TO RESTORE SERVICES

Evening Star, Issue 25698, 23 January 1946, Page 8

TO RESTORE SERVICES

EIG PROGRAMME SET FOR POST , OFFICE

£4,000,000 THE ESTIMATED COST

(Special.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 22. A post-war building programme providing for more than 300 buildings at an estimated cost of over £4,000,000 is envisaged by the Post and Telegraph Department. In a review of its plans for restoring and improving services, a statement issued by the department said that the programme included over 100 post offices, about 25 exchange buildings, some 40 line-depot buildings, and 70 residences for postmasters. There .are also over 50 existing buildings to which major additions are necessary.

Under present building construction conditions the programme is likely to be slow-moving for the next year or two, and the entire project, as it stands at present, may take up to 10 years to complete. Investigation is proceeding as to 'the additional staff and vehicles which will be required to enable the restoration of night or early morning clearances of posting-boxes in the cities and larger towns throughout the Dominion.

Every effort is" being made to improve the telegraph service. It is hoped that within a few months the facilities will at least equal those available before the war. Communications branches of the armed services made a heavy demand on the personnel of the telegraph branch and on telegraph lines and equipment generally. Much telegraph equipment and a number of telegraph circuits have already been # relinquished by the defence authorities, but some circuits have been diverted for use in connection with the recently-introduced meteorological services. Additional teleprinter sets are on order from overseas, and these will be brought into use immediately on arrival.

Work in connection with the establishment of additional voice-frequency telegraph channels on the main arterial routes is proceeding, and it is expected that the carrying capacity of the outlets between the main centres and the larger towns will be considerably increased. ' Development work is proceeding, but is hampered to some extent by the difficulty in obtaining material overseas owing to high priorities of orders from war-damaged areas. The waiting list for telephone service over the whole Dominion -is now about 20,000—probably the highest in the department's history. Because of the shortage of telephone and exchange switching equipment, little can be done to reduce the waiting list until more telephones come to hand and the necessary , switching equipment and other material are secured from overseas. A large percentage of the people who want telephones are in the four centres, where the switching equipment at practically every exchange is working to full capacity. New subscribers can be connected only to the extent to which switching units become available from relinquished connections. A survey has been made of all the exchanges where additional, switching equipment is required, and the department is pressing forward with its plans to ensure that the necessary equipment is obtained from overseas with the least delay. Because ■ of heavy demands on overseas manufacturers, it may be some years before a full measure of relief can be given in the four centres. The present policy is to give priority %o business people and farmers, and to connect up residential subscribers only after all business ' applications have been satisfied, except where telephone service is required in a residence to meet some kind of emergency. At the exchanges at which switching accommodation is not congested, the provision of telephone facilities will be possible as soon as sufficient telephones are available, but at the moment the position in regard to supplies js too indefinite to enable an indication to be given when that is likely to be.