RADIOTELEPHONE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 138, 7 December 1929, Page 9

RADIOTELEPHONE

FOR MILFORD TRACK

GLADE HOUSE BEING REBUILT

The only 'wireless telephone in commercial use in. New Zealand was that installed last year as a moans of communication between Glade House, at the head of Lake Te Anau, and the To Anau Hdtel at the southern end of the lake-r-a distance of some 40 miles. Unfortunately, soon after its installation it was destroyed when Glade House was burnt down. Upon inquiry at the Tourist Department to-day, a "Post" reporter was informed that tenders for rebuilding Glade House have been ]et; the material is now on the ground, and j the wireless telephone will be reinstated as soon as possible—within the next four or five weeks at latest. "The utility of a wireless telephone there will be wonderful," it was stated, "because if an accident should occur on the Milford Track at the present .time, there is no way of getting in touch with civilisation, except when the boat goes up there three times a week. In the off days, of course, there is no means of getting through, and in the case of anybody being badly injured the delay might make all tlio difference. The wireless telephone is quite an experiment in New Zealand, and the now telephone when installed will T>o the only one in commercial use in the Dominion. Of course, a number of private experimenters with radio havo wireless 'phones. If this new wireless telephone- was satisfactory, we shall have to put such telephones in in some other places which nro in much the same position as the Milford Track iv regard to communication with the, outside world. The wireless telephone was not tested thoroughly last time because it was just ready for testing when the fire occurred —a bit of bad luck. But the Standard Telephones people, who are installing it, are very confident that it will be a success. They havo tried it in other parts of the world and-found it.all right. "The new Glade House will be built on more modern lines than the old one, and a new cottage is to be built for the manager and his wife as well. Glade House will be equipped with electric light, instead of the oid kerosene lamps which were very dangerous. The fire was supposed to bo due to a defect in the boiler-house; but still there is always a danger about using kerosene lamps."