TELEPHONE SITUATION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 302, 10 September 1918, Page 9

TELEPHONE SITUATION

' AUTOMATIC SYSTEM AT LEEDS J ACOTE SITUATION IN WELLINQTON. ■ Some' little tirao ago an Australian ■politician, in the course of a speech, sought to coiivey, that the automatic ( system of telephony was not altogether • . a success, and' that' automatic plants were being, scrapped in San l 1 rancisco and elsawnere; On Unit occasion a yerv interesting article.'on the subject appeared in The Dominion, pointing ■ ; out- tho popularity and increasing faYour of automatic telephones., On May 18 Leeds, in England, one of Jlio f largest industrial centres, \changed oypf. to tho automatic (with 6800 lines), the ceremony , being performed by. the 1 ost,-master-General; the Hon. A. ■. H. I'.'. 1 . . lingworth, M.P. An account ot the • ccrwiiony included the following paragraph:—' i; "Sir William Slingo, the Chief Engineer of the Post Office, under whose ■ supervision, the work had been planned and carried out, was present, and expressed groat satisfaction with the completion of the undertaking. - In . tho ■ course of hisvomarks he said that just as .the power'loom had superseded tho hand loom, so; the automatic telephone 1 irmst succeed the girl operator., JN&thing .under tho sun could stop it; and . tho longer it.whs delayed the. greater amount of capital that would have to be sunk aijd ultimately scrapped in : pursuing the manual . .system. _' He, ' looked' for an .extension ol ; the new system on;thorough;ana. com- c preheu sire'/ liiic's,\' trusting that ths. ex- ■ periouce ers in other large. .towns to, agitate tor ft similar change in- their, own .areas. Mr. Hungeitford.-Australasian repre- 1 tentative for tho Antomatia Telephone < •Co., is at present in' New Zealand en ' louteto America..-. On.Saturdayhehad a consultation with Mr. A,.> Shrimpton ; (Chief Telegraph ■Engineer);-and rMr. 1 1- > Buckley (Director;.of; Telephones), as < the result,of-which is,toped that the <»mplption "bf:' the automatic service in j i -Wellington iivill be : jaqcelerated. The- :■ ! sub-Station in l Place is now j only held .up 'for lack of a, little plant, ■ tut that'plant.is'eßsehtial/.andthe sta- ,< tiqrrhas' been inr.that' state,,for the past thi-eeyenrs,'])qudiiig ; the,arriyal:ofmaterial),ordered overtfour- years,.ago.• ? ' . ;iii.fWjilling4on is ;quite;ah'>acute one. -.There are plenty otf applications for lines, but they cannot be granted owing to shortage of telephones and lack of switchboard acr comniodation. "Thero are many appli-' cations, from Kelbuni particularly, which have simply had to bo listed, but if the CouTtenay Place auto sub-sta-rtion was available tHose 'people "might be accommodated;