SHOPPING BY TELEPHONE.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3418, 5 December 1879, Page 4

SHOPPING BY TELEPHONE.

It is pretty well known that in all the chief citiei-of the United States and Canada people enjoy advantages in the matter of telegraphic communication which are denied to us. For a small annual payment a man may hare his house connected with a telegraph agency, and then he has only to give a signal to call a cab, a policeman, or raise an alarm of tire. It might have fwea thought that it was not easy to improve upon this; hut as a matter of fact, the system is already old. Denver, according to the Key, H. Martyn Hart, is in every sense of the word a progressive city. Twenty years agd humanity was represented there by a few Indian wigwams. Now it is a prosperous town of 35,000 ; people ! which has raised itself to a high civilisation, of which one illustration is seen in their employment of the telephone. "For a subscription, of less than 10s a month," says Mr Hart, "a company provides you with a receiver and a telephone. The ' receiver' is a small square box. which his fastened against the wall of the most frequented room in the house. In the face of the box it a hole about the size of a half-a---erown^ A little silver handle projects out of one side, and from a screw connector hangs a telephone, by 3ft. or 4ft. of flexible wire. On moving the handle a silvery bell rings one stroke. This signal once repeated draws the attention of a clerk at the central office, whence all the wires radiste. Holding the telephone to your ear, you become aware that function* ary is shouting ' Hulfoi !' Turning your face towards the receiver, though you need not be within 4ffc. or sft. of it, you apeak your request—' Connect me with Mr Jones, the batcher in Larimer street.' The bell gives its 'ting* and you are in temporary communication with Mr Jones. A few strokes of your bell calls his attention, and for 3| minutes you can converse with him as to the state of tho meat market and your wishes with respect to a particular joint." No one, he adds, can tell the convenience of this arrangement. The doctor pays no useless viiiU; the patient has not hours to wait before he can be found; the business man, should his busiaessbe too intricate for a short conversation, make, an appointment with ease and certainty; the wife can consult her husband in his distant office as to what he Would like for dinner, or the swain may inform his Sylvia that he proposes to do himself the honor to call in an hour. The idea of doing all one's shopping without leaving the house is one which possesses an especial attraction for everybody in ■view of the weather we have had to experience, and will make English readers yearn for Denver, or at all events long to ste the Denver telephone service egtablishedj here.

The s.s. Eotuku (says the Herald) safely arrived at the landing, Upper Thames (recently, known as Pakopako), the other day with a powerful traction engine by Fowler and Co., of Leeds, Yorkshire. This engine, with a train of sis waggons is intended to be employed in haoling grain from Mr Firth's wheat lands on his estate at Matamats. The engine" is fitted with the most recent improvements, and guaranteed to draw 12 tons net at the rate of 4. miles per hour over the Matamata roads. We understand that the engine will be further employed for ploughing, and, if that can be done on the direct system as distinguished from what is known as the two engine system, plenty of work awaita it. Belatisg to the stoppage of emigration to New Zealand of all classes save young women, the Pall Mall Gazette has the following remarks:—" But the policy of building public works with the proi ceedsof loons has been pushed too far, and Hew Zealand is now beginning to feel the pressure of comparatively bad times. Wages, which had risen to a preposterous height—as much as 8s or 10s a day being paid at one time for unskilled labour —are now falling, and, as at Melbourne, an agitation is being got up among the unemployed. Hitherto the full effect of the failure of tbe Glasgow Bank has not been felt, but the falling off in the purchase of Crown landt is telling ■ upon the revenue. In these circumstances it is perhaps ■ necessary that the Government should temporarily suspend assisted immigration ; but that the cry should be raised by those who have probably themselves been enabled to try their fortunes in a sew country at the expense of others is rather singular. There can be little doubt but that with care New Zealand, will speedily recover from the period of stagnation now commencing. There, wai always danger in the plan of reckoning the sale of Crown lands as income, and the system of ' political railways' introduced by Sir Julius Vogel was a very harmful part of his policy. An attempt will be made to stave off necessary retrenchments by large new loans; but farther borrowing, in addition to the already heavy debt, will only render the future settlement of affairs more difficult. At any rate, to stop assisted immigration in order to 4ceep up wages, and then to spend borrowed money in paying high wages for the •construction of more public works, reads rather like the old national workshop fallacy in disguise."