FREE TO ALL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 April 1939, Page 2

FREE TO ALL

» THE EMPIRE’S CABLES. A ONE DAY OPPORTUNITY. The Empire's cable system will be thrown open for free communication between the peoples of New Zealand, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and South Africa, on May 1. Cabling has been substantially cheapened from time to time, until the last revision brought the ordinary rate per word down to Is 3d. But the irreducible minimum of a cable free of charge is to prevail for one day as the novel means of calling public attention to an innovation which should greatly encourage the exchange of social communication by cable within the Empire.

New Zealanders who wish to send a twelve-word cable to any of their friends in the countries mentioned above will find that on Monday, May 1, the Post Office will accept it for despatch without charge, and that similar privileges in the other countries maj f result in New Zealanders receiving quite a large crop of cable messages of a social nature from their friends overseas. This is an interesting method adopted to inaugurate the Empire social telegram service under which cablegrams containing greeting, family news, or non-commcrcial personal messages, may be sent for 5s for a twelve-word message. It is remarkable how much information can be conveyed within these limits but if senders cannot compress their messages to the extent, the charge for each extra word will be sd. Cabling concessions on'social messages have been made available hitherto only on such special occasions as Christmas and Easter time, but the new service is one for all the year round.