BY TELEPHONE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 520, 2 May 1933, Page 7

BY TELEPHONE

EARLY RISING OVERSEAS UNBEDDING SYSTEM PROVIDES TOPIC OF DISCUSSION. VALUE OF GRASS WIDOWER. Would a ringing of the telephone be a hetter unbedder than an alarm clock for sluggard citizens? In some parts of the world, nicludi'ng Victoria, it is possible to arrange for the teleplione people to ring you up at a fixed hour to awaken you and make you get out of bed. And all for a small fee. It is understood that sof ra th'e Post and Telegraph anthorities in New Zealand have not had any requests for such a servce. If there were a definite public demand, however, no douht the department would meet the requirement. As a matter of fact, it is not unknowh for high officials of the Post and Telegraph' Department to arrange for the exchange to give them a ring when they want to make an early start — a 4 a.m. variety of start — on a trip to distant parts of their district. Private telephone owners whose opinions were sought were for the most part inclined to favour the well-known and old-established alarm clock. A strong point made in favour of the telephone system, however, was that it would be much harder to stop the 1 hell than to switch off an alarm clock. It was contended that the average alarm clock had to be put so far away that it was prac'tically inaudible, if it "were to be out of the reach of a drowsy arm! The telephone would at least insist on a departure from between the blankets. The consensus of opinion was that the telephone alarm would be of most service in the following classes of sleepers : — 1. Married men baching. 2. Married men baching. 3. Married men baching. A man who is avowedly a light sleeper, and is one of those people who possesses the knack of heng able to wake up at any hour on whieh he fixes his mind before going to sleep — j many are like that — declailed that I anybody possessed of backbone should he ahle to spring forth from bed the moment consciousness returned. He had used an alarm clock, as a standby, for 15 years or something, and had never had a failure. It was pointed out by a h'eavier type of sleeper that almost anybody could wake up when the alarm went off; the catch lay in being able to resist the temptation of going to sleep again afterwards. Fishermen who favour the early

j morning waters, and men who soon j will he requiring to leave th'eir homes j early on shooting expeditions, were ! the best supporters of the telephone i alarm scheme. They thought that : their minds would be relieved of a J hurden if th'ey knew that somie alert ; operator would set the telephone ! ringing in the small hours. j The_ main difficulty which they sasw i wass that the ringng telephone, uni like the more subdued and restricted I alai*m clock, might awaken an entire ■ household, instead of the individual 1 for whose benefit the ring was given. —