THE Waikato Independent. SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1908.

Waikato Independent, Volume VII, Issue 465, 25 January 1908, Page 4

THE Waikato Independent. SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 1908.

The Executive of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce is to be complimented upon losing no time in taking up the question of petitioning the Commissioner of Telegraphs, to urge upon him the necessity of the Telegraph Department providing a separate wire from'Cambridge to Auckland, for the use of telephone messages. Since communication was established a few months ago, persons using the telephone, between Cambridge and Auckland, have derived a minimum of satisfaction and a maximum of vexation from the alleged benefits of telephone extension with the City. In fact it has been found that the alleged benefits, if anyone is in a hurry, are a delusion and a snare, as it is far more expeditious to send a wire instead of ringing up City people on the telephone, The reason for this unsatisfactory state of affairs is not far to seek, and the wonder is that the Telegraph authorities could not have forseen that nothing but dissatisfaction would be caused, by trying to cope with the Waikato telephone service by means of only one wire to the City. For example, all messages from Cambridge have to go through the Hamilton line and, as it is in constant use there, users of the telephone here have to wait until an opportunity is afforded, and the same condition of affairs holds good so far as City people are concerned, who desire to communicate with Cambridge. As to persons desirous of using the telephones at the Cambridge outlying districts with Auckland, it is clear that under the present vexatious conditions the opportunities afforded them of communicating with Auckland are extremely meagre. But while these drawbacks to the usefulness of telephoning from this district are so great now, they will be far greater when the telephone bureau is started in the new post office buildings, as business is certain to very materially increase. In Otago, the Department has provided separate wires for direct telephonic communication to Dunedin, for towns smaller than Hamilton or Cambridge. It is, therefore, remarkable that the Department could have imagined that a vast district like the Waikato would be able to carry on its telephone business on a single wire, Naturally, it was inevitable that there would be a congestion of such business, to the dissatisfaction of all persons using the Waikato-Auckland line. The peti-

tion, which is now being signed by users of the telephone, puts the case tersely and well, and when it is received by the Postmaster-General, it is to be hoped that be will exercise his well-known business acumen in considering the wishes of the petitioners, and will see the urgent necessity of agreeing to provide a separate wire to Auckland, for the transmission of telephonic messages from and to Cambridge and its district. In the face of the reasons stated, and the fact that the same privileges are extended to smaller towns in Otago, it is difficult to believe that he will allow himself to be governed, in his reply, by the stereotyped officialism which so often militates against the extension of the telephone system, to the detriment of its usefulness and the increase of the revenue it would otherwise bring in to the coffers of the Department.