[?]Va’S New Telephone

[?] Automatic!

System

J’TER an inevitable period of storm and trouble, in which some usually busy people came : to madness, the Suva Tele ne Exchange on June 1 was led over to automatic equip .t. lere was a formal ceremony, in )h the Governor (Sir Ronald vey), declared the new allation open, and the night e stage ended. le new installation did not e before its time. Suva, after war. grew very quickly from status of little country town that of City; but the public ices were a few steps behind, ir example, even as the auto ic telephones come in, all s of electric power are in the es of changing equipment from ;t to alternating current a -class headache for both City icil and consumers, r years, the Suva telephones been a by-word. Most com its blamed the manual opera -it seemed always to be tned that, when “central” did answer, or conversations were ped off in the middle, the ators were lazy, or “nattering.” ie real trouble was that the ds at central were so over ?d with connections and with that it was quite impossible the girls, at peak hours, to efficient service. In retrospect, subscribers will agree that the ange operators over recent ; gave courteous and willing ce, within the limits of their limited equipment.

E whole Suva comrmmity uffered much in the change »ver in late May. There were ds when whole sections of the were cut off completely, mately, the Queen’s Birthday ay came on May 31, allowing officials to cut off most of the hones while they completed the the circumstances, the PMG Marais) and his staff gave rable service in the last two three months, under most ult conditions. ere were still a few troubles to oned out, after June 1. t, in Suva to-day, any ar telephone subscriber, if i by surprise, will be found g back gazing upon his natic telephone with a beatific . He appreciates this modern ment, after what he has through—even though it costs a startling sum (so much per compared with the unlimited

service he got under the old system, under the one annual subscription.