A MILLION A YEAR

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 40, 15 August 1925, Page 6

A MILLION A YEAR

ON TELEPHONE DEVELOPMENT

EXTENSION OF THE AUTOMATIO.

A statement in regard to the development of the telephone system was made in the House of Representatives last night by the Prime Minister. Speaking of the slot machines, Mr. Coales said that the Post and Telegraph Department had decided to develop the machines as .far as possible, and that part of the programme had been put into operation. The number was being increased, and the machines were being placed at the disposal of the people who most required them. For some years past the Department had been rather conservative in the provision of slot machines but it had now adopted a different policy. Speaking of the development of the telephone system generally, the Prime Minister said that the Department was spending £1,000,000 per year to that end, . ' ' Mr. J. A. Lee (Auckland East) asked whether extensions should not be made according to business offering. Mr. Ooates pointed out that the switch-boards in the larger centres of the Dominion where there was big business had become worn out, and it had become necessary to replace them with the more up-to-date automatic system, which meant the expenditure of a lot of money, at present amounting to £1,000, ■ 000 per annum, which was a large expenditure upon telephones for a small country like New Zealand. He realised that it was difficult for people to understand that the State's operations varied, and he appreciated their point of view that when they wanted the telephone they ought to be able to get it. The Department's policy was not to allow capital' to be idle. Possibly there were a few more customers than they were able to deal with at present. When the present development of the automatio in the main centres was completed, there would be no further trouble in those centres for four or five years. So far as possible the Department would do its best to meet urgent individual cases if members of Parliament would bring such cases before the notice of the Department. A great deal of decentralisation had taken place, and the departmental engineers had prepared a schedule for dealing with applications in the order of importance; tney would endeavour to meet them whenever possible. They were anxious to do their very best. It would cost £1,600,000 a year to overcome immediate demands, but. it was expected that a million a year would serve to meet the situation.

"Do tho slot telephones pay?' 1 asked Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Avon). Mr. Coates replied that they did not, but the people who used them by-and-by got tired of them, and determined to get 'phones of their own . Replying to andther question, Mr. Coates said it was not proposed to interfere with telephone charges this yeav. Whether the charges were too high he did not know. The position was- that they were unable to catch xvp with the waiting-lisfc of appljcantis. "I don't say that that should be the "guiding principle," he said, "but I dp say that the telephone service should pay interest and' sinking fund on the money that ; i borrowed."