BUREAU CALLS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 796, 20 April 1910, Page 6

BUREAU CALLS.

f;: .''•• NEW, TELEPHONE REGULATIONS.' ;;'.;.;■/ EMPHATIC PROTEST. ! . •Br Telesraph-Preßs Association.) = : : y Invercargill, Spril 19. i-iA J 8^6 an d representative meeting of !..■■, men of Invercargill was held ;'.:•.'■.to-day for the purpose of taking united ;i/.;; action, jvith,regard to. the system which ;". .' . Government proposes to adopt in cony! nection with the issue of telephone debit U : " 'Jftes- Mr- J- Crosby Smith (president of .v...-- theiChamber of\ Commerce)-presided over i . : ;,whift .was in effect an indignation: meet- •'.-.■. ing of telephone' 'subscribers. ■■■''■'■ Mr. Smith briefly stated the position, y and outlined what had been done so far i, in the way of protest. •'.•'■■".. The following resolution was carried ■'. nnanimously :— "That this meeting of subscribers to ;. the telephone service takes this opportunity of. entering- an emphatic protest j against the new regulations introduced by ),, the Department as from the Ist instant, by which the practice previously obtaining of Tendering debit notes to the sub'y.-., Bcribers daily for the amounts charged ; : against them for bureau calls has been ;• discontinued, and a monthly, debit note .substituted which deprives subscribers of ; : : the opportunity of checking .their ac- >■..' 'counts. In the case of many subscribers , ; .-.;-.• it is necessary forthem to .debit the cost :' - ; ; ,:6f.bureau' calls to different accounts, and y..' this cannot be done unless they are ■in-. :"'..'/.', formed by the Department of the. cost of ;:. <.each call. This meeting is of;opinion that !.. ■-..: the compromise suggested by the Departi..:. ment, viz., that they will render daily ... debit note at a ; cost to the subscribers of y -Id. per each connection is >not reasonable '(■-.■'. or businesslike. In.the first place such a : charge amounts, to an increase.of from 20 '.. to 30. per cent, on the cost of bureau calls, , and. in the second, place the system of ;: charging the public, for informing, them '■ '. ' of .the. cos't of services rendered is en-

tirely wrong in principle, and .obtains in : i- no other, depot of business. This meeting ", considers that if the charges . made for / bureau calls are unrcmunerativo the -' proper remedy is to increase the charges ' directly, but the Postmaster-General was understood to have informed the public 'that tho telephone service was paying so well that he had seen his way to mako .concessions in the method of charging'for bureau oalls. This meeting expresses the ' hope that the unbusinesslike system of charging subscribers for debit notes will ' be discontinued, or that at least it will be. modified to a charge of Id. per day [or'a. debit note, including all the calls ■■'" lor the day, and that the sauio be added "to theidaily debit,note."