RAIN INTERRUPTS TELEPHONE SERVICE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6885, 15 April 1929, Page 6

RAIN INTERRUPTS TELEPHONE SERVICE

Repairs Quickly Effected FIRE ENGINE PUMPS WATER PROM TABLES Palmerston North.’s usually reliable telephone service was seriously interrupted yesterday afternoon at a time when owing to the rain, ’phones would be doing more than the usual Sunday afternoon business. Subscribers over a large part of tho town who, following the directions on the dial of the automatic, lifted the receiver and waited for the humming sound, had a long wait. The cause of the trouble was the vain. With the heavy fall, whter piled up at the Imperial hotel corner, the storm water drains either being blocked or too small to cope with tho water, with the result that the telephone underground duct system was flooded and water affected a cable. At 1 p.m. the effect -was such that a number of lines had been earthed, which happens when tho receiver is removed to dial a number, that there were not enough switches left in operation to complete a connection. The department soon had the matter in hand and the service was partially restored. To Tcanovo the water to enable repair work to proceed, Mr. D. T. Allan, District (Telegraph Engineer, had to enlist the service of the fire engine* which pumped the water to the other side of the street quicker than it could gather. In an official statement on the position, Mr. Allan said: The telegraph service was slightly disorganised from one o’clock yesterday afternoon, due to tho storm water banking up at the intersection of King and Rangitilcei streets. The matter was taken i<* hand immediately and tho staffs were at work all the afternoon and evening; so that by 9 o’clock, tho service was practically normal again.