4c charge for call ‘reasonable’

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32540, 25 February 1971, Page 2

4c charge for call ‘reasonable’

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, February 24. The charge of 4c for local calls from public telephone boxes is regarded as reasonable for the service provided, according to Mr F. B. Leighton, the Post Office’s director of public relations.

Mr Leighton commented in a statement today on a complaint iodged earlier this week by Mr G. G. Walker, secretary of ihe Christchurch Fire Brigade Union.

Mr Walker had made a formal complaint 'on the increased rates under the price justification regulations. The cost of a local call has risen from: 2c to 4c.

"The service provided by the Post Office from its public telephones is very costly to operate and costs are rising all the time,” said Mr Leighton. The provision of extended area service had greatly increased the number of subscribers who could be called, Mr Leighton said. In 1950, when the charge was 2d a call, only 31,000 subscribers could be called in Auckland. Today 177,000 could be called in Auckland for 4c, in Wellington 99,000 (27,000 in 1950), and in Christchurch 87,000 (16,000 in 1950). Mr Leighton also said that in 1967 the local call charge

was 3d. It was reduced with the advent of decimal currency to 2c. In lodging his formal complaint against the increase charges, Mr Walker said it was “a wicked action.”

In his statement today Mr Leighton said that the new charges compared favourably with those overseas.