COUNTRY TELEPHONES.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 February 1920, Page 5

COUNTRY TELEPHONES.

GOVERNMENT rOLTCY OUTLINED. HOPES FOR THIS YEAR. The Postmaster-General (Hon. .1. 0. Coatcs) deals with (lie policy of the Government in regard to rural telephones in the course of the following statement: —"There are many settlers in the back areas who have struggled along the years with had roads, and, in a number of cases, practically shut off from communication. Their demands for telephone facilities are fully justified, and they arc entitled to have one of the first claims upon the Department for the construction of their lines. The claims of those returned soldiers who have taken up sections remote from communication must also he attended to. It is the policy of the Government to bring the districts which are now isolated within easy range of communication, and, whilst seeing that the needs of the cities are met, it will be the aim of the Government to give the back-country people the telephone facilities which are essential to them." The Minister then refers to the difficulties that have been in the way preventing much progress in the linking up of the back blocks with the telephone system. "One of the main troubles has been the supply of poles and wire," lie continues. "There has been a great demand throughout the Dominion • for party-line telephone service for outlying districts. Hundreds of applications have had to be held up for the simple reason that these connections involved the construction of new lines in areas hitherto not provided with telephone communication. Ample supplies of poleß have been on order right through the war period, but wo could not get them. As many as possible have been obtained in New Zealand, but the labor shortage largely prevented the Department getting much assistance in this direction. The bulk of the supply of poles which the Department uses comes from Australia, and the difficulty has been to obtain shipping to bring the poles over to New Zealand. Special steps are being taken to overcome this difficulty, and when the supplies of wire, which have been long on order, in some cases for six years, are received from overseas, the work of connecting up remote settlements can be greatly facilitated, and no time will be lost in pushing on with the work. "Almost one of the first things, a man asks for in taking up land in the back areas is a telephone. In the past the demand was for public telephone offices, but the settler is now impressed with the greater advantages of having a telephone in his own home. For this reason I tho present 'demand is for party-line tele* i phones, in connection with which the Department has introduced favorable rates, and which permit of as many as six subscribers being joined to the ona line and sharing the cost between them. I hope," Mr. C'nates said in conclusion, "that the difficulties which the Department has been up against for the last few years will now disappear and thus enable the Government to this year go right ahead with fhe telephone communication, ii ift*.d»wded upon,'*'" " '""-$