TELEPHONE PROGRESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1939, Page 5

TELEPHONE PROGRESS

SUBSCRIBERS TOTAL 157,619. “The expansion of the telephone system during the last few years has been marked by a number of records both in the way of monthly increases in the number of exchange connections and in the annual rate of progress,” states the Postmbtesar senmeshrdlsh states the Postmaster-General (the Efpn F. Jones). “No fewer than 36,000 more telephone connections are in use today than in 1933, and the net. gain for the year ended March 31 last made another record with a total of 9,769 —a figure which has never previously been exceeded in any financial year.” “Throughout last year the monthly gains were satisfactory, and it might have been thought that a period was approaching when the demand for telephones was almost fully met. But that was not the case- for ip March last the net gain of 1,000 in new telephone connections made still another record, and brought the total of sub? scribers up to 157, 619. This remarkable and continuous expansion has been accompanied by further development of long-distance toll facilities to adequately cope with the increasing demand for rapid communication from Office to Office and home to home.

Ottawa.—Canadians are prolific readers of the newspapers and it has been estimated that they spend an average of 50,000 dollars a day to keep abreast, of the times. A census of the circulation of daily and weekly newspapers in Canada showed that 270,000 more persons read the “news” in 1938 than in 1937.

Montreal.—The 7,000,000 railroad ties which will be required by the Canadian National Railways during 1939 would rqake a continuous line, if placed end to end, 10,600 miles long or almost.three times the distance between Halifax, Canada’s most easterly port, and Vancouver on the Pacific Coast-