23

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NUMBER OF TELEGRAPH-OFFICES IN DOMINION. Offices opened during the! year, 38 ; offices closed during year, 50 ; offices remaining open on 31st March, 1924, 2,295. Of this number 334 are operated by Morse! and 1,961 by telephone, 9 having been converted from telephone to Morse-working during the year and 8 from Morse to telephone. The excess of offices closed eive!r the number opened, is due to the extension of the telephone-exchange system to rural and baokblocks districts by means of party lines. MACHINE-PRINTING TELEGRAPHS. Additional multiplex telegraph instruments have been installe-.d at Wellington and Auckland as part of tho general scheme for linking up the more important of tho provincial towns by means of the multiplex system of telegraphy. On the 23rd October, 1923, direct communication over machine-printing circuits was provided between Christchurch and Aueklanei through the medium of multiplex repeating apparatus at Wellington. Multiplex telegraph instruments are now being installed at Dunedin to provide for direct communication by multiplex from Dunedin to Christchurch, Wellington, or Auckland. UNIVERSAL BATTERY. The telegraph instrument-room at Christchurch has been transferred to tho new building in Heroford Street. More modern methods of telegraph working have been introduced, including the universalbattery system, which, is the first installation of the kind in New Zealand. Tho installation of this system involved the replacement of a large number of primary batteries by storage cells, which, in adelition to providing a more efficient source of battery power, will effect a considerable saving in maintenance charges. Action is being taken to replace the primary-battery telegraph system at Other chief centres. NEW ZEALAND SUBMARINE CABLES. Only one of the Cook Strait cable-s was interrupted during the year, and this was repaired in September last with the assistance! of the Pacific Cable Board's staff and steamer " Iris." WIRELESS. GOVERNMENT STATIONS. During the year rarlio communication has been satisfactorily maintained by all Government coast stations. An effeotive watch has also been kept for signals of distress from ship stations. In September last arrangements were made to enable masters of vessels at sea to communicate with coast stations for the purpose of obtaining reports on tho weather conditions prevailing in important nautical localities. Radio-Awarua. Satisfactory communication was maintained by Radio-Awarua with tho Norwegian Whaling Expedition, headed by tho factory steamer " Sir James Clark Ross," during the whole period of its operations in Ross Sea. Radio-teilegraphic communication with the expedition was effected at 2,000 miles, and radio-telephone traffic was handled from tho " Sir James Clark Ross " at a distance of 1,400 mites. Although conversations by radio-telephone have been conducted on many previous occasions by vessels trading in these waters, this in the first case in which this agency has been employed for tho transmission of a radio-telegram to a New Ze:aland coast station. The transmitting equipment at Radio-Awarua is being supplemented by an efficient short-wave transmitter, in order to provide a more effective means of communicating in daylight with ships on the southern steamship routes. When this transmitter is installed the period of transmission at Awarua will be increased and the duration of the watch extended. Radto-Wellington. In June last the two wooden masts at Raeliei-Wellington, which had been in service since 1912, were replaced by a new 165 ft. steel self-supporting tower. The semi-umbrella typo of antenna erected on the new structure is proving equally as efficient as the " T " antenna erected on the old masts. Consideration is now beiing given to the matter of equipping Radio-Wellington with a continuouswave valve; transmitter. The installation of this equipment Would permit of the use of different types of transmissions for fixeel and mobile! service, facilitate long-distance communication with ship stations, and reduce tei a minimum interference with adjacent radio-telephone broadcasting transmissions. Radio Chatham Islands. Reliable and uninterrupted communication has been maintained during the year be>.twoon RadioChatham Islands and the mainland. With a view to facilitating the despatch of radio-telegrams over long distances, and also reducing interference, arrangements we're made in May last for Radio Chatham Islands to work overseas vessels on the Cape Horn and Panama transpacific routeis on long waves. Radto-Awanui. The proposed modernization of the radio-stations at Awanui (Ne;w Zealand) and Apia (Samoa) by tho installation of continuous-wave transmitters in place eif tho present spark equipment is being hold in abeyance pending possible developments in connection with the erection in New Zealand of a high-power station, which would probably incorporate the specific services at present performed by Radio-Awanui.