RURAL TELEPHONES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 April 1939, Page 5

RURAL TELEPHONES

PROTEST AGAINST INCREASED CHARGES WAIRARAPA FARMERS WAIT ON MINISTER. CASES OF HARDSHIP TO BE INVESTIGATED. (“Times-Age” Special.) Rentals for rural telephones were the subject of a deputation of Waiiaiapa farmers which waited on the Postmas-ter-General. the Hon F. Jones, in Wellington yesterday. The Minister promised no relief beyond investigation of individual cases of hardship. The deputation, which consisted of Messrs. Hugh Morrison, president of the Wairarapa Provincial Executive and representing the Dominion Executive James Andrew, D. McGregor, J. L. Heckler, H. Bennett, T. F. Anderson, and J. Watson (provincial secretary), was introduced by Mr J. Robertson, M. Mr Ben Roberts, member for Wairarapa, was unable to be present on account of illness. Mr Morrison explained that he was representing the whole Dominion body of the Farmers’ Union, as the question of rural telephone charges had now become a national matter, but the other members of the deputation represented the Wairarapa provincial district only. . Opening the case for the Wairarapa, Mr Andrew said that rural telephone subscribers were faced, under the proposed charges, with increases ranging from 60 to over 90 per cent. He gave particulars of the figures in respect to individual farmers, the most notable increase being' from £l6 5s 6d to £2B 10s. Mr Andrew said he took exception to a statement by the Minister that the present was an opportune time to ic-sto-e the old rates which were in operation in 1932. Farmers' prices, said Mr Andrew, were not in excess of the 1932-33 period and their costs, about which the Minister had been entirely silent, had risen out of all proportion That, in itself, was an adequate reason for continuing the concessions granted in 1932. In his own district subscribers hiid definitely decided that if the increases were imposed, the telephone would become uneconomic and although they deeply regretted the necessity of doing so, they would be compelled to dispense with the rural telephone service in their district. Mr Duncan McGregor explained that his duties as chairman of the Wairarapa South County Council would compel him to retain his telephone irrespective of the charge, but other district telephones would become uneconomic from a farming point of view. He pointed out that he knew of two instances in which the telephone provided the means of saving human life. Messrs Heckler and Bennett supported the previous speakers. The Minister, in his reply, drew attention to paragraphs in his personal reply to the deputation which waited on the Postmaster at Masterton. He thought that it was only right, m view of the distance involved, that the farmer should bear his share of the increased cost. The proposal submitted by that deputation that town telephones might pay a little more to ease the burden on rural telephones he disagreed with entirely. He could not at present see his way to continue the concessions granted in 1932. but he would definitely undertake, with the help of his Department to investigate individual cases of hardship.