New ’Phone Directory In April

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30958, 14 January 1966, Page 10

New ’Phone Directory In April

A new telephone directory for Christchurch and district subscribers will be issued by the Post Office in April.

An order for 150,000 copies of the directory has been placed with the Government Printer in Wellington. The new directory will have a red cover to distinguish it readily from the current green-covered one. It will be distributed without charge to all private and business subscribers in the city and country, and will be available to the public at 3s a copy.

The new issue will coincide with the next major change in telephone numbers and.the opening of the automatic exchange at Harewood. All entries to appear in the new book closed at the end of November and are in the hands of the printer. The new directory will contain more than 70,000 alphabetical listings for the metropolitan area—an increase of 14,000. Total listings for both city and country will cover 390 pages, compared with 360 pages at present. The section commonly known as the yellow pages will be increased by 10 to 140 pages. The new directory will contain a complete list of streets, and postal zones will be recorded alongside the names of every subscriber. This will be done to promote the use of postal-zone numbers by the public when addressing mail. Postal officials say that zone numbers enable sorters to cut the time taken to clear big batches of mail. The new directory will include 12,000 number changes caused by the expansion of telephone services, and 30,000 persons surrendering their.

telephones, having new ones installed or moving. The new directory will also bring up to date ail business listings. Subscribers at Islington will be listed in the main section of the directory and will have six-figure dialling numbers. The prefix “ISL” will be dropped. Diamond Harbour, Tai Tapu and Motukarara subscribers, who now have direct dialling facilities, will be listed in the main section of the directory as Christchurch subscribers and amended calling instructions will be shown in the new book. Persons who applied before the end of last November to have telephones installed will have their names included in the new directory if they are to be connected before it is released.

The Post Office will make special arrangements for the delivery of the new directories and further contents details will be announced before their issue.

The total weight of the new directories will run to almost 100 tons. The Chief Post Office in Christchurch is preparing space for the storage.