TELEPHONIC SERVICES.

Northern Advocate, 10 February 1920, Page 3

TELEPHONIC SERVICES.

THE DOMINION SITUATION. ♦

WELLINGTON, Feb. 9. A statement regarding telephone matters was made to-day by the Postmas-ter-General, the Hon. J. G. Coates. The Minister emphasised that delays iv tho installation of uew telephones and the improvement of service were due to shortage of materials caused by the war. 'J he difficulties had beeu increased by the fact that the New Zealand telephone system was iv a transition stage. The old switchboards had become inadequate, and new exchanges wore being provided. fcjomo new automatic exchanges had already been opened since the war, others were being pushed tiliead, and no time would be lost in bringing them into service. Temporary arrangements had been resorted to, wherever practicable, to supplement the capacity of the .>ld switchboards, and Ly this means considerable relief had been afforded. The Department now had telephones, wire and insulators sufficient for a fair amount of development work, and tenders had closed for more wire. It was expected a lot of work would be done this year. The main teleegraph and trunk lines would demand a lot of attention. Maintenance work during the past, live years nad not been possible, except, of course, bare necessities. More rapid progress would be made when the poles and arms, long overdue from Australia, came to hand. Mr Coate! referred sympathetically io country telephones, saying that the .settlers wore entitled to telephone communication. One of the main difficulties had been the shortage of poles and wire. Hundreds of applications for party wires in the country had had to be held up for the simple reason that these connections involved the construction of new lines. Ample supplies of poles had been on oMer throughout the war, but the Department could not get them. As many as possible had been obtained in New Zealand, but the labour shortage largely prevented the Department getting much assistance in this direction. The bulk of the supply of poles came from Australia, and tho difficulty had been to obtain shipping to bring the poles over to New Zealand. Special steps were being taken to overcome this difficulty, and when the supplies of wire, which had beeu long ou order, in some cases for six years, werereceived from overseas, the work of connecting up remote, settlements, could bo greatly facilitated and no time would be lost in pushing on with tho work.

"I hope," Mr Coates said iv conclusion, '' that the difficulties which tho Department has been up against for the last few years will now disappear, aud I bus enable the Government to go right ahead this year with the telephone communication scheme decided upon.