TELEPHONE SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 231, 18 June 1918, Page 6

TELEPHONE SERVICES

Sir,—ln the statement of the Director of Telephone Services in reply .to Mr. ■' 11. C. Hoylo's strictures on tho unsui).ability of the automatic telephone systems for general business purposes ' it was not stated that it is now some seven, years since Mr. JJiieklcy went on his trip of investigation, and anyone reading the reply to Air. Hoylo would think that Mr. Buckley had only recently returned from America. Soven years in. these times of Vapid invention' could prove the worth of any new-fangled idea, and it is a fact that whilst, the automatic system of telephones has homi ,and is still being thrown out in many of the large American cities, systems of improved common battery, which, are more than semi-automatic, and are -manual systems, are found to be mora suitable, and their reliability has been, fully proved over that of the full automatic. When a sound business question is putthus: "Given equal or belter service, is the automatic system of telephones morff economical than any other?" a reply of the "Yes, no. I don't know" sort is given, and this is where our colonial officers fail and are all at sea. and it is idle for them to fall back . and quote Yankee_ "information" the same way as in their reply to Mr. Hoyle, . —I am, etc., ' -E.S.D. June 17, 1918.