THE TELEPHONE TOLL SYSTEM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13544, 17 March 1906, Page 7

THE TELEPHONE TOLL SYSTEM.

\\ hatkyeh may be tlie defects incidental to the management 0 f the telephone systems iu New Zealand, we have hitherto escaped the ordeal of an experiment which is being tried in a portion of the Commonwealth, to the discontent and dissatisfaction of the subscribers. ■ Quite recently the Federal Postmastergeneral sanctioned regulations restricting fresh subscribers to 750 calls per annum in return for their subscription of £fi per annum, and imposing a charge of one halfpenny per call for every instance in which the telephone is used in excess of that number. Whatever may be the merits of the toll-rate system, as it has been called, it appears to have been received with a good deal of hostility. It is not at all unlikely that- the regulations relating to it have not been very carefully framed, for the system is in vogue, apparently with success, in many other parts of the world. Formerly subscribers were charged, on what is known as the flat-rate system, £5 per annum for unlimited use of the telephone, and as the- new regulations are only to apply compulsorily to fresh Biibscribsrs, the latter are, it is objected, placed at a disadvantage. As an inducement to subscribers under the old system to accept the new they are offered the benefit of an improved battery board, which is said to facilitate communication. The change lias undoubtedly been prompted by the abuses which are possible under the flat-rate system, and which have made the telephone service practically available for the use of individuals who may never in the course of their lives become subscribers or pay for the privilege of telephonic communication. The extra work caused by these people means the employment of additional operatives, and retards communication between regular subscribers, who are often compelled to wait the convenience of the individual making a free use of someone else's instrument. A calculation made in the city of Brisbane is sai.d to have shown that the average subscriber docs not use his veiephone oftener than three times a (lay. I'ut such data can be of very little value in fixing a toll-rate system which is to apply to business premises and private bouses alike. A shipping office or an hotel, not to mention a newspaper office, might easily make from % to 30, or even 100, calls a day, and under the toll-rate system the telephone would in ™eh a case be a very expensive convenience. Before the toll-rate system can be applied equitably and successfully some means must be devised of disorimiii;:tiu« between the various classes of subscribers. Apparently this has not yet been done in Australia,