NEW ZEALAND MAKING TELEPHONE RECORDS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 182, 30 April 1936, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND MAKING TELEPHONE RECORDS

Third in the World MASTERTON HEADS HIGH DENSITY FIGURES New Zealand, third country in the world iu its use of the telephone, seems to be accentuating that position at a rapid rate, the total number of new connections during the month of March '(1430) constituting a record for any month in the history of the department, the best previous monthly total having been 1362 in July, 1930. Before the depression, the use of the telephone in the Dominion was extending at'an average rate of 1000 a month. During the financial year ended March 31 last, this average was exceeded, the total number of new connections reaching 13,070. The telephone subscribers of the Dominion now number 129.233, which is only 2.7 per cent, less than the peak total reached in 1930 before a decline set in. The telephone density figures which place New Zealand third among the countries of the world are based upon the percentage of telephones to the total population, the present position being: United States of America, 13.3 per cent.; Canada, 11.1 per cent.; New Zealand, 10 per cent.; Denmark, 9.9 per cent.; Australia, 7.3 per cent.; Great Britain, 4.5 per cent. Another comparison of value as indicating the relative popularity of the telephone in various parts of the Dominion is that of the percentage of residential subscribers in relation to the number of householders within the base-rate area, which in the cases of the exchange areas quoted below is a radius of approximately two to two-and-a-half miles surrounding the exchange.

This comparison produces some retnarkably high density figures as follows: Masterton (percentage of households connected by telephone), 36.68 Hawera, 36.14; Gisborne, 31.47,; Hastings, 29.55: Whangerei, 28.57; Nelson, 27.63; Wanganui, 26.89; Hamilton, 25.45; New’ Plymouth, 25; Palmerston North, 23.67; Invercargill, 22.97; Timaru, 22.54; Napier, 20.45. The corresponding percentages for the four chief centres are; Wellington (including Lower Hutt), 31: Dunedin, 24; Christchurch, 21; Auckland. 19.