No Automatic Phone Service for Feilding

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 48, 26 February 1938, Page 3

No Automatic Phone Service for Feilding

MANUAL SERVICE STILL ADEQUATE In connection with the representations made by the Feilding Chamber of Commerce for the installation of an automatic telephone service for Feilding, Hon. J. G. Cobbe, M.P., has received the following communication from Hon. F. Jones on the subject:— “In reference to your letter of the 17th instant, making representations for the installation of automatic equipment in the Feilding telephone exchange I beg to inform you that this matter has been the subject of very e&reful investigation on a number of occasions.

"At the outset, I have to say that my department appreciates the need for replacing manual exchanges with automatic equipment, and compatible with the funds available, much has been done in this direction. There are, however, still many exchanges throughout the country with claims at least equal to those of Feilding for the installation of automatic apparatus. "Such replacements involve the expenditure of very large sums, and apart from the heavy capital expenditure involved, the replacing of expensive equipment which is capable of giving satisfactory service merely because it. does not conform to the most modern standards could not bo justified on economic grounds. Owing to the magnitude of tho undertaking, the transition from manual to automatic working must necessarily be a gradual process, and in view of the large number of exchanges concerned must, in the meantime, be confined to those at which the equipment is so worn or out of date as to necessitate immediate replacement. "I am informed that the position so far as Feilding is concerned is that the switchboard is in good order and quite capable of providing the subscribers with a first-rate service. The equipment was, in fact, thoroughly overhauled and modernised in 1936 and compares favourably with the most up-to date type of magneto system.

"In the circumstances, it is regretted that the question of converting the Feilding exchange to automatic Working cannot be given favourable consideration in the meantime."