TELEPHONE CHANGES AND CHARGES.

Southland Times, Issue 18059, 31 January 1903, Page 2

TELEPHONE CHANGES AND CHARGES.

With inconsiderate abruptness the Telegraph Department yesterday brought into operation a modification in the regulations which govern the telephone bureaux. Subscribers who rang up the exchange to obtain communication with the country were informed that if the distance was less than 25 miles the rates to subscribers would be 3d for three minutes and 3d for every additional three minutes, or 6d for six minutes ; if the distance was more than 25 miles the rates to subscribers would be f>d for three minutes and Is for six minutes ; to non-subscribers these rates would be doubled. The suddenness of the I announcement was rather disconcerting, and it was not surprising to learn that it provoked a good deal of remonstrance. Leaving the question of the advisableness of the alterations in the tariff on one side, it may be asked why due notice was not given of them. It is customary when changes are made in departments such as the Post and Telegraph and the Railway, which immediately affect the business life of the community, to give the public some notice of what they are and when they may be expected. On grounds so obvious that they need not be stated private users of the telephone and commercial firms were alike entitled to some warning of these alterations in thb scale of charges for using the telephone, and it would be interesting to i know if there was any particular reason why this alteration should be given effect to so precipitately, and, if there was no such reason, what freak of the official temper was responsible for its unannounced and unexpected introduction. If we are rightly informed no information of the change reached the Invercargill bureau until late last night, and the officers and attendants of the bureau as well as the public were put about by the dislocation of the ordinary tariff and routine. Passing from thab question t> the rates themselves it is not easy for an outsider to supply the motive for them. The new charges appear to be at variance with the general policy of these departments, i.e. a policy of cheapening all means of communication. So far as bureaux within a distance of 25 miles are concerned a concession of 3d is made on a communication of three minutes. The subscriber will now pay 3d, whereas he formerly had to pay Gd. To estimate this concession, however, it would be necessary to - know how many of the country bureaux are within the 25-mile radius and how many conversations do not exceed three minutes. The communication of less than three minutes, we should imagine, is the exception and not the rule, and in that case the altered charges mean simply that the cost of using the telephone within the 2 5 -mile radius remains the same, while outside of thab area the charges are doubled. These changes will not tend to popularise the telephone. It is not easy, as we have said, to supply the motive for them, and we shall he surprised if the public receive them without showing strong disapproval.