THE TELEPHONE SYSTEM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 193, 4 January 1913, Page 5

THE TELEPHONE SYSTEM.

S[ODERX IXXOVATIOXS. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Xight. The Postmaster-General states that the Government has called for a full automatic equipment for the telephone exchanges at Auckland, Wellington, Blenheim, Hamilton, Master-ton and Oamaru. Tenders are to close on May 1. The companies that manufacture apparatus of this kind have been invited to submit tenders. The equipments for Auckland and Wellington will be for some thousands of lines ' each, while the requirements of the smaller places named will be met by the installation of a few hundred lines in each case. The two cities of Wellington and Auckland have practically outgrown the ultimate capacity of the existing class of switchboard. It has .been decided to abandon the introduction of more manual switchboards, and with that object automatic apparatus to accommodate 500 subscribers for each of the places named has been ordered, and is due to arrive in the Dominion within two or three weeks, when a start will be at once made to get it ready for operation. The small places referred to have at 'present very inferior appliances, and as new apparatus is necessary it has been decided to equip them with what is considered to be the most efficient system. Thero aro other places that also require new telephone exchange equipments. These, however,'are less urgent, and will receive comsideration later. The cities of Christcihurch ami Dunedin have not yet reached the ultimate capacity of their present switchboards. It is, therefore, possible 'for them to carry on for a.while longer, ibut it is considered that the introduction of the automatic system at those places would effect both economy and improvement in the service, and it is hoped that it will be possible to instal the full automatic system at no very distant date in some of the exchanges at present working on the earth return system. Arrangements have been made to instal metallic circuits as soon as the material can he provided. This will, in some instances, be done by means of an armoured cable, laid in trenches, or where circumstances warrant it, in suitable conduits.^