TELEPHONE EXTENSIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8350, 10 February 1913, Page 7

TELEPHONE EXTENSIONS

GOVERNMENT MUST KEEP PACE WITH DEMAND. ■ A REPLY TO MR ELL. Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, February 9. Replving to the statement made by Mr EU, M.P., regarding the expendi tore or votes for telephone and telegraph extensions (telegraphed last Monday), the Hon. R. H. _ Rhodes, Postmaster-General, in an interview, said: “Mr Ell’s contention that I have overlooked the fact that applications for slot telephones were for sites within districts already covered with tho network of telephone wires is incorrect. 1 am perfectly well aware of the fact, but it does not by any means follow that they can be installed without expense, and the aggregation of such <xpendituro makes inroads on the amount, large as it may appear, available for tho extensions of the telephone system, both in town and country, districts. I can only say that I am fully seized of the necessity for extending the facilities of tho telephone system, whether it be by means of slot telephones or otherwise; but I must be allowed to exorcise my own judgment in the matter of order in which the work must proceed. “The enormous increase in the demand for* connections with telephone exchanges throughout the Dominion renders it absolutely necessary that the amount provided for this class of business is not exceeded. “Mr Ell’s attempt to make it appear that tEo value of slot machines as re-venue-producers exceeds that of the ordinary telephone exchange _ connections is quite beside the question. One must be regarded as a corollary of tho other, as without exchange subscribers slot machines would bo of little use. In any case tho Government must keep ppce with the demand for these most necessary adjuncts of modern life.”