The Manawatu Herald. [Established Aug. 27, 1878.] SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1904. Foxton Telephone Exchange.

Manawatu Herald, 4 June 1904, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. [Established Aug. 27, 1878.] SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1904. Foxton Telephone Exchange.

TiNG-A iiiNG. No response. Ting-a-ling, ling, ling, ling. Still no response. Ting a-ling, ling, ling, ling, ling. The silence remains unbroken; and the baffled subscriber savagely hooka up his receiver, claps on his hat, and walks down “ to make things hot” for the Post Office officials. The above is a not unfrequent episode in the daily routine of Foxton life. Our telephones are ot first-class quality, and ace fitted up with the latest appliances, but all their good points are nullified by the difficulty of getting an answer from the other end ; and it is often more satisfactory to take a five or ten minutes walk, and interview a subscriber personally, than to waste time endeavouring to obtain a reply from-, the exchange. Yet the Post Office staff are not altogether to

blame. They are, no doubt, continually occupied in the various kinds of work incidental to the Post and Telegraph service, and cannot be expected to be always on the qui vive for the dropping of the shutter. (For the benefit of the untutored we may say that the dropping of a shutter announces the fact that a subscriber is ringing up the bureau). At the same time the telephone system was installed for the express purpose of expediting communication between the residents of the the town and environs, and the above men tioned difficulties entirely defeat the object for which telephones were invented. The only way to remedy matters is to have some one appointed specially for the work of the telephone bureau ; and if the local Post Office is unable to spare any one solely for that purpose, then a complaint should be lodged with the Head Office by the Postmaster, stating fully the cir cumstances of the case, and requesting that a telephone officer be ap pointed with all possible speed. If this latter course is taken, we would ask the Postmaster to forward us the Department’s reply for publication in our columns; and if it is UnsauisfftCtory, we would strongly urge the residents to present a petition to Sir Joseph Ward, i he Postmaster-General, who, we have little doubt, would then take the necessary steps id the matter. Until something of the kind is done, the telephone system is of no advantage whatever to the business people, who comprise the majority of the subscribers.