STAND TELEPHONES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2982, 20 January 1917, Page 12

STAND TELEPHONES

AND CARRIERS' COMPLAINTS

"W& don't like getting the blame when the'council is responsible. They've had since April last to give out keys and iix up the telephono boxes, aiid they haven't done it." So said Mr. James Rodgers, a Wellington carrier, of the Grey Street stand, to the ByLaivg. Committeo of the City Council yesterday. , It appears that the carriers who use the Grey Street stand have been written to both by the City Council and the Telephone Department -or allowing the public to uso the stand telephone, and even yesterday the chairman of the committee (Mr. W. H. P. Barber) was inclined to blame the carriers for the misuse of the instrument, saying that carriers in other centres would bo only too glad to have the privileges extended to them that the Wellington carriers had. Mr. Sogers protested that there were no boxes on some of ihe telephones, and if there were they, had no keys to them. Mr. Barber: You got keys with your licenses —when you pay the 7s. 6d? Mr. Rodgers: No, none of us have keys! Mr. J. Doyle: It's all in train. The boxes are being made now! Mr. Rodgers said that they could not bo hold responsible for people using the telephone. A man drove up and used it, but they never knew if he was the holder of a license. ,-It was suggested that a printed list of the names of holders of licenses might bo placed on each of the boxes, so that those regularly on the stand could know who was entitled to use the 'phone and who was not. The inspector said that it would be done. He also said that four of the boxes were made and wero readv to be put up. The delay (Councillor "Bennett interpolated) was due to a shortage of labour. ,