PARTY TELEPHONES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20222, 5 February 1934, Page 5

PARTY TELEPHONES.

New Zealand Service Cheaper. ENGLISH COMPARISON. | Although the “group service” telej phone system which is to be introj ducedj in England will give cheaper | telephone facilities there, the actual i cost to the subscriber will be more than { that charged to party-line subscribers | in the cities and towns of New Zealand, '■ said Mr J. Roberts, Telephone Engini eer, to-day i Mr Roberts pointed out that under ' the "group” system, subscribers cn the ! one line could not communicate with | each other, whereas under the New j Zealand system, this could be done. At the same time, the New Zealand system afforded a good degree of secrecy, |as only the bell of the wanted party sounded. He said that the two-party lines were very popular, especially for small businesses, and there were a large number of these and four-party lines in Christchurch. There had been a complete absence of complaints concerning the service. The Postmaster-General (the Hon Adam Hamilton), when discussing the new British system recently, said that it was a fact that even under the reduced cost of the group service system. in which as many as eight subscribers would share one telephone line, the charge to each subscriber for an eighth share in the line would be more than the cost to the individual in New Zealand for a fourth share in a fourparty line.