AUCKLAND NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8054, 5 July 1904, Page 3

AUCKLAND NOTES.

[From Our Cokrksfondent.j AUCLAND.. July 5. One of the disadvantages with which the inauguration of electric tramways in Auckland has been attended is the interference which the telephone service has received from the current supplying the trams*. This disturbance has rendered telephonic communication within the I influence of >. tho trams well nigh impossible at times, and it has been responsible for much loss of temper, and a consequent use of strong language, which is almost too terrible to contemplate. The department commenced, a considerable time a!go, to remedy the nuisance by a metallic circuit installation.. When sufficient of this work was finished to afford a test, its absolute success wa& amply demonstrated, but there has been a great delay in completing the alteration and several of the suburbs are still suffering from the perpetual " buzzing " which renders attempted conversations through the medium of they.'phone an unspeakable misery. Referring to tie matter last night, the. "Star" remarks :—" At the rate of progress recorded since, the first steps wero taken, going on for two years ago, there are few of the present generation who will survive to sec the entire work accomplished. In all, there are .possibly a few in excess of seventeen hundred wires to be attended to, and from these a revenue is drawn of about £8000. Very many of these .wires are rendered next to useless, so greatly are they affected by the electiic tram line in the middle of the street. With no private supply company would the nuisance be tolerated for a moment, but onv Telegraph Department, having a Government monopoly, is content to proceed in a most casual fashion. fit is quite time th&t some investigation was made into an administration which no matter "from what cause or causes renders sucli a disgraceful delay possible in accomplishing an alteration that is imperatively needed. Mumps i are very prevalent in Auckland just now. not only in the city, and suburbs, but very generally distributed over tho whole of the province. Mumps is a very infectious "disease, and also highly painful, but it is not an "infectious disease within" tho meaning of the Act," consequently, the Public Health Department has n6 official figures to give. There is a smack of the jocular about the name of this' complaint, but those who contract it find that it is no joke. The city schools have been somewhat severely visited by the disease, and some members of the hospital staff have also been attacked by the complaint, but in their case every care was exercised, of course, in isolating the victims.