CENTRAL TELEGRABH OFFICE.

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

CENTRAL TELEGRABH OFFICE.

NEW ZEALAND INTENTIONS.

On Thursday afternoon the Postmastergeneral received the delegates in his room at the General Post Offices together with gentlemen representing journalism. With him were- the Earl of Granard and Sir H. Babington Smith, Secretary to the Post Office. SmaJl parties, under efficient guides, were conducted through several of the sections of the telegraph office, including the provincial, part of which ie 6ct apart for news work, and the cable room. Particularly interesting to New Zealand delegates was the meeting with Mr Donald Murray, formerly of the literary staff of the New Zealand Herald. He is the inventor of the Murray Multiplex, a -machine which delivers Us messages typed in page form. One of these messages came to hand as tEe visitors stood round the receiver. It read: "The Postmaster-surveyor of Birmingham sends greetings and hearty congratulations to the .delegates of the Imperial -Press Conference now present at the General Post Office, London." In the same gallery the Creed was seen. It is also a combination of -telegraphic machine and automatic typewriter, but printing on a tape. Tkis machine delivered a hearty message of welcome from Scotland. , It was interesting to note that the inventor of the 6eU keyboard perforator is also a New Zsalander, formerly in the telegraphic service, at Nelson- His maohine is an imdispensible adjunct to the Wheatstone, and takes the place vof the handpunch for preparing the Mora© code slips in readiness for actual telegraphy. It is bringing the Wheatstone back into general use, this instrument still commanding the highest speed of working. The delegates saw in operation the Hughes, so widely used for international messages, and the Baudot, introduced from Franca, and employed in this country, and to some extent in India, with consdderable success. It was stated tlbat the number of telegrams dealt with each day usually ranged b9tw«en 120.000 and* 165,000, and on June 25, 1902. when the postponement of the Ccmona-tion was announced, the large total of 31+.126 was reached. The traffic passing over the cables to the Continent ranges from 20.000 to 25,000 telegrams a day. A vast Quantity of news, is telegraphed, and frequently on busy Parliamentary nights as many as 500,000 words have been sent. On- one occasion the total reached 1,000.000 words. The number of messages passing through the Central Telegraph- Office last year wee over 40 millions.