TELEPHONE DIFFICULTY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 4 December 1940, Page 6

TELEPHONE DIFFICULTY

NO EQUIPMENT FOR EXTENSIONS | WELLINGTON POSITION j l United Press Association j WELLINGTON, This Day. Because of the present impossibility of obtaining equipment for the extension of the automatic telephone exchange in Hutt Valley only essential new connections can be made. A partial return has been made to the old manual system worked in association with the automatic, but this expedient has also reached practical working capacity. The difficulty is not restricted to the Hutt Valley, but there it is acute because of the phenomenal growth of the population. The equipment of the Hutt exchange was manufactured in London. Since then the manufacturers closed the London factory and concentrated their operations at Antwerp. The outbreak of the war made impossible the fulfilment of orders for additional equipment. Sweden, the other greatest European supplier of telephonic equipment, is also virtually cut off from her former world markets. Wellington city automatic exchanges have still some working margin, but suburban automatic sub-exchanges are al ady becoming congested.