FARMERS' TELEPHONES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15094, 10 September 1912, Page 4

FARMERS' TELEPHONES.

THEIR SUCCESS IN CANADA.

CO-OPERATION AND SELF-HELP.

Telephones for farmers, in. the back blocks are much desired. The question has been frequently discussed in and out of Parliament, bub no definite scheme has yet been outlined. This is due, largely, to our sparsely settled farming districts, and the heavy initial expenditure involved. But there is no doubt that the Department concerned is alive to the need and benefit of such a system. 'Proof may be found in the chief electrician's report on his tour through America and Canada. Mr. Buckley's observations have been wide and his impressions are interesting and practical. In dealing -with farmers' lines, he says :— "From time to time a great deal is heard of what is being done for the farmer in the matter of telephone facilities in the United States. There can be no doubt that the number of farmers who have these facilities is large and increasing. The fanner, it will be found, does a great deal for himself. Conversations with persons engaged in the telephone business in the States for many years show that farmers' lines are of various grades according to

circumstances and location.. It has frequently happened that a knot of farmers would combine and rue a line, erect it cheaply, and 'make an arrangement with some telephone company, to give them service at a moderate rate. Faults will, however, occur, and as no one is specially told off to repair them tho service soon becomes inefficient. Poles rat and the line falls into decay.

Farmers as Engineers. " Thousands of miles of telephone-lines have had this experience In other cases farmers combine and form a company, or some person undertakes to form a company to operate in a certain area that will suitably serve a largo number of farmery the usual rate being £3 2s 6d a year. " A farmers' line to carry a single iron wire, 25 poles to the mile, is said to cost about £10 a mile. Farmers do not want look-out systems; they like to hear what is going on at the telephone. Some farmers own their own lines, and the company meets them at the town limits, about a mO© from the exchange. The charge in such canes is 2s Id a month (practically a switching fee). The company undertakes the tests. The farmer has to maintain his own line and find his own telephones and equipment. The farmers put in 25 or 30 telephones on an earthed line which may bo 12 or 13 miles long. The farmers' lines erected by the company average eight telephones to a mile. •. They sometimes have 10. Code ringing is used. . "It is quite apparent from this how closely farmers' residences are dotted over the country, the holdings being generally small. Indeedj it is only under these conditions that such development could, arise. This feature of numerous , Camera in a few square miles, was one that always impressed me when passing through rural territory. A question that naturally arises is, what kind of service can that be where so ma-ny persons are placed on one circuit with several grounded circuits running on one pole-line ? It certainly cannot be very good. The farmers' lines are said to be busy all the time. These lines are not liked by the company, but farmers are accommodated for the sake of the town customers, who insist upon being able to speak to them, and whose business would bo lost to the company if they were unable to talk to the fanners. " The rates to subscribers in the towns Business connections £5, and residence connections £3 2s 6d per annum. Extensions —Business 2s Id a month, residence Is a month. The company supplies all material and labour for the extensions. The area in which this company operates is about 24 miles square, and there are 16 townships. It is this density of distributed population that explains the service that has been referred to.

Self-Help. "In one exchange it. was found that where the farmers' line was about eight ox* nine miles long the fanners paid half the construction-cost and turned everything over to the company, which charged £3 2s 6d each farmer for service yearly. The company maintains the line. They require six telephones on such a line for a start. and will put eight on. In other cases the same company will meet the farmers' lines at a mile from the exchange. The' farmers then maintain their own lines. The companv charges 10 dollars, or £2 Is Bd, annually per telephone. All-night service is provided at this exchange. "In Manitoba'the rural service supplied to the farmers is , owned and operated almost entirely by the Government. It is a magneto (service, code ringing, 10-party line, averaging about one mile per subscriber. The condition of obtaining one subscriber to every mile of line before building in any locality is enforced. A rural exchange area usually constitutes a region of about 10 miles square. " In Ontario, Canada, in the small country exchanges the annual rates charged, to farmers for telephone service to the nearest exchange are £3 2s 6d for each subscriber where the line averages a half-mile per subscriber, and £4 3s 4d per subscriber where there is about one subscriber per mile. The number of subscribers on a line rarely exceeds 10, as it is not considered that reasonable service can be given with any more on a line. The cost of construction is in. the neighbourhood of £20 a. mile. Operators' wages vary from £4 to £7 a month.

Fifty • Thousand Telephones in Ontario. " Five years ago there, were less than 2000 telephones in farmhouses in Ontario, while to-day there are approximately 460 systems owned by companies', associations, partnerships. and individuals, operating nearly 50.000 telephones and representing a. capital investment of about' £830,000. Ninety per cent, of these systems were organised by farmers,, who on their own initiative have established the service and furnished most of the necessary capital, not so much to earn dividends as to provide themselves with a telephone service. Some systems are operated by individuals and companies with rentals varying from £1 to £3 per annum. Where.the rental is under £2 the subscribers usually purchase their own telephones. Some .systems are co-operative, each subscriber paying his share of the cost of the plant and an annual assessment of from 43~t0 £1 to cover the cost of maintenance and operation. In some cases no assessment is made, but each subscriber maintains his own part of the system. In some, cases there are separate party lines of two stations and over. The subscribers build their own. nole lino to the nearest main line of the Bell Telephone Company, and pay a rental of from £1 13s to £2 10s per mile per annum for a wire on the company's line to their office. The subscriber purchases his telephone from the company and pa-vs an annual rental of about £1 for exchange service. In other cases systems are built under the provisions of a Municipal Act by which municipalities furnish the cost of the system to subscribers who arc ratepayers, each subscriber repaying his proportion of principal and interest, plus the cost of maintenance and operation, in 10 annual instalments. There, are about 15 of these systems, one of which has nearly 600 telephones. The annual assessment is 11.36 dollars, or £2 7s 2d, a year, including cost of maintenance and operation. All of these systems are not being operated under conditions that make for durability or permanence. Maintenance is neglected in many cases, and in more numerous in.stances no provision is made for depreciation. Such systems are liable to decay in the course of time, and as there is no fund for replacement investors in the original plant take the risk of loss of their money."