TELEPHONE SYSTEM

Otago Witness, Issue 3250, 28 June 1916, Page 56

TELEPHONE SYSTEM

COUNTRY EXTENSION URGED. (Fhom Odr Own ConKEsroNDENT.) WELLINGTON. Juno 22. On the pest and telegraph vote to-day the Hon. ]>. Buddo suggested that in small towns the charge for telephones bo slightly reduced. Mr Harris urged the Minister to discontinue putting slot telephones in private shops, as it reduced their value. Mr Hunter claimed that it was much more important that telephone facilities should be given to people in the backblocks than that the people in the cities, who already had splendid telephone services, should have improved services. Economy should not be practised at the expense of the people in the country. Sir Joseuh Ward said he agreed that the provision of telephones for people in the sparsely-settled districts should take precedence over any other telephone extension work, and wherever it was possible to authorise such expenditure he would do so. Regarding slot telephones, lie pointed out that it was impossible to meet all such demands. The Telephone Department was growing enormously. Last year the revenue waa £258,000, and the expenditure on telephone and telegraph lines ran into between £700,000 and £300,000. An order had been'given for a number of slot telephones, but they cost seven times as much an ordinary instrument. To Mr Harris he said that in some districts it was necessary to have slot telephones in places of business to which people frequently went. He informed Mr Buddo he could not hold out any hope that the rate of telephone subscriptions would be reduced. Later on Mr Scott mentioned the special disability under which the people of Otago Central laboured. The telephone went as far as Middlemarch, and there was then a gap to Alexandra. The telephone was becoming more and more a necessity to business people, and he was sure that if it were extended as it should he it would prove of decided benefit to the people of the district, and would also benefit the finances of the country.

Sir Joseph Vv r ard said ho would beglad to look into the matter again. Facilities for some portions of the district had boon given last year, and ho would see what could be done to improve the position. Mr Anderson urged that in Central Otago, and in the Queenstown districts particularly, the public should be allowed to use the railway telephones on payment of a fee. Mr Ngata put in a strong appeal for better telephone facilities for the East Coast districts, particularly between Tokomaru Bay and Gisborne. Ho also asked that a low power wireless station bo installed at some point along tho East Coast as an aid to shipping. Sir Joseph Ward said that much of tho material to do as Mr Ngata suggested was being sent to the localities concerned. _ He might look for an early improvement in tho telephone system.