TELEPHONE CONCESSIONS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1241, 25 September 1911, Page 4

TELEPHONE CONCESSIONS.

FUETHER DETAILS. Residents of a considerable portion of Wellington city have practical reasons for being interested in tho foreshadowed equalisation of telephone charges in connection with city and suburban exchanges. Tho present scale of charges lias been the subject of frequent protests to the authorities. The annual charge now levied for the use of private telophont lines , to points within a radius or one milo from the central exchange is X 5, and tho subscriber is required to sijn a bond for one. year: The annual charge for a private wirq to any point distant nioro than one. mile from the exchange is ,£6 10s., and the subscriber is required to enter into a bond to continue payment for three years. As the so-calkd central exchange in Wellington is situated closo to the Government buildings, residents of Newtown and other large districts haw therefore felt that they were penalised while tho people of Thorndon were subsidised, as a result of tho exchange being located so jar from the centre of the oity. In the statement which Sir Joseph .Ward made in tho early hours of Saturday morning, he connected the proposed equalisation of city and suburban telephono rates with an intention to introduce more up-to-date appliances than those now in use. lie has since explained that what the Department has in view is tho introduction of automatic or semiautomatic telephone exchanges. Under this system, a city liko AVellington will have a number of branch exchanges within about two miles of each other. These branch ' exchanges on the automatic or semi-automatic system require no attendants, while tho advantage to the Department of short wires radiating from each sub-exchange keeps the cost of construction at a minimum. Tho subscriber wishing to ring up another subscriber will not ring up the exchange and give the number to the attendant as at present Ho will simply placo nn indicator against the number required, and the auiamotic apparatus will do the vest, even to t"no extent of making tho connection through his sub-exchanges, the central office, and another sub-exchange. For the assistance of rural settlers, 'the Department will grant the froo me of instruments, so long as tho settlers keen tho private wire in order. L