MORE TELEPHONES

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 301, 17 September 1934, Page 10

MORE TELEPHONES

Downward Trend Arrested The downward trend in the telephone development of the Dominion has been arrested, according to the annual report of the Post and Telegraph Department, tabled in the House of Representatives. It is stated that the net loss in telephone exchange subscribers for the year under review was only ones 6 ven th of the loss for the preceding year, and this, coupled with the fact that the figures for the past few months had all shown gains in telephone exchange subscribers, was an indication that the telephone business in the Dominion had definitely turned the corner. It was anticipated that when the momentum of general recovery was Increased a very large number of the subscribers who relinquished service would again require the benefits of telephone service, “It is interesting to note that New Zealand still retains third place among the countries of the world for the number of telephones in use per hundred of the population,” the report adds. “The latest available statistics show that the United States is first with 13.94 telephones per hundred of the population, Canada second with 11.98, and New Zealand third with 10.12, Australia is seventh with 7.40, aqd Great Britain is ninth with 4.62. The drop In, telephones during the years of the depression has been much more marked in the United .States and Canada than in New Zealand. In the two former countries the decrease has been approximately two telephones per hundred of the population, whereas in New Zealand the decrease has been about one telephone per thousand of the .BSSBIS.tISS.-”