NEW TELEPHONE RATES

Otago Witness, Issue 3595, 6 February 1923, Page 61

NEW TELEPHONE RATES

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, January 31. Asked by a Press reporter to-day as to the date upon which the proposed new tele phone- charges would be imposed, the Hon. J. G. Coates said that with such a very important department as the telephonic ser vice it was desired that one should be seized of the probable effect the alterations were likely to have upon users in the cities, boroughs, and country districts. The system had grown to such an extent that, it was very difficult to know how the proposed charges were going to affect each individual class of user. Theoretically he knew how they would work out. Actually he wanted users to express their views. The* matter was very technical. Each individual user knew how the proposals would affect him, but it was difficult to know how they would affect groups of users. The whole question had been under investigation for two years, and had been worked out very carefully. What had to be decided was whether the service was to pav interest On the capital outlay. “I have,’’ the Minister went on to say, “revealed what I consider the position, rightly or wrongly, of the Telephone Account. Looking at it from the point of view that this part of the department’s activities was a telephone company, this year something like £750,000 in capital outlay is necessary. Next year if we are to keep pace with flic waiting lists something like £1,000.000 would bp required. The question was: Should the service pay interest on the capital outlay, or should it be carried by the postal side? We know that the telegraphic %ide can never carry it. and we never expect it to carry it. It is a matter now for those interested to consider the proposals not for the sake of criticism, but to really endeavour to find out what the users, business people, settlers, and private householders think of them. I think when they go into the matter they will admit that the principle I am endeavouring to give effect to is fairly sound. I do not think that, there can be any doubt about that, and that is the principle of the telephone system.”