TELEPHONIC EXCHANGES.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1304, 6 November 1880, Page 2

TELEPHONIC EXCHANGES.

Uxdkr the powers conferred by the Electric Telegraph. Amendment Act, passed la.st session, we learn that, it has been decided to take stops veiy shortly ior establishing 1 a system of telephonic exchanges in tho four cities and chief mercantile centres of tho colony, vi/,, Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland . Under the system above mentioned every office or house where the owner desires it (says h. Wellington contemporary) will be connected by telephone with the central telegraph station, a small annual charge being made for the u«c of the wire and instruments. The telephonic wires will be ho ordered that any two can bo connected at the central office when requiied. The method of working will, thercfoie, be a" follows: — A poison (whom we will call A) desiring to communion te by telephone with another (let us say B) in die same town— also having telephonic connection — will pre^s a button, which rings an electric bell in the central oiHee. The attention of tho operator being attracted, the name of tho private office desired to be spoken with will be given to him, and he will at once "switch" the one wire on to the other, thus putting the t\\ o in telephonic communication, a, bell being similarly rung in the oflicc about to be spoken to in order to call attention there. This being effected A and J5 can carry an a conversation as long as thoy require to do .so. presume somj hunt of duration will be fixed, and th it tho piivilege of "talking against time "will be withheld from telephonists, that bumg the ospeei.il prorogate c or our legislators. The convenience of this system ot telephonic communication to the mercantile community should be very great, especially iii the large sa\ ing ot time it u ill etlect by enabling people to speak to onu another direct honi oppjMto ends of the city, instead of having either to make j personal visits or to wiitc long exphnatory messages, which could bo much better and moie cleaily given verbally in a tew word", then sending them by nicsaengeva, all involving much needless expense, waste of time, and possibly of error or misunderstanding. We understand that the (rovcniuumt lu\c ! obtained a large supply <>*' initiuments of the most impr^el type, and will proceed at ouce to have them brought iu to practical u->e. Although the experiment is to be ttied nt iir.it only in the four cities of Xcv Zealand, we believe that if its success .should turn out to bo as great as it is expeoted the application of tho system will probably be extended by degrees to all other place.- in tho colony where them is likely to be sufficient business to pay for it->elf. The remarkable convenience of the plan lies in the fact that any office connected by telephone with the central office can communicate with any other office similarly couuected, [ livery business man will sco at a glanoe what, a largo amount of epistolary oon-es-pondence memoranl urn -writing, running about, waiting for personal interviews, breaking of appointments, loss of time, inconvenience and annoyance generally will be saved by the introduction of this useful appliance furnished to us by modern science.

Tub Artio expedition has returned and reports the discovery of relics of tho Franklin expedition. The testimony of the natives make it certain that the last survivors subsisted on their weaker companions, and finally perished of starvation and cold, or were devoured by wild beasts. Tho records were unwittingly destroyed by the Esquimaux. Tne through trip from Melbourne to Sydney has been mado in 10 V houra by Sir Henry Parkes, A Yorxot man named Motcalfe, wounded at G-lenrowan by the police in tho capture of the Kelly Gang, diod on the loth inst., in the Melbourne Hospital. The body of a man, stabbed to the heart, was found in a dam near Mutt«iburra, Queensland. The man had been evidently murdered, ond his clothes burned at a camp fire . Fishermen ought to m,ake good actors, because they are always familai' with their lines and well acquainted, as Fat says, with the seine,