THE TELEPHONE in NEW ZEALAND.

Patea Mail, 26 May 1881, Page 3

THE TELEPHONE in NEW ZEALAND.

There is some prospect, says the Auckland Herald of a Telephone Exchange being started in Auckland. Hitherto, the Telegraph Department have been unable to obtain the required minimum, namely, twenty subscribeis, but a private gentleman has taken the matter in hand, and his efforts will probably prove successful. At Dunedin, the attempt made by the department was similarly successful. The Telephone Exchange has been started in Christchurch, but there also its introduction has been owing to the active exertions of a private citizen, who secured thirty subscribers—ten above the minimum required by Government. Mr Furby, the officer in charge of the Auckland Telegraph Department, is prepared to recommend the Government to inaugurate the system here if only a dozen subscribers can be obtained, feeling perfectly satisfied that practical experience will soon convince business men of its value as effecting a saving of time and labour, and that once established, and custom and habit created, it will be found as necessary as the Post office and Telegraph. The working of the telephone is simplicity itself, and a knowledge of it is speedily acquired. The other day four Melanesians, under the condnctorship of Mr Cummings, were taken into the Telegraph Office, and in a few minutes became practically acquainted with the use of the telephone, conversing to each other through the instruments in their own language with perfect ease and facility.