tf.—l

The following extensions to the present exchange equipment are in view : Mount Eden (400 individual lines), Remuera (200 individual lines and 100 two-party lines), Ponsonby (600 individual lines and 100 two-party lines), Devonport (100 individual lines and 100 two-party lines). At the Hamilton Automatic Exchange an extension of 200 individual lines has been sufficiently advanced to allow of new subscribers being connected. The extension of the toll and rural sections of the equipment is in progress. Provision will be made during next year for an extension of 100 two-party lines and 200 individual lines. Wellington Metropolitan Area and District Automatic Telephone Exchanges. The Wellington Central Exchange (Stout Street) was cut into service on the 26th September, 1925, when the remainder of the manually operated subscribers' stations (4,600) and a number of waiting subscribers were given automatic telephone service. The automatic system was thus brought into operation in the whole of the Wellington metropolitan exchange area. Coincident with the opening of the Stout Street Exchange, there were diverted from the Courtenay Place Automatic Exchange 1,200 lines which properly belonged to the Stout Street area but had been temporarily accommodated at Courtenay Place. All public telephone business, such as applications for exchange connections, payment of accounts transfers and removals of telephones, inquiries, &c., are transacted in the public offices provided in the Stout Street new building. Facilities for the payment of accounts, however, continue to be available at the Chief Post-office. A public toll office, with hours of attendance 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., has been provided at the new building. The conversion from manual to automatic working of the telephones in the central area of the City of Wellington involved a considerable amount of preparatory work. The underground cables, which terminated in the old exchange building, had to be diverted to the new exchange in a manner that would not only not interfere with the operation of the old system prior to the cut-over, but would permit of the dissevering of the old exchange connections after the cut-over without dislocating the working of the new system. The accomplishing of this result involved the installation in the new building of nineteen cables each containing 1,200 insulated wires. In addition, the telephone equipment in subscribers' premises had to be supplemented by automatic apparatus, so arranged that a simple and rapid change could be made at the time of the cut-over from one telephone to the other. This was done with the least possible inconvenience to subscribers. In order to obtain the best possible results the installation of subscribers' apparatus was delayed until the last moment. The old equipment was recovered as early as possible. Eight thousand new telephones were installed in five weeks ; and the whole of the old apparatus was recovered in about eight days. In addition to attention to the actual telephones, the cut-over necessitated special treatment to a number of telephone accessories. To enable them to be merged satisfactorily into the automatic system the circuit wiring of twenty comparatively large private branch exchanges was altered, and 168 smaller private branch exchanges were converted from the cord-and-plug system to the key-box "interphone " system. The last-named operation involved the installing of about 1,200 key-boxes of various sizes, and the laying in subscribers' premises of 19,000 yards of telephone cable. As may be well imagined, the satisfying of the varying needs of the many types of businesses in a city such as Wellington required considerable thought on the part of the construction staff. The erection of the automatic equipment itself was a work involving 'an immensity of detail as can be gathered from a glance at the following figures : — The installation of the switching-apparatus for 6,000 subscribers' lines necessitated the making and testing of 3,850,000 soldered connections, and the use of 37,000 relays, 14,000 driving-magnets, 4,400 timing-switches, and 4,164 selecting-machines. In addition, after the erection of this apparatus the more intricate work of testing still remained to be done. The installation work was commenced at the end of April, 1924 ; and the system was brought into service at the end of September, 1925—thus to complete the whole of the work only seventeen months were taken. In addition to work at the Central Exchange it was necessary to rewire all the impulse-receiving mechanism at the other automatic exchanges in the area. As the rewiring had to be done in exchanges that were working careful organizing was necessary to obviate interruptions. The power-supply used in the automatic exchange normally comes from the city power-mains, but a storage-battery installation and an automatic cut-over mechanism have been provided to ensure uninterrupted service in the event of a breakdown in the city power-supply. Among many other subsidiary services that might be mentioned are the toll-board and the telephone directory. The latter was, in itself, a task of considerable magnitude, calling for the exercise of the greatest care and attention. A careful analysis of the exchange load had to be made in order that the new numbers might be allotted in such a manner that the traffic would be evenly distributed throughout the system. In view of the foregoing it will be appreciated that after the cut-over a few days elapsed before all minor installation defects could be removed and final adjustments made. During the year the following extensions to equipment were installed : Courtenay Place Automatic Exchange (400 exclusive lines) ; Kelburn (100 four-party lines). At Wellington South 400 individual lines are at present being installed, and at the Wellington Central and Khandallah Exchanges contracts have been let for extensions of 100 two-party lines and 200 exclusive lines respectively. To relieve the congestion in the Wellington South Telephone Exchange area consideration is now being given to the question of erecting at Miramar an automatic branch exchange to serve the Lyall Bay - Miramar - Seatoun area.

35