TELEGRAMS BY TELEPHONE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3020, 6 March 1917, Page 6

TELEGRAMS BY TELEPHONE

- A REASONABLE CHARGE. At tho last meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce a letter was received from the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce protesting against a recent alteration. in the Post and Telegraph Department's regulations withdrawing the privilege of telephoning telegraph messages. This matter has b,eon looked into by tho secretary of tho Wellington Chamber (Mr. H. D. Yickery), who waited on the postal authorities, and received the information that the Department had found that under tho old system it was working at a loss, and instituted a new system, whereby a telephone charge of 3d. for three minutes was made. That was the alteration that'the Canterbury Chamber wished to protest against, and they wished to know if the' charge of £1 per year could not bo increased rather than the new "time" charge be made. The Department considered the new charge a fair one, and after giving tho matter tho most careful consideration was not prepared to vary the regulations. The chairman thought that tho matter really arose through the country people having certain privileges regarding tho telephoning of telegrams, for £1 a year, that was boing denied business! folk in the city. He thought that a better way would bo to charge a certain fee for business firms and another for country people. In the meantime they did not think the charge of 3d. for three minutes was unreasonable.