MORE TELEPHONE SUBSCRIBERS SHOWN BY DIRECTORY

Evening Star, Issue 26137, 26 June 1947, Page 6

MORE TELEPHONE SUBSCRIBERS SHOWN BY DIRECTORY

A general all-round increase hi telephone subscribers is indicated by a comparison of the recently-issued telephone directory with those of the previous two years. In 1945 the section of the directory devoted to subscribers in the city area occupied 05 pages, while last year it had increased to 72 pages. This year, however, there has been a jump of 29 pages to bring the total space to 101 pages. This cannot be regarded as an accurate gauge of the increased number of subscribers, however, as in the latest book a return to the less-stringent peace-time conditions is indicated by the blank spaces between the end of one letter of the alphabet and th beginning of another being considerably larger than previously. Under the heading of medical practitioners, 67 names were listed in a column length of llsin in 1945. _ This had grown to 76 names in 13£iu in 1946, with a leap to 90 names in 17in this year. A certain steadiness is noticeable ill the section' devoted to public and licensed hospitals and registered nurses, rising from 26 names in 1945, occupying 4-Jin, to sin and one additional name for the two ensu(jovernment departments numbered 63 for the first two years under review, with an increase of three this yean , the space increasing from 55i}in to 565, and finally to 59$in. As some offices have replaced the former system of several telephone connections with a sub-exchange of their own, it js difficult to assess the actual increase under this heading. Space allotted to the country sub-exchanges has increased by 20 pages over the three yeafs, rising from 42 to 56 in 1946 and to 62 this year, while in the final section of the directory, private line owners, the one and a-qtiarter pages in 1940 went to one and a-half the next year and to two pages this year. So far as .the actual number of telephones in use in the city is concerned, the district telegraph engineer advises that in 1945 these numbered 12.756, while the following year the figure was 13,119. The increase this year was to 13.712. while since that figure was taken out at .the end of 'March, an additional 530 sets have been brought into use by the “ cutting in ” of the new exchanges.