring for fire brigades, police, and ambulances. The officer said that technical difficulties were in the way et the moment. Until the rotary-type automatic exchanges were replaced entirely by the step-by-step type, it was not feasible to bring in the 111 emergency number.

The reason for 111 being adopted as the emergency number as opposed to 999 in Britain was technical, said the officer.

“In Britain the telephone dial is reverse to New Zealand’s, the next number to 0 being 9, then 8 and. so on,” he said. “The last number is one, and no group of numbers of an automatic exchange there can start with 1. Similarly, in New Zealand, no group of numbers can start with 9, because of the same technical difficulties. So the emergency number here, 111, will be dialled exactly the same as 999 in Britain.

“Another advantage of the number 1 on the New Zealand dial is that it is said to be the easiest number to find in the dark, except 0, which is reserved for ‘operator.’ ”