THE VERSATILE POST OFFICE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 33, 8 February 1935, Page 27 (Supplement)

THE VERSATILE POST OFFICE

IN a_ year, the Post Office makes about 200 million deliveries of postal matter, and -■ . forwards roughly 15 million telegrams and toll telephone messages. How many telephone messages go through the exchanges is not known, but' the people use, in" this . service alone, nearly 600,000 miles of wre v To speak of 200 million postal deliyenes is impressive enough, but the ordinary citizen who slips a letter into aslot with complete confidence of its reaching its destination hardly ever gives a thought to the amount of work _and-handling it will experience. A letter posted from Wellington to Christchurch. may pass through a dozen hands, yet it tollows an inescapable route. Providing a .. "v?s_ °r Package is properly addressed it ; VjU fin_d its correct destination wherever it may fie,^andvthe fact that out of millions of postal packets/handled every year only a very few go astray is a testimony to the efficiency of the and its officers. Annually some 20,000' letters with a stamp in the corner but With the envelope devoid of address are posted, and this means.ithat 40,000 people are disappointed through fault of the Department. •™i°» there are thousands of insufficiently ■j. addressed letters: annually, as well as cryptically -addressed letters sent by, people who no doubt ...wish, to be funny or to test, the ingenuity of the Department. '•-','•: : •.'■■, - TELEGRAPHIC BRANCH. The great strides made in the postal division during the last seventy years are equalled by the progress of the telegraph branch of the Department. Evidence of the popularity of this service is given by the fact that in the number of telegrams sent annually per head of population, New Zealand leads most countries in the world. From 1905 to . 1914 telegraph' traffic showed a steady increase, but from 1921 to 1922 it dropped to the 1910 level, this being due probably to the increasing of the minimum •charge from 6d to 9d. The traffic reached the highest point in the history of the service in 1926, and remained steady until 1930, with a downward tendency from that year, in sympa- . thy with other business. In 1857 the first telegraph circuit in New Zealand was erected between Lyttelton and Christchurch. It was of iron wire, and the terminals were equipped with single current morse instruments. The dot-dash signals were embossed on paper tape, but it was soon found that operators could read the signals by the sound given out by the tape recorders. The recorders were gradually discarded and sound .reading of morse signals became, general. Iron wires for telegraph circuits were gradually extended throughout both islands. .In 1863 the first cable was laid across Cook Strait. It was a three-core cable, and it was

brought from England in a sailing vessel. The north end of the cable was landed at Lyall Bay and the south end at White's Bay, near Port Underwood. The sailing ship that brought out the cable was towed by a small steamer across the strait as she paid put the cable. The cable was first worked by telegraphists at White's Bay and at Wellington. At the former station it required two operators for each circuit, one receiving from the north and another sending south. In October, 1873, the transmitting staff atWhite's Bay was transferred to Blenheim, and this station became the South Island transmitting office. : ' :

In 1894, repeaters were installed at Blenheim, and this enabled Wellington to work with the principal towns in the South Island without the need for operators toi receive and send on the messages. Eliminating Blenheim as a transmitting station greatly concerned the local tradesmen,, as over sixty telegraphists, the majority married, were transferred to other offices throughput the country. . Using iron wires for telegraph circuits limited tile distances over which direct working was possible, consequently telegrams had to be relayed by, hand, through several officers before they cached their destinations. In fine weather Auckland could work, direct with Wellington, and .Blenheim could work with Dunedin, but when the weather conditions were unfavourable these wires had to be divided at Napier and Christchurch. Consequently, relaying staffs were stationed at these places. Copper wires for the main circuits were erected abotit 1890, and these, together with .the double current working, eliminated the necessity for retaining relaying staffs at intermediate offices. ■ ONE MESSAGE'AT rA TIME. The first telegraph wires in New Zealand were worked singly; only one message could be sent over the wire at a time. Late in the seventies duplex was installed at some of the principal offices, and this enabled two telegrams to be sent simultaneously, in opposite directions. About 1895, quadruplex was intro-. duced, enabling four messages to pass over the circuit at a time. The speed at which messages could be sent under working conditions was about thirty words per minute. During the war, repeaters were installed at Wellington, thereby placing Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin in inter-communication, and several of the provincial towns which hitherto had not these facilities were given direct channels to.the centres. . -' In 1921, as a result of a tour abroad of the Chief Telegraph Engineer, machirte printing multiplex telegraphy was installed, enabling eight messages to pass over a single wire simultaneously at a speed for each of the eight chan-

(*?T\^ in' Q — Tele^raPh Department is the most übiquitous and versatile \^J in the Dominion. Its most obvious functions are the transport of mails and the operation of the telegraph and telephone services. In addition to these basic duties, however, the Post Office acts as banker for over three-quarters of a million people; and it acts as a useful and indeed almost indispensable agent for a host of other departments, enabling the public to conduct transactions in a single office, instead of m man)). . The postal service dalesback to 1840, when an office Was established in Kororareka, now called Russell. The first New Zealand stamps were issued in 1855. In those days the revenue for a period of nine months i Was £147 and the expenditure £29. In recent years the revenue has exceeded ' three millions, and the expenditure two millions. The Department employs over eight thousand officers, ranging from message boys up to men of the highest technical qualifications, and no Slate Department in the country has Won a higher reputationi or efficiency. - - ...... i

nels of over forty words a minute. The machine printing multiplex telegraph apparatus was installed in New Zealand by the Department's engineers, who had had no previous practical experience of the apparatus. Mr. Murray, the inventor of the system, paid the New Zealand officers the nice compliment by reporting that the New Zealand Administration was the first to install printing telegraph equipment without expert assistance from abroad. During the past few years the teleprinter has been working over some of the main circuits. This apparatus enables two messages at the rate of 66 words per minute each to be sent at the same time. _ It was announced recently that machine printing telegraph has entirely displaced morse in the British Post Office service, a condition which is also being approached in the New Zealand service. The maximum number of messages sent/simultaneously over a telegraph wire in New Zealand at present is eight. With carrier telegraph equipment and machine printing. telegraph apparatus, thirty or forty messages passing over the circuit simultaneously is possible under ideal conditions. As the New Zealand P. and T. Department in the past has adopted the latest developments of the electrical communication art, it will no doubt introduce carrier telegraphs, when it is justified economically and the conditions are suitable. RADIO COMMUNICATIONS. The. first wireless telegraph station in New Zealand was-established at Wellington in 1911, and there are now about twenty stations under the control of the Government, including those at Apia (Samoa), Rarotonga (Cook Islands), and the Chatham Islands. In the island groups, small local service stations maintain communication with the main station of the group. The most _ recent development in radio communication is the telephone service established by means of short-wave transmitting and receiving plant in Wellington, designed for direct communication with similar stations in Sydney. This service enables any telephone in New Zealand to be placed in communication with any telephone / in almost the whole world, and New Zealanders

have conversed over "channels" embracing virtually three-fourths of the earth's circumference. In places where the prospective business justifies the cost of installation, apparatus is now in use for the transmission, by radio, of , pictures and other facsimiles. Such apparatus is, for example,, in use between England and Australia; and it will, no doubt, be available in New Zealand when the prospective business warrants its introduction. THE TELEPHONE SERVICE. Along with other branches of the Post and Telegraph Department, the telephone exchange service in New Zealand has developed rapidly during the last few years. The Dominion's first telephone exchange was opened at Christchurch on October 1,1881 with 27 subscribers; Auckland began in the same year with 26 subscribers; Dunedin in 1882 with 56; and Wellington in 1883 with 31. About 1880 an American concern sent a representative to Australia and New Zealand to endeavour toi secure a franchise' to operate telephone exchanges in New Zealand. The local authorities had visions that the telephone by its competition would oust the telegraph from the electrical communication field, and as the Government had secured the monopoly of the telegraph service, it was not inclined to allow a foreign country to run an opposition concern. It was decided that if there was a likelihood of the telephone being of practical use, it would operate the service itself, so the American had to return to his country and report "nothing doing." The first practical application of the telephone in New Zealand was as a feeder to the telegraph system. The telephone, not requiring skilled operators for sending and receiving telegrams, enabled telegraph offices to be opened in country districts, where the annual charges would have been prohibitive if the services of telegraphists were used. This enabled outlying communities to have access to the telegraph system of-the country which otherwise.would not have been possible.

New Zealand, like all other countries, began

Men, Horses, and Wire ylt is faot,^only tie^hanJ-working fanner or wire, and in some instances the horse would^ee determined artisan who deserves the name of the fault before the linesman. < " hardy pioneer. Equally worthy of this and even On main line from Blenheim to Christmore colourful names were a host of workers ; ph"rch linesmen were stationed at Blenheim, who in the early days of various publicser- k. er v a°Su. Kaikbura, Cheviot, Amberley, and t_i /•"? • ■. r . . L.nnstcnurcn. Later, some main wires wprp £e££saS3£ ttnS^^^^ SomewhL about 1870, the major towns in ft c^oThot? MSPeCti°DS *" *"" The maintenance conditions in the North probSm was t<^ ? Stettin tTv""* V kuA WTe SOmewhat different frora those in erectedTmostlv ov.r \I 6 ImeS W6re the South' In fte Nort^ Is^nd the main lines blance oTroaL n -7 Wl*ont «7 ! e. m" P^sed over bush-clad country, whereas in the «STJ3wW^iT^ IM7 *Ofwh!d|l S°Uth ' the exception of the West Coast, i^X clSf men whl Lr C *"?, Jol^* 6 there very little bush. In bush country mabtentce TtotjTlFV P °V' Where there Were roads the tele SraPh lines wer« Z5 S^sl^S 7fafi'# aCte8J erected ne" Ac edge of the ro^d, and in other ETlf- sorte of S, ?n t reSp?nSlb^ and Pla^ S a half-chain track was cut through the by slips o S?"V Oll Of 8- Ctlon Practically l™esed.ihe coast from P^ekakariki ' in-'maintainine the main-lin V R> i • the heavy westerly-gales sometimes drove salt to Chrktchurch the river, Tn I f Bl ef eim sPr// over the lines, coating the insulators with WaL and Com"',. Th. W ""? °k° > i °Sil»P»^M=- Owin s ,„ t h o bush bling cleared Whcn_a linesman came to a break he would covered with standing timber an? the Lists ! ™U P °be saddled- Ma»y horses by farms carrying sheep and cattle ifi place of jvpuld stop as soon as they came to a broken timber, .

its telephone services by using single wires with earth as the return. There could be no secrecy m a telephone conversation working under these conditions. With two telephone circuits running on the same pole line for a distance of a few hundred yards the speech on one line could be heard alr^jt as clearly on the other as if these two circuits were in metallic connection. When the number of wires on the pole line was increased, a certain amount of secrecy was obtained by there being a babble of voices, but it was somewhat difficult to follow an individual conversation. Even under these circumstances, overhearing was possible during periods when the telephone was not being greatly used. Metallic circuits— two wires to each circuitare the cure for inductive disturbances, and . these. ; were used for toll lines—known in those days as bureau lines—which were comparatively The introduction of the electric trolley tram services in New Zealand compelled the Department to convert all its telephone exchange subscribers' lines to metallic circuit. One city after another decided so quickly to have electric trams that the Department became embarrassed, and^for a period of years feverish haste was displayed in bringing about this conversion, involving large sums of money for material and. labour.; . : , , THE TELEPHONE EVOLVES. The first telephone exchanges in the world were on the magneto principle; the subscribers gained the attention of the exchange operator by turning a handle, sending alternating current over the line for signalling purposes. Each telephone had a battery for operating the microphone. The magneto system still holds a proImn??, 1 Pl ace ' ** a lar §c Proportion of the world s telephones are still served by modernised magneto exchanges. Then followed what is known as the central battery system. With this system it was only necessary to take' the receiver off the hook to call an operator, the exchange storage battery supplying current for the microphones. The next step was automatic exchanges. These are really central battery exchanges. The subscribers' central battery telephones are equipped with a dial for selecting the called line without the aid of an exchange operator. New Zealand began its exchange service with magneto exchanges. Then Invercargill, Timaru, and Hastings, where the magneto switchboards were worn out, had central battery exchanges installed. At this stage of the development, consideration was given to installing central battery exchanges at. all the cities and larger towns in New Zealand when automatics came on the scene. An officer of the Department %vas sent abroad to inquire into the situation^ and after viewing automatic telephone exchanges in operation in America and Europe, and exhaustive" in-

quines, came back and reported that the automatic exchange was certainly the system to be adopted for the larger centres. Later on tenders were called for automatic exchanges for the four main centres, and towards the end .of 1911 a tender was accepted. This was shortly, followed up by tenders being accepted for the automatic system for several of the larger provincial exchanges. In 1912 there was auxiliary automatic equipment working in conjunction-with the magneto exchanges at .Auckland^^ellington, and Christchurch. Then Came:/the war, which disorganised everything. Npbody/could. manufacture automatic exchanges;: all !|nergy throughout the world was used in.the production of munitions. During the war period, the telephone; engineers had an anxious lime in 'maintaining the service. The main exchanges were practically worn out, demanding extremely careful and handling. No spares were availaljife, nor > were any procurable. Wellington 'aiidfeAuckland were the: most critical. As.tfeJeicnange3 were in, turn converted to autbmafe. working the.crisis passed, and the responsible engineers recovered from their worry.:/;■:/. ': \ L ~ An important if inconspicuous part of the telephone service is that given.in rural districts, where the'high cost^of long lines is; distributed by adopting. "party wires." - V :^iKi; LONG-DISTANCE TELEPHONY^ Telephonic repeaters (amplifiers) have revolutionised New Zealand's toll business'; Prior to the introduction of repeaters, the longest tele-, phone, circuit. was the indifferent one between Auckland and Wellington. Now it is much easier to speak from Auckland to InyercargilFthan it was from Auckland to Wellington, and now the Wellington-Auckland speech volume is quite equal to the volume of that when,speaking to local subscribers. Telegraph repeaters-in use at the present are mechanical devices having moving parts. Telephone repeaters use the thermionic valves so well known to all owners of radio receivers. With valve repeaters it is possible to raise output of speech coming through a long'circuit to a greater level-than that* of the input. . ■ ' ._■ The adaptation of radio apparatus to telephone lines has in recent years taken another form. Actual radio waves' can be transmitted along wires, without interfering with •or being interfered with by messages on the wires themselves, and these "carriers" can be used for telephony. It is therefore possible to use a metallic telephone line for the guidance of two or more, telephone conversations at the same time. And if radio.thus assists. telephony, there is a reciprocal service, for a large part of the broadcasting service consists of transmissions which reach the radio stations through the regular telephone service, lines, often 'over, hundreds of miles. '■■ / ■■'... ■■ .^