Rangitikei Advocate. TUESDAY, SEPT. 17, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8923, 17 September 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. TUESDAY, SEPT. 17, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

THE Auckland Herald publishes some information relating to telephone communication which is of considerable interest to farmers and residents in the backblocks. This information'was gained in an interview with Mr E. Hall, secretary to Auckland A. and P. Association, who, after referring to the fact that when the 801 l monopoly was broken up, there were only 7000 telephones in Indiana, and now there are 166,255, of which 30,000 are in farmers’ homes, said: “1 interviewed Mr Logan, superintendent of electric lines, who had just come back from Ohio, U.S.A., gad Mr Logan said that in Ohio almost everyone had telephones at a cost of IS dollars a year-each, and the system was provided by a private company. He also said the Department would have no objection to a number of fanners combining together in any district and running the party wires into a store, and he know of a case near Gisborne, where the fanners put up

their own lines and paid a store keeper 80s a year each to do the switching. He also added that the Department desired to encourage this sort of thing. Any farmer who can put up a fence and draw a wire can erect a telephone line, and it is very easy to iustal the instruments Two settlers in the Raglan district put up 2% miles of wire, and they purchased the wire and insulators for about £3, and paid £1 each for two second-hand instruments. They did tiro labour themselves. The cost of maintenance of farmers’ lines is practically nil, as whereas the Department would perhaps iiave to send a man 20 miles to repair a break, a -farmer would effect repairs at once, and just as ho would repair one of i his own fences. What lam working j for, and what the agricultural | societies are endeavouring to secure, : i s a system whereby the farmers can i erect the lines themselves, and the ! whole thing will cost them so little I that practically every farmhouse will have its telephone.” In giving evidence before a Select Committee at Ottawa, Canada, Mr J. Hesketh, then electrical engineer for the Postmaster-General’s Department, Queensland, said the independent telephone system in the United States owed its success to the manner in which it had dealt with I the problem of country district j lines. It was impossible to avoid the conclusion, after a close study of American conditions, that to establish any telephone system on secure lines-lines that would induce the greatest number of people to partake of its privileges—was not to leave the outside districts until the large centres were provided for, but to build from the outside districts in towards the large centres. It was useless trying to develop a country district scheme on a ‘‘one line, one instrument” basis; 10 or oven 20 instruments could work well on a lino up to 20 miles long, and the line could be of cheap construc.tion. Trees could be used where possible, bracket pins and glass insulators with iron or steel; wire being a class of construction quite adequate for the purpose. Sir Joseph Ward’s statement in America that the public utilities in New Zealand, such as the telephone and telegraph system, were owned by the people was received with cheers, and yet all over America there are cheap telephones connecting farmhouses, and in New Zealand the Government says it would cost £lO a mile to give you a telephone. New Zealand fanners are competing with the American farmers 400,000 of whom have telephones, and the estimate is that they save £13,000,000 per annum by the use of the teier phones, but the New Zealand farmer is told it would not pay to erect telephones in country districts. The American telephone is installed at 80s a year. Contrast this-with the statement Jof the New Zealand Premier in July last, when the member for Newtown put in a plea for telephone extension in Wellington suburbs, saying that a resident within reach of a 2d tram section was told that he would require to flay the capital cost of construction being heyoud the three mile limit—£44, and aunual subscription £ls, besides being required to hold the connection for three years! Sir 4 • G. Ward replied that the same regulation applied over the whole colony, and the capital cost laid to be paid by everyone heyoud the limit, and the annual subscription of £ls was only the interest, In Poverty Bay district the settlors have established communication at a cost of £SB, for which the Government asked £2OO. In Northern Wairoa Messrs Harding and Go., of Mangawhare, have elected 50 miles of wire at a cost of £5 per mile, and in .a letter to Mr Hall they say: ‘‘The Government will not allow private individuals to take payment for the use of the wires nor to hire them out, hut a little arrangement can obviate this, 'lt is assumed that four or five farmers wish to connect with a telegraph station and with one another. The first matter is to arrange with a local storekeeper to lead the wire into his office, He cannot receive direct payment, but the advantage is seen in his direct contact with customers. It is not necessary for each household to have a separate wire unless it chooses to bear the extra expense. We leave our wire open at night and thus connect five places, which may -have need of communication .’after the Mangawharo closed. When we first installed the system wo purchased rejected Government machines for 10s each, and they worked very well, hut we have now replaced them with new and up-to-date machines, and we converse a distance of 30 miles, with two switchboard couucotious, as clearly as if the two -people were in the same room.” Unfortunately Sir Joseph Ward’s training inclines him to view this subject only from the departmental standpoint. Government holds a monopoly of the telephone system, but its first duty shorn! be to connect every farm in the country with the telephone system, which would benefit the trading as well as the producing community.

IT is no doubt useless to protest against the infliction of another holiday in this land where a certain section highly approve every excuse for laziness. According to the law every employee has to be paid wages whether he works or not, and therefore the more holidays the bettor will the employee be satifiod with the law. In order to swell the pride of a Premier the title of this colony has been changed, and yet another holiday has been established. It is a holiday which can be enjoyed only by. the employees in factories, oh'ices and shops, because the work in the natural industries cannot be stopped to make holiday. And of course consumers and those engaged in the producing industries will have to pay for the holiday. The employers cannot afford tho loss of the day’s work, and it will ho charged up to the public. We also fear that wo have not yet heard tire last of tho extra tax for the title of Dominion. In due course • the politicians will let us know that they must have an increase of salary.