TELEPHONING OVERSEAS

Evening Star, Issue 22954, 11 May 1938, Page 5

TELEPHONING OVERSEAS

WIDE RANGE OF COMMUNICATION New Zealand’s telephone system through the overseas radio channel to Australia and the United Kingdom gives a remarkably wide range of communication, which New Zealanders utilise quite substantially. No fewer than 1,725 radio calls have originated in one year from the _ Dominion, the increase over the previous year being over 57 per cent. Of the 1,725 calls, 632 were to Australia and 158 to the United Kingdom, while in the same period 885 were made from Australia and 50 from the United Kingdom. The widespread system of telephone circuits in New Zealand enables the adyantago of overseas radio-telephony to be extended well beyond the city areas. Overseas radio calls of recent months, for instance, have included the following :—CHautau-London, Nelson-Kent, Masterton - Sydney, Napier - Brisbane, Greymouth-Sydney, Invercargill-Glas-gow, Waikaremoana-Sydney, Patuma-hoe-Lclndon, Taumarunui-Scotland, Mo-tueka-London, Lyttelton-Sydnoy, Tai-hape-Sydney, and Whangarei HeadsHobart. A development wdiich has so greatly improved the efficiency of New Zealand’s network of telephone lines has .been the introduction of “.carrier ” or high-frequency system. It is being constantly extended, and already all the principal towns from Whangarei in the north, New Plymouth and Greymouth in the west, Gisborne on the Fast Coast, and Invercargill in the far south are linked up through the main centres by carrier circuits. Additional highgrade circuits of this character have been recently installed on main routes as follows:—Wellington-Napier, Ham-ilton-Rotorua, Wellington-Chrisichurch, Auckland-Whangarei, Auckland-Roto-rua, Wellingtou-Masterton, Christ-church-Dunediu. x