TELEPHONE USE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20738, 23 February 1939, Page 13

TELEPHONE USE

ADVANCE IN DOMINION RECORD GAINED LAST YEAR The telephone system of the Dominion has expanded so rapidly as to place New Zealanders high up on the iisl of the world’s greatest telephone users. The past year ended with a total number of subscriber connections l<> exchanges of 155,203, showing a net gain for the 12 months which has never previously been exceeded. How the fast pace of telephone development. has continued since the economic drpression is shown by the figures of si icceeding years : Subscribers Net gain December, l a:?3 .. I 2 1.193 December, null .. 123,279 1786 December, l 935 .. 12 7,Bt’> i 4583 December, 1930 .. 130,029 8105 December, 1937 .. 145,407 9378 December, 1938 .. 155,203 9796 This survey shows that the number of subscribers lias grown by 33,710 since the service began again to advance after the depression of 1932. There are other important features in this development. The telephone has long ceased to be an instrument for occasional use. “ Telephone convenience ” has been studied by New Zealanders, not only by business men who require the instrument on their’desks, but h\ private residents who instal extension telephones in their rooms instead of confining the handy instrument to the hall. The result has been that there are nearly iO.OOO telephones supplementing the main exchange connections. The telephone on the street corner' is another appreciated facility, and I there are over a thousand public call j offices throughout the Dominion. New j Zealand is the onlv countrv in the j world in wh’.-li calls may he male i j through public cmn-in-the-sM tele-j . pin.lies for one penny. Altogether ; ! mere are ne-,-!> 1 os.won telephones in | I .u:• ;.1 v illy by tiie sub- ! sviiior, ihr*hii 17 of the larger ex-