Joint Telephone Effort

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31681, 17 May 1968, Page 1

Joint Telephone Effort

Co-operation between station owners and the Post Office will soon bring up-to-date telephone communications to some remote highcountry stations in the South Island.

Station owners have agreed to supply the labour to build the telephone lines, and the Post Office will supply the materials. One of the first stations to benefit by a permanent service will be Erewhon, on which is being developed a tourist ski resort at Erewhon Park.

The owner, Mr A. Urquhart, will deploy his staff to build the line with poles blown over in the Methven and Mayfield areas during the freak high-country snowstorm last November. Post Office staff will supervise the work and string a special carrier wire which will withstand severe weather. Erewhon and. many other high-country stations in the South Island have never had telephone service. They have had to rely on what by common consent is considered a thoroughly unsatisfactory and frustrating radio link.

Similar services will be provided for the Peak Hill and Oakden stations, in the Upper Rakaia. Without the co-operation of station owners the Post Office would be unable to provide service for several years because of high costs. The department’s Regional Engineer (Mr H. W. Wilkinson) said yesterday that in normal circumstances it would cost about $20,000 to supply Erewhon with a telephone service. By supplying

labour to erect the poles, the station would save the Post Office at least $lO,OOO. Post Office staff would soon recover poles affected by the November storm and take them to Erewhon station.

Erewhon staff would then build a route from the Rakaia Gorge circuit to the homestead —a distance of about 20 miles. A special high-tensile steel line with copper coating would then be strung. Mr Wilkinson said he ex-

pected this pattern of developing telephone services in the high country to extend as equipment became available. The most difficult problem was the provision of the special wire, which had to be imported. This was available in very limited quantities. Mr Wilkinson said that 80 miles of pole line affected by the November storm had been replaced by underground cable. Suitable poles would be kept to provide services such as that for Erewhon.