The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1912 THE TELEPHONE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 13, 7 September 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1912 THE TELEPHONE.

The report of the Chief Electrician o' the Post and Telegraph Department 01 Telegraph and Telephone matters ii America and Europe, laid on the i>abh of the House yesterday afternoon reaches us by courtesy of the Post-master-General, the Hon. R. H Rhodes. Mr Buckley’s observations, after very careful investigation, lead him to the conclusion that the mart extended use of the telephone generally should be promoted as far as possible in the Dominion, the develop men! of the telephone in centres of population in New Zealand, as compared will, that in manj other parts of the world being low. Mr Buckley also recommended that the full automatic system of giving telephone service lie adopted for the four principal centres. These recommendations are endorsed by the Secretary to the Post Office. In the course of his lengthj and interesting report the Chief Electrician points out that automatic exchange working has attracted inventors for probably a quarter of a century, and from time to time different kinds of apparatus have been evolved. The aim of designers has been to reduce the working costs of the telephone service by introducing mechanism that will enable the force of operators at the exchanges to be wholly or partially dispensed with, and that can be placed if needed at different points in a telephone area, thereby reducing the first cost and the maintenance cost of plant, such as conduit, under-ground and over-head cables. The designers of semi-automatic systems contend that, considering the state of the telephonic art as developed along manual lines, it is not desirable that subscribers should be called upon to do their own operating. They claim that subscribers have become so accustomed to have access to an operator to effect connection for them and to whom to refer when anything appears to go wrong with a connection that it D > ot judicious in the interests of good service and of having a. satisfied user to require the subscriber to do his own operating. The designers have every faith in mechanism properly constructed and cared for being entirely satisfactory to automatically effect the different combinations necessary to complete a connection, but they give the subscriber access to an operator who sets the automatic mechanism in operation. The extent to which automatic exchanges have come into use in America, and the rapid strides that have been made with them in that country during the last two or three years, have attracted the notice of telephone engineers generally. So much is this the case that certain of the Canadian Provincial Governments, the German and the Bavarian Administrations have adopted the full-automa-

tic system on a considerable scale, while the British Post Office is erecting two or three small installations, and purposes one or two large installations quite shortly. The Commonwealth also is erecting an installation of full Strowger automation at Geelong in Victoria. In America there are about 8,250,000 telephone in use, about four per cent, of this number being automatic. Various systems are fully described in the report ,and figures are given to show the estimated cost and the Cost of maintenance. Dealing with that specially interesting question to rural districts, viz., farmers’ lines, he remarks that from time to time a great deal is heard of what is being done for the farmer in the matter of telephone facilities in the United States. There can be no don'bt that the number of farmers wno Lave those facilities is large and lucre long. The farmer, it will be found, does a great deal for himself. Conversations with persons engaged in the telephone business in the States for many years show that farmers’ lines are of various grades according to circumstance® and location. It has frequently reopened that a knot of farmers would combine and run a line, erect it cheaply, and make an arrangement witn som„ telephone company to give them si nice at a moderate rate. Faults will, however, occur, and as no one is specially told off to repair them the service soon becomes inefficient. Poles rot and the line falls into decay. Thousands of miles, of telephone-lines have had this experience. In other eases farmers combine and form a (ompaiiy, oi- some person undertakes to form a company to operate in a certain area that will suitably serve a large number of farmers. Magneto switchboard, are generally used; polos are cheap; iron wire is employed, hut generally a superior-grade service to that just

referred to is given according as repairs and maintenance receive attention. A concrete case ivill illustrate. A company lias two thousand telephones in four towns, population from four to throe thousand. There is no manufacturing industry. It is a rural district, and half the telephones are held by farmers, as might be expected. Toil lines run to about twenty-five surrounding cities. The total length of the toll linos is about three hundred miles, so that any one line would he comparatively short. Each fanner may speak free of special rate to one town only. The local rate between towns is 5d for three minutes, although the three-minute period is not strictly enforced. The farmers’ rate is £3 2s Gd a year. The company 1 odds the farmer’s line, and figures on one

farmer to every half to three-quarters of a mile. It will take the line nine or ten miles. If only fewer farmers can be connected per mile than the number mentioned, or if there are any special circumstances increasing the cost of erection, special arrangements are made by which farmers asassist by hauling poles or in some other way. A farmer’s lino to carry a single iron wire, twenty-five poles to the mile, is said to cost about £lO a mile. The toll charges for talk beyond the area in which the charge has been stated to be 5d are on the basis of Jd per mile for three minutes, and each following minute at one-third of a farthing per mile. Some farmers own their own lines, and the company meets them at the town limits about a mile from the exchange. The charge in such cases is 2s Id a month (practically a switching fee). The company undertakes the tests. The farmer has to maintain his own line and find his own telephones and equipment. The farmers put twenty-five or thirty telephones on an earthed line which may be twelve or thirteen miles long. The farmers’ lines erected by the company average eight telephones to a mile. It is quite apparent from this how closely farmers’ residences are dotted over the country, the holdings Irning generally small. Indeed, it is only under these conditions that such development could arise. This feature of numerous farmers in a few square m les was one that always impressed Mr Buckley when passing through rural territory. A question that naturally arises is, what kind of service can that be where so many persons are placed on one circuit with several grounded circuits running on one pole-line? It certainly cannot be very good. The farmers’ lines are j said to be busy all the time. These j lines are not hked by the company, | but farmers are accommodated for the | sake of the town customers, who in- j sist upon being able to speak to them, j and whose business would be lost to | the company if they were unable to j talk to the farmers. Naturally the report contains much technical detail, | but it should be of great value to the Department in assisting it in gi'in m j the public the fullest and most eco-j nominal telephone facilities.