AN ILLUSTRATION OF PROGRESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9679, 31 December 1909, Page 4

AN ILLUSTRATION OF PROGRESS.

In February, 1897, the telephone service was inaugurated in Masterton. There were then 51 subscribers to the bureau, and the town was naturally somewhat proud at the spirit; of progress manifested in the existence of the exchange. To-day the exchange boasts of no loss than 425 subscribers, and this fact is evidence in itself of the rapid progress that the district has made during recent years. But the convenience of the telephone has not only been more largely availed of in* Masterton, but throughout the district as well, and it might almost be said that a network of telephone systems exists ' through all the Wairarapa. When times of depression come occasionally to the district, as they must in the natural order of things, it is as well to glance backward and note the progress that has been made in past years. The present lull >n trade is only temporary, and there is every reason to suppose that business will once RKi-e be in "full blast" before many months have passed. It might be regarded as optimistic to express the opinion L that within the , next te.: years there will be 1,000 , telephones in Masterton, yet such an increase upon the present number in use would be but small in comparison with that made during the past thirteen years, viz., from 51 to 425!