Introduction 23 



ment for the masses ask themselves why similar results, which 

 would find occupation both for idle capital and for thousands of 

 workmen, clerks, and female operators, cannot be achieved in our 

 own countr>\ Where one telephone employee now exists, five or 

 six years' vigorous development would call fifty into being. 



The proposal of the Post Office to buy the existing trunk lines 

 at * cost price as shown by the company's books, together with a 

 further sum of 10 per cent.,' should be jealously examined. The 

 Post Office officials have a standing complaint that in 1870 the 

 telegraphs were acquired at twice or three times their proper value, 

 and anxiety is professed to avoid a similar extravagance in the 

 case of the telephones. But in the author's opinion the Post Office 

 officials are on the eve of tumbling into as grave an error now as 

 did their predecessors of 1870. Many of the existing trunk lines 

 are ten years old at least, and consequently, even when built of 

 good materials, are far on the road towards the natural life limit of 

 creosoted telegraph poles. But, 'as a matter of fact, many of the 

 lines were not built of creosoted timber at all, but of wood un- 

 impregnated with any preservative compound. The author him- 

 self erected trunk lines in the years 1885-89 with poles that were 

 of insufficient diameter and otherwise unsuited for such purposes, 

 but which were the best the company could be induced to provide. 

 To buy these to-day at cost price plus 10 per cent, would be a 

 transaction as improvident as any concluded in 1870. 



In connection with the acquisition of the trunk lines by the 

 Government, another point requires to be considered : viz., can 

 the trunks be worked under the new conditions as promptly and 

 satisfactorily as at present ? According to accepted interpretations 

 of the Post Office intentions, it is proposed to terminate the trunk 

 lines in the post offices of the various towns, communication being 

 had with the telephone exchanges by means of junction wires. 

 This means that each telephonic call from one town to another 

 will have to be dealt with by four operators instead of two, and 

 consequently double the time will be taken in getting a connection 

 through ; the cost in wages and in wear and tear of apparatus will 

 be also doubled, while the earning capacity of the trunks will be 

 materially reduced, which may bring about a tendency to com- 

 pensate for reduced carrying power by the imposition of higher 



