INEFFICIENT TELEPHONE SERVICE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9036, 29 February 1908, Page 4

INEFFICIENT TELEPHONE SERVICE.

Surely the Chamber of Commerce might have gone further than it did at its meeting, yesterday, in regard to our antiquated and.ineffiicent telephone service. Apparently it would, never have given the subject a thought but for the receipt of a letter from a'firm of contractors urging action in getting the telephone office open an hour or two earlier in the morning. Then it contented itself with passing a resolution requesting the authorities to open the Exchange at C a.m., and also during the time the telegraph office is open on Sundays. Something very much more up-to-date than this is required for a. town of the importance of Masterton, which is ten years behind the times in the matter of its telephone service. The instruments supplied to subscribers are old-timers, such as have long been discarded in the cities. The double "ring-up" is an anachronism,, and the delays in getting switched on are tantalising. It is sometimes quicker for the caller to walk to the "callee" than to get him on the "phone." These points the Chamber of Commerce did not touch upon. Then in the matter of the increased hours of service the granting of the request respecting Sunday would place us in very little better position than we"are. Half-an-hour in the evening only would be of little practical benefit. What is the use of "tinkering" with matters of importance? Masterton has reached the stage when an imperative demandi should be made for a continuous service, and a service improved in every other essential. '