TELEPHONE SYSTEM

Evening Star, Issue 22619, 10 April 1937, Page 11

TELEPHONE SYSTEM

RECORD-BREAKING YEAR THREE NEW LEVELS “ This has been & record-breaking year for the telephone system,’’ stated the Postmaster-General (the Hon. F. Jones), in an anterview, during which he was able to give the results tor this branch of the Post Office for the financial year just ended. “ Last September,” continued the Minister, “ the first record was made when the total number of subscribers passed the best peak point of the predepression period. The end of the financial year saw the previous peak point exceeded by no fewer than 5,322 subscribers. New connections made during the year also constituted a record. It was in 1926 that the telephone system showed its greatest expansion, with the addition of 13,368 new subscribers; but in the year just ended no fewer, than 16,589 fresh connections were made to the Dominion’s exchanges. Allowing for relinquishments, the net gain last year has been 8,975 subscribers, which constitutes a third record, because, during the whole history of the telephone system when it was growing rapidly from small proportions, this rate of gain has never been experienced, last year’s record being at least 700 better than the gain in any previous 12 months. “ That telephones are an essential part of the life of New Zealanders is well proved by the fact that 70 per cent, are installed in residences, the remaining 30 per cent, being for purely business use,” continued the Minister. “ These proportions have existed for many years, and in this year’s great expansion the residential demand has been maintained. The British telephone system, analysed from the same viewpoint, shows quite the reverse position, 70 per cent, of the connections being business and 30 p<sc cent, residential. Australian conditions approximate more to those of the Dominion, and also show a very number of residential telephones, which constitute 57 per cent, of the total, business connections being 43 per cent.” “ New Zealand’s rapid telephone expansion,” added the Postmaster-Gene-ral, “ has given the engineering staff of the Post and Telegraph Department an extremely busy year, not only in keeping pace with the current demand for telephones, but in providing for extension of the toll business which follows the rising tide of subscribers. This is why the department, within a, few months, will be laying a new design of telephone cable across Cook Strait. It will more than double the present channels for telephone conversations between the North and South Islands.”