USE OF TELEPHONE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 263, 5 October 1936, Page 2

USE OF TELEPHONE.

POSITION IN DOMINION

WELLINGTON, Oct. 2. “The highest number of telephone subscribers ever recorded in the history of New Zealand was reached on September 30, with a total of 133,460, stated the Postmaster-General (Hon. F. Jones), in an interview to-day. lhe highly satisfactory growth in the telephone branch,” added the Minister, is another indication of the steady progress of the Dominion out of the last economic depression, the influence of which on this branch of the department’s business was to cause the loss of 10,385 subscribers, or approximately 8 per cent., the lowest total (122,4:0) being reached in July, 1933. ■ “How quickly and completely the telephone branch of the department has recovered is proved by the fact that the highest point of the predepression years—l32,Bss in December, 1930 —has now been passed with 600 to spare. During the present year the monthly increase in subscribers lias averaged 645. hut September was distinctive with 812, the greatest monthly net increase on record. If the piesent progress is maintained, the Dominion, concluded the Postmaster-General, “may yet soon improve upon the high position which it holds in telephonic use in comparison with the other countries in the world. New Zealand’s position at the present time is fourth, with a density of over 10 telephones in use per 100 of population. It is headed only by the United States of America, Canada, and Denmark.”