COUNTRY TELEPHONES

Otago Witness, Issue 2896, 15 September 1909, Page 6

COUNTRY TELEPHONES

Although telephonic communication is j gradually being extended there are yet , many districts in the interior quite cut ', off from quick, direct connection with tbe outer world, and settlers have on occasions to endure hardships and unneceseary suffering owing to the long distances they have to travel to obtain medical , assistance in cases of accident or illness. Those residing in the back country who now enjoy the privilege of the telephone can testify to the benefit and convenience of this quick method of transmitting messages, and one and all of them would be very loath- to revert to the old order of things and do away with the telephone service. During the sitting of the recent Agricultural Conference in Wellington tlie important question of Tural telephones oame in for lengthy and careful discus- |

sion, And a resolution was carried urging the Government to encourage the extension of the telephone system in rural districts by granting local authorities or local residents power to establish telephone systems in centres where the Government cannot undertake to „do «o themselves. In speaking to the motion, Mr .Buchanan, M.P., said^ he did not think there was a matter of greater importance to the country districts than that of telephone extension. The postal service compared favourably with any jpther, and to our telegraph ©ervice also the same compliment could be applied ; .but in comparison with America and the Australian States our telephone system was' not at aM advanced. The speaker caid he had gone very thoroughly into the matter, and had also obtained from Mr E. Hall a good deal of information about telephones in obher lands. In America they obtained good telephone, services for charges of rrom £1 to £5 12s per anmun, and for ] that price the farmers enjoyed the privilege and convenience of- telephonic communication over- wide' areas. \a Australia, too, they were a.geod <teal ahead: of tig in this matter, and one apparent reason, wasthat the cnaarg«B there wese very much lower than with us. Speaking of the Wairarapa, Mr Buchanan mentioned that they had gone in very extensively*- for telephones as private settlers, and he supposed there was no district in NeV <2ealand, except, perhaps, Poverty Bay, where there were so many private lines £mcl GO many sei-blere conn«ct«d -wHLfcfe. t,lx& main exchanges. They had something like 2000 miles of telephone wires erected an<J controlled by the settlers.. They n»d erected the lines at their own expense, and now they had to pay a heavy fee per annum to the Government to be connected with the exchange. The wires in his district were not put up in the cheap way in which they were ejected in other parts, where they had a great many miles of wires along the fences. Such lines answered fairly well, but necessarily were liable to frequent interruption. In the Wairaxapa the lines were erected with heart of. totaira and Australian, hardwood (Australian jaTrah), aod one line was put up by eight country settlers. The cost of erection was £374, or £9 a mile, and tihe contractor was ready at any time to put up limes at £7 n mile, using jarrah' timber as poles. The speaker mentioned that when the Government was approachtd | about an estimate for erection tie price j they asked was £40 a mile, and Ihere ! was a difficulty to get them to undertake tbe work at all ; and, further, they could not be got to look at it at the figures of | private contracts. On the 40-mile system ; he had mentioned-, there w«re eight subscribers -on it who wanted to run a wire into the nearest exchange. For one subscriber the Government would get £5 per annum, and with the eight on one wire the : Government would only allow a reduction, j of £1 each, and therefore received a total j of £32. What he had mentioned went to show that the charges were not made on, a fair business basis, and the only answer the department could make by way of getting out of the dilemma was by eaying, "Well, £5 is too cheap altogether." It is understood that in New South Wales a single subscriber on a wire pays £6 a year for connection with the exchange, two subscribers £4, and) three subscribers £3, and, if there were eight, the charge would only be £2 10s. In Europe and America the greatest im- | jportanee is attached to the matter of tele- | phones as a means of improving the con- ' ditions of country life. Mr E. Hall, in speaking of this, said he had taken the trouble to obtain the charges of 75 companies in America, and they ranged from 4s to £5 a year, and the average was 535, or about Is a week. When approached on this subject about a yean ago Sir Joseph Ward was understood to say that if the Government wore to accede to all the requests for telephones from country ; settlers it would cost seven million pounds sberling. The opinion was expressed" that if the Government could not find money to provide telephones they should «t least give country settlers power to erect them themselves, and from -t-he evidence submitted at the conference tliere is no doubt settlers can erect lines and 1 beep them in repair much cheaper than the Governmenit can do/ In. other parts of the world.— Canada for instance— nearly every country settler has connection by telephone, the charges being exceptwroally -, low., about 6s or 7s a month. Companies ( in that Dominion put up lines, giving j them three »nonths' trial, and if the settler is not satisfied t-be telephone is taken down again. It was stated at the conference that the 6s. a month covered J all charges, including connection with other smaU towns in the system. At the close of the conference a small deputation waited upon Mr Logan, ben*' of the • Telegraph Department, to see if a bill could be passed next f-ession giving local bodies or settlers power to provide telephones in the country districts where the Government could not do fo. Mr Logan promised his assistance in support of such a proposal. The Hon. D<r Find Jay was abo *cen in connection with this mattea*, and after hearing a fall explanation of the position promised to give effect to their wishee, and to have a bill introduced giving th>a powers asked to local bodies and settlers in country districts. In the southern provinces of New Zeala-nd a gr.sat d«al of difficulty has been experienced by settlers and others desirous of having tele-pb--£si6 communication established within their districts. The question of guarantee to the Government fa. cost of erection always was a stumbling, block, and in - addition to this, when .the telephone had been established, the charges to the users were certainly high. The promise of the Hon. Dt Findlay that greater facilities will be offered to rural districts by giving local bodies or settlers power to provide telephones in districts where the Governmen* does not feel disposed to do so will , be welcomed by many farmers and t pastoralists in this Dominion. (