TELEGRAPHIC ERRORS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19170, 9 November 1925, Page 7

TELEGRAPHIC ERRORS.

INCREASE IN BRITAIN. TELEPHONES AND DIALECTS. The British post office is; at length at- ; tempting to deal with the great increase in the number of telegraphic errors. Upon iuquiry they are generally found not to bo telegraphic but telephonic. The reason ht.s been pointed out frequently by prac- | tiej.l men, but it has been ignored. Tele- ; prone operators and telephone work are j cheaper than telegraphic, and so there i has been a strong tendency to abolish telegraphy wherever possible and to telephore messages instead. When the practice was confined to linos running into small country exchanges no difficulty resulted. Operators knew the • persons dictating the messages, and were quite familiar with their speech—and dialect. But nowadays "switching through" is the rule, and is addition to heavy delays on the lines there is also the practice of employing young girls in the large towns to deal with "phonograms." They hive much difficulty, through inexperience, in dealing with people, in rural districts many miles aw&y. The remedy proposed by the post office is, rather characteristically, to appoint traffic inspectors to visit offices and overhaul work periodically. Suh-postmas- > tors, it is understood, will be told to see I that assistants dialects, though a j mere local accent is enough to derange ! telephonic communication, and that can i hardly ha avoided.