Father Christmas calls may go unanswered

Press, 22 October 1986, Page 25

Father Christmas calls may go unanswered

By

JENNY LONG

Father Christmas may not be answering telephone calls from Kaikoura children this year. Th cutover to automatic dialling for Kaikoura telephone subscribers means they no longer need to dial through the operator for all of their calls. Before Wednesday, when local children cranked the handle to give their requests to Father Christmas, one of the operators, Mr Bob Woodill. would take the call.

Mr Woodill retired on Wednesday after more than 20 years at the exchange. No doubt many subscribers will miss the operator service. A letter from one subscriber thanked the operators for 57 years of help through times of trouble and happiness. Acting as personal answer-phone for the emergency services was something the operators were always pleased to do. Callers could always be told where the doctor

was. The job had its quiet times too. Nobody would call the operators when there was a popular programme on television. At most times, there were eight operators and a supervisor on duty. Mr Woodill says they were just like a big happy family. Thirteen operators hav been made redundant because of the changeover. Many of them had been taken on as temporary staff, because the automatic system was ex-

pected, but they say that redundancy, when it finally comes, is a shock. Mr Woodill and the other operators will miss the -work for the personal service they could give, and some of the lighter moments they had. When callers telephoned to ask for the Post Office counter, Mr Woodill would invariably tell them he would see what he could do to have it sent up. The rest of the tales, say the operators, are not for printing.