CURIOSITY CALLERS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 218, 29 August 1927, Page 5

CURIOSITY CALLERS

NAPIER'S AUTOMATIC CHANGE.

EVERYTHING WORKING SMOOTHLY.

The first thing that the reporter did on coming to the office this morning was to dial 2733 the new “Tri bune” number, to see liow the new automatic 'phone in Nanier worked. All went well. Then he tried to get on to the Hastings branch, and the trouble started. Waving his hands while Lis hair literally stood on end. he vainly endeavoured to get No. 9. After desperate efforts, which lasted well on to ten minutes the cal) -ot there. Then he collapsed. Upon recovery he rushed along to interview Mr Spiller, who is in charge of the “cut-over.’’ and was informed that, from his point of view everything was working quite satisfactorily. except that the curiosity callers were pretty busy and overloading the exchange a bit He, admitted there were a few defective ’phones, but any trouble experienced outside the exchange wa s not his foult, but the fault of the subscriber.

“Yes there are hundreds of them trying to get on to the right num bers, but they are not dialling properly or are endeavouring to make the old manual work.” declared Mr Spiller, who assured die reporter that in a few dav- the excitement would ‘cool” down and everything would once again be running smoothly.

“Well, how’s the 'phone going?” appeared to be on everyone's tongue as the reported sallied forth into the street. “Some fool rang me up about six this morning. and onlv had one number of ,the four right,” was the informatio a of one victim. A man rushed frantically along Browning street in the direction of the exchange, and veiled at the reporter that during the last hour he had had hundreds of “dud” calls, and he was being driven mad with the continual ringing On getting back to the office, the reporter was informed by the office girl that she had had several calls for the “30.000 Club,” but how the callers twisted 3327 into 2733, the reporter failed miserabl- to comprehend On Sunday the exchange was kept pretty busy after it had made tnc change over at seven o’clock in the morning. Several subscribers had been awaiting the switch over with evident interest, for even while the change was being made. Mrs Brown was calling Mrs Smith to see how “they liked the new ’phone.’’ etc., etc.