TIME BY TELEPHONE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20954, 18 August 1931, Page 9

TIME BY TELEPHONE.

CESSATION OF SERVICE.

DEPARTMENT'S ECONOMY PLAN.

CANCELLATION IN OCTOBER. The abolition of the service whereby telephone subscribers are furnished on request with the correct time has been decided on by the Post and Telegraph Department. It is understood the cancellation will apply from the next issue of the directory, probably in October. No official information is available in Auckland, but it can bo stated with certainty that the change is imminent. Presumably with the idea of gaining as long a respite as possible from the complaints which will inevitably be made against the decision, an instruction has gone forth that no official announcement is yet to be made on the subject. Possibly, the intention was to make the change by the simple method of omitting the instruction to " dial 396 for time" in front of the directory.

Unofficially, it may be stated that "the necessity for the strictest economy" has actuated the decision. It is understood that hundreds of calls for time are received between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., besides numerous calls throughout the day, thus occupying the whole of a toll operator's time. The department considers the employee's services could be more economically used in handling toll traffic.

The issue of the new directories in eight or ten weeks' time will be awaited with interest, since it is reliably stated that the service will automatically cease with their distribution.