RURAL ’PHONES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 March 1939, Page 6

RURAL ’PHONES

CHARGES INCREASED HEAVILY PROTEST BY FARMERS’ UNION. DEMAND FOR CONCESSIONS. The action of the Post and Telegraph Department in removing the concessions granted in 1931 to rural telephone users and raising the charges was severely. criticised at today’s meeting of the Wairarapa Provincial Executive of the Farmer's Union. Several speakers stated that unless relief was forthcoming they would be forced to cut out their telephones. The subject was raised by Mr J. Andrew who said he had been informed that the concessions on rural telephones had been removed throughout New Zealand. The concessions were granted in 1931 as the result of a protest by the Union against telephone costs. In his district, the annual costs had now risen from £lO 18s to £lB 13s 4d and from £ll 10s to £l9 11s Bd. Last year he paid £l5 17s 6d, but. his demand this year totalled £27 10s. The telephone was not worth that much and it was coming out if some relief was not forthcoming. No man in the country could afford to pay that amount. On a party line of nine subscribers the annual charge had risen from £9O to £l5O. The last of six men on another party line was now required to pay £2B a year as compared with £l6 previously. He urged that the co-operation of stock and station agents and the Chamber of Commerce be sought with a view to making a strong protest against the increased charges. ■ Mr H. Bennett said that the cost o± his telephone had increased this year from £l4 13s Cd to £lB Is. When one or more subscribers went off a party line the total cost was loaded on to the remaining subscribers. That was a very bad system. Unless relief were granted he was quite sure that most of the rural telephones would come off. Mr A. Linton said that his telephone in the Featherston County wept up last year from £9 to £l5. The telephone charges today were very much in excess of what the average farmer could afford. He had been .informed by the Chief Postmaster in Wellington that individual concessions would not be granted and that the matter would have to be dealt with from a national point of view. Mr A. Ross said that charges had gone up in his district, but they were making an effort to get fresh subscribers in order to keep the total cost down. He suggested that if the cost were too high they should be practical farmers and not pay them. Mr Duncan McGregor said that previously he had paid £7 2s 6d halfyearly but now, with an extra subscriber on the line, he was paying £lO 7s 6d. Unfortunately he had paid his account that morning.

A committee was set up to go into the matter locally and it was also decided that the question be referred tp headquarters for Dominion-wide fiction. The meeting also passed a motion protesting strongly against the removal of the concession and the increased costs of rural telephones.