A BOON TO BUSINESS.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16788, 4 May 1926, Page 6

A BOON TO BUSINESS.

INTER-ISLAND 'PHONES,

PATRONAGE FREELY ACCORDED

(Times Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Monday

The telephone cable recently laid across Cook Strait is proving one of the most valuable aids lo business and private communication lhal New Zealand has yet inaugurated. Since it was first opened lo Ihe public il lias increased in use day by day almost. The cable referred lo has been opened for a month past, and the average number of calls being made daily from Wellington lo Blenheim and Nelson and district is between 3n and 35. It is expected lhal Ihe patronage will increase considerably when the existence of Ihe new service becomes betlor known, and when the facility is extended lo centres north of Wellington and south to oilier parts of Ihe South Island. Until a section of the cable line al. Ihe other side of Ihe Strait is completed, people north of Wellington are unable lo make use of Ihe new cable, but it is expected that this work will be finished in Ihe next few months, when communication will be possible between any centre in the North Island with any centre in Ihe Soulh Island.

There appear lo he a number of people, especially among Ihe business community, who have not yet grasped Ihe greal facility lhal Hie new service should lie. Marlborough and Blenheim business men, on Ihe other hand, who previously have stressed their comparative isolation, are very appreciative of the new connection witli Wellington and the North Island. InterIsland communication is fairly quickly elTeclcd through "lolls," and conversation can be carried on as easily as between Iwo ofilces in Ihe same town. The service at present is an impressed one, and. although speech is satisfactory, it is slated by Ihe Department lhal conditions will be very greally improved when Ihe new amplifying and repealing apparatus is installed at Ihe terminal poihls of the

cable. Ample circuits are staled to be available lo give a quick service. The cost of the new cable has been very heavy, hut ihe Department has decided lo make the same charges for communications over il as are now made for calls over land lines. Thus communication witli the South Island will be no more cosily to the subscriber than connection with a station at the same distance away in the North Island. For instance, charges for a l.hrcc-niinutc conversation for a Wellington subscriber are lOd to Scddon, Is 2d to Blenheim, is Gd to Picton, and 2s 5d to Nelson. From 0 p.m. lo 8 a.m. Ihese rales arc reduced by half, and between midnight and 0 a.m. the half rale covers a six-minute instead of a llircc-minutc conversation. Urgent, calls may lie made at double the ordinary rales.