CO129-413 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [8-10] — Page 216

MEMORANDUM.

214

1

:

I

I have recently had under consideration the reorganization

of the Government Telephone System and I am satisfied that the time

has come for establishing one Central Exchange and for abolishing the

aerial wires in the centre of the City.

2. Numerous complaints have reached me of the difficulty of

hearing over the lines and this is due to either induction or contact

with the aerial wires or the negligence of operators or both. The

former difficulty will be removed by putting the lines underground in cables and the latter obviated by having only one exchange under an

experienced Supervisor (in which the operators would be kept so busy that there would be no time to listen to messages) instead of a large

number of sub-exchanges under no supervision as at present.

3. The scheme now proposed is to establish one Central Exchange

in Room No.16 at present empty on the top floor of the Post Office

Building and all telephones in the system would be connected directly to this exchange. It would be in charge of one supervisor with five

operators (four by day and one by night) and a tester and would con-

tain the witch-boards, testing apparatus, etc.,etc.

4. From this Central Exchange, all the wires will run under-

ground in cables within the area between No.1 and No.7 Police

Stations. Beyond these points and in the case of a few isolated connections, the wires will be overhead. Enclosure BII clearly shows

the proposed lines.

5.

Enclosures AI and II show the existing aerial wires and

the 129 offices connected to the system, which contains no less than 10 exchanges requiring a staff of 11 operators at an annual cost of 25,280. This system contains 218 miles of aerial wires. Of these

120 miles are in the most congested part of the City and cost £,000

a year to maintain. The system is defective and obsolete because:-

(a). There is considerable obstruction in the principal streets

by poles and wires.

(b). These wires are constantly being tampered with by persons

making contact with overhanging structures from their

houses and the poles often have to be moved in order to