THE NERVE CENTRE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 1, 27 September 1943, Page 4

THE NERVE CENTRE

Dominion Link-Up For Election G.P.O. '“OPERATIONS ROOM” With a staff; of 35-0 engaged in the manifold duties associated with the handling of election returns covering all parts of the Dominion, dealing with a flow of cable traffic, and maintaining all its normal telegraphic duties at the same ■time, the Central Post Office, Wellington, was the nerve centre for the general election. The arrangements worked with malihine-like smoothness and precision. Progress figures till the finals were reached were posted neatly on a master board which had been erected in a special “operations room," Results were received here direct from the .electoral office, which was temporarily established in the building with a staff of 20. From the “operations room,” to which the room of the Prime Minister was adjacent, results were distributed by runner. A constant service was maintained to the Press room, in which the Press Association, newspaper representatives and cable agencies, which were compiling messages for transmission to all parts of the world, were located, with a battery of telephones. The first result to be posted on, the master board was at 7.38 p.m., from Wellington West. The first final result, that for Wellington North, was posted at 7.52 p.m., and the first final to be received from any centre outside the capital city was that from Christchurch South, at 8.5 p.m. In the telegraphic branch, a staff of 200, a very large proportion of them girls trained by the P, and T. Department since the beginning of the war, was operating, The whole of the Dominion was linked up with the telegraphic room, in which could be heard the noisy chatter of teleprinting machines, the stuttering of Morse, and the smooth tones of the multiplex. The department was giving its normal public service while maintaining contact with returning offices and telegraphic stations in all parts of New Zealand.

The Morse manual telegrafih was dealing with the smaller stations which are. not equipped with printing apparatus. The Creed machine printing duplex system was working at 66 words a minute in two-way communication with the principal subsidiary stations. The multiplex was working with four arms simultaneously to the main centres of the Dominion.

Three overseas cable arms were transmitting messages and the same number receiving. Meanwhile a mechanical staff moved round among the 86 operators making adjustments to machines where any faults developed. There were 120 staff members working nt top speed in this telegraph room, where the noisy voice of the mechanical communications system did not cease, so far as the election was concerned, till midnight.