AUTOMATIC TELEPHONES

Evening Star, Issue 19196, 12 March 1926, Page 6

AUTOMATIC TELEPHONES

PROGRESS WITH IHSTALLATIOH time of change-over indefinite Inquiries made this morning in connection with the installation of automatic telephones in Dunedin brought forth the information that progress is being made outside with the cable worlT, but that the department would bo unable to state definitely for some months yet when the- actual changeover from the present system would t Kune about. However, with any luck d was expected that the change-over would he made at the end of this year or early next year, but not before. At present the department is awaiting material, while the skilled men required to make the alterations are not available in the numbers necessary to complete the work at an early date. When the system is in operation it will be controlled from three automatic exchanges—one at Roslyn, one in the city, and one at South Dunedin. The demonstration stand at the Exhibition, where the working of the automatic telephone is explained, is proving generally popular among the public, and officers from the telegraph and telephone department are kept very busy explaining the intricacies of the system.

It is already in operation in Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland, and a few of the smaller towns in New Zealand, and its superiority over the present exchange system is established. Recent reports from Christchurch show that the telephone is proving so popular, and the waiting list of subscribers is so big, that it will he many months before a number of people can ho connected up. The automatic system should prove just as popular/in Dunedin as it has in the northern centres.