STRATFORD DISTRICT NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1927, Page 14

STRATFORD DISTRICT NEWS

I Telephone Nos. ! j 152 Office 218 Private

(FROM OUR RESIDENT REPORTERS)

Telephone Nos, | 152 Office | 218 Private j

INSTALLING THE AUTOMATIC. ACTIVITY AT POST OFFICE. SHOULD BE READY NEXT MONTH. The automatic exchange system of telephonic communication is expected to be in full working order in Stratford by the end of February, when all change overs and rewiring necessary in the case of old installations are expected to be completed. The Post and Telegraph Department already have ten men working on the outside part of the change-over, and three men have been employed in setting up the racks and machinery in the exchange rooms. By about January 14, the chief mechanician (Mr. R. Byalls) will have the Hawera automatic installed, and will be able to release the skilled staff engaged there. Rapid progress is then expected to be made at Stratford, and the next six weeks should see the final stages in sight. To a Daily News reporter who was shown over the mass of intricate mechanism,and the seeming tangle of innumerable wires at the Post Office to-day, it was explained that whereas the old system would work with reasonable satisfaction on cables where the insulation was not of the best, the automatic required perfect cables and thorough connections. It was therefore necessary to test out all the telephonic cables in the borough with the special testing machine, and renew all faulty wires. Telephones that have been installed in houses and business premises for some years also had to be carefully tested, and in many cases re-wiring has been found necessary. A great deal of this work has already been done, and its completion should not delay the change-over beyond February 1. INSTALLING THE PLANT. Inside the post office great activity is apparent. In the battery room the plates and boxes have been delivered, and a place prepared for mixing the acid. In the machine room the dynamos are unpacked and await mounting on the concrete bed plates formed near tho lower racks and switchboard, which are already in position. Mounting by means of a circular stairway, the main exchange room above is reached. The commodious room seems a mass of entwining wires and creeping cables. The iron racks are full of weird mechanical contrivances, from each of which a spray of small wires gives the uninitiated an impression of some strange sea monster with waving antennae. Of course, each sinuous wire has its own meaning in the elaborate system of the automatic, and the experts will doubtless find sufficient screws and terminals to secure them all to some other piece of mechanism, but looking casually at the confusion of spare «uds, the reporter was frankly sceptical. The exchange room, interesting and bewildering as it is, does not mark the limit of alterations. In the old exchange room, the switchboards have to be dismantled and a new board for toll calls installed. This board is practically complete, and, when in operation, should prove a boon to business men who have extensive dealings in other provincial towns. Across the passage, a room has been cleared to act as a store for the cables, wires and instruments. It was explained that, so, accurately have the auto-

matics been designed, that the material necessary for a given sized installation arrives on the job just as required, and complete down to two small bottles of vaseline. Before the automatics can be put into operation it is necessary to compile a new telephone directory for the town where the alteration is to take place. This clerical phase of the change-over is now engaging the attention of the supervisor. CITIZENS’ BAND. PREPARING FOR CONTEST. Owing to the intention to arrange with the Borough Council for the erection of lights on the bandstand in Victoria Park, the band should be able to give concerts in the Park on summer evenings. The band’s intention is to give a series of such concerts to augment the contest funds. Another feature of the band's activities is the formation of a concert party to give performances throughout the district. Mr. P. Coe has in hand the arrangements for . the formation of the party, which will travel with the hand to Toko, Cardiff, Douglas and other places. On January 16 the band will give a sacred concert •• in the King’s Theatre, and on Thursday, 27th, there will be a band benefit night at the theatre. The band is undergoing assiduous practice preparing for the contests to be held in Wellington, and is making rapid progress. At present three practices are being held during each week, two more on Sundays, and to-morrow, at 10 a.m. in Victoria Park, the band will begin quickstep drill. The band is fortunate in securing tho services of Mr. J. Watson, tho conductor of the Wanganui Garrison Band, who will come to Stratford once a week to coach for the contest. Mr. Watson, who ranks among the best conductors in the country, recently expressed himself as favourably impressed with the Stratford Band. At a meeting of the committee on Thursday night, Mr. H. Burmester was elected manager of the party which will go to Wellington. Mr. Burmester now has the arrangements in this connection well in hand. CAR COLLIDES WITH LORRY. BOTH VEHICLES DAMAGED. On Thursday afternoon, a collision between a motor ear driven by Mr. D. Lind, and a lorry driven by Mr. J. A. Stanford, occurred on a sharp bend on the Makuri Road, resulting in considerable damage to both vehicles. Fortunately no one was injured. The lorry had just started from a cream stand and was moving at a slow pace around the corner, on which there is a bank obstructing the view, when it was struck in the middle on the driver’s side by the right-hand mudguard of the car. After breaking a piece of timber on the side of the lorry, the ear struck the rear wheel. As a result this wheel was pushed four inches out of place, causing the spring to crumple and the shackle in front of the spring to break. The driving mechanism under the lorry was completely dislocated, the universal breaking and the drive shaft falling on to the ground. The front of the car was also considerably damaged, the axle being bent and the mudguard crumpled.

GENERAL ITEMS.

While the full balance-sheet is still to be prepared, the President of the Stratford Racing Club (Mr. S. Pitt) stated to-day that the recent meeting had been both successful and profitable. The gate receipts for the two days amounted to £2240, an appreciable increase on last year’s takings. For both days, over 10,000 race-books were sold, indicating that the New Year's meeting at Stratford is gaining in popularity. A painful accident occurred to a young man named Samson, employed by Mr. H. Perry, of Cheat Road, while leaving the Ngaere factory after having delivered his milk. In order to pass an incoming milk cart Samson pulled sharply into a hank at the side of the road. He was thrown from the cart against the passing vehicle. He was admitted to the Stratford Hospital about 9 o’clock this morning suffering from severe bruises and shock. Internal injuries are also suspected. A big five-seater car was badly burned on Thursday on the Opunake-Strat-ford Road, near Cardiff. The car was owned until recently by Mr. A. O. Casey, of Eltham, but at the time of the fire it was the property of L. H. Johnson and Co., of New Plymouth. Everything inflammable on the car was completely destroyed excepting the tyres. PERSONAL ITEMS. Mr. and Mrs. A. H. R. Amess left ’by last night’s boat for Auckland for a holiday. Mr. Alan Clarke, of H.M.S. Diomede, returned to Auckland by yesterday morning’s mail train to rejoin his ship. Mr. Clarke expects to leave shortly fir England to complete his study of torpedoes. NEGRO'S “CROWN OF LIES.” COLOURFUL ROMANTIC DRAMA. American girls have become countesses and duchesses through marrying foreign noblemen, but in “The Crown of Lies,” which opens at the King's Theatre to-day, Tola Negri becomes a queen who ends up by marrying a likeable young American flivver salesman, in order to rule his tiny cottage. This new Paramount production unfolds a story of colourful romance. It shows gorgeous Pola in the simple'garments of a boarding house maid. In an amazing conspiracy, she reigns as queen of a small Balkan kingdom and her striking gowns seem to sound a new fashion note for the coming season. Pola’s amazing resemblance to the missing queen of a tiny nation is made the basis of an intrigue by Noah Berry, an exiled cabinet minister. He plans to establish her as ruler while he makes millions for himself. Not knowing of this ulterior motive, she agrees to the plan, obsessed with the idea of freeing a nation from the oppressions of its dictator. Robrt Ames is Miss Negri’s leading man. He is the husky young Y r ankee who pursues his quest of love across the seas, hazarding many dangers inlier behalf. “The Crown of Lies” has powerful sequences laid in America as well as in picturesque foreign settings. It was directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki. The story is an original from the pen of Ernest Vajdo, a famous Hungarian playwright.