THE TELEPHONE MUDDLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 368, 20 April 1910, Page 5

THE TELEPHONE MUDDLE.

INDIGNATION AT IXVKUCAIIOILL. THE DEBIT NOTE SYSTEM. By Telegraph—Press Association. lnvereargill, Last Night. A large and representative gathering of the, business men of lnvereargill was held to-day for the purpose, of taking united action with regard to the system which the Government proposes "to adopt in connection with the issue of telephone debit notes. Mr. J. C. Nosby Smith, president ot the Chamber of Commerce, was chairman of what, in effect, was an indignation meeting of telephone subscribers. The following resolution was carried unanimously: "That this meeting of subscribers to the telephone service takes this opportunity of entering an emphatic protest against the new regulation introduced by the Department' as from the Ist instant, by which the practice previously observed itf rendering debit notes to the subscribers daily for the amounts charged against them for ■bureau calls has been discontinued and a monthly debit note substituted, which deprives subscribers of the opportunity of checking their accounts. In the case of many subscribers it is necessary for them to debit the cost of bureau calls to different accounts, and this cannot be done unless they are informed by the Department of the cost of each call. This meeting is of opinion that if the charges made for bureau calls «ro unremunerative, the proper remedy is to increase the charges directly, but the Postmaster-General was understood to have informed the public that the telephone service was paying so well that he had seen his way to make concessions in the method of charging for bureau calls. This meeting expresses the hope that the unbusinesslike system of charging subscribers for debit notes will be discontinued, or that at least it win be modified to a charge of one penny per day for a debit note including all the calls for the day, and that the same be added to the daily debit notes."