NORTH AND SOUTH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21360, 1 June 1939, Page 4

NORTH AND SOUTH

NO TELEPHONE BARRIER In a telephone sense New Zealand is a continuous country with no physical barrier at Cook Strait, and this point is fully appreciated by telephone subscribers who liberally use the cables connecting the two Islands. Five telephone channels carried the whole traffic three years ago. but ten are now in use including six over the new coaxial cable, which is far from reaching the limit of its possibilities. In one day recently when a check was made the number of calls approached 1000, and the speech minutes charged to subscribers totalled more than 4000. These cross-strait channels with their direct circuits between Wellington - Christchurch; Wellington - Dunedin; Wellington - Blenheim; and Wellington-Nelson are most used during business hours at the full toll rate showing the commercial value of this system of quick communication. More than 2000 speech minutes were used at full rates, and 1500 speech minutes from 6 a.m. till 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. till 10 p.m. which showed the public response to the concession of half-rates during those hours. The quietest moments of the 24 hours were the cheapest ones for communication. During the quarter-rate period of 10 p.m. till 6 a.m. the maximum charge for three minutes’ communication between any part of one Island and any point in the other is only 1 6. but only a very small proportion of the traffic originates during these hours.