BLIND WANDERINGS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18030, 19 January 1923, Page 6

BLIND WANDERINGS.

The Hon. J. G. Coates may be joking, aitiiougli April 1 is still some time oft'. Tlie Government may be hop-ing-for the millennium when taxpayers will pay income tax without being told to, and will assess themselves honestly to a man, and will clamour for increases in what they have to pay. But Mr Coates is about 2000 years too soon.. Only one word can apply to the proposed telephone rates, and that is “ridiculous.” As we said before, commenting previous to tire Minister's communique, it is lucky for Mr Coates that he saw fit to decide to place the matter before public bodies before bringing the preposterous increases into force. As a New Plymouth business man said yesterday (according to a Press Association telegram published on Page 7), the increases would completely nullify any benefits promised the .public by the postal reductions and reductions in telegraph rates. If the proposed ’phone regulations are carried' out, the Department stands to lose hundreds of subscribers, especially small commercial concerns, as a Timaru business man pointed out yesterday. It is useless Mr Coates telling hardheaded business men that the business maxim, “the greater the output the less the cost per unit” does not apply to the telephone business, although we can dimly see what he is driving at, i.e., that there must be an increase in the number of persons with whom a ’phone gives communication. That does not occur, however, when subscribers are lost.

In the past month the Department has made two suggestions: (1) letter-advertising, and (2) increased ’phone charges, that would lead the layman to hope that some high officials will soon be turned out to grass.