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F.—l

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TOLL SERVICES : DOMINION-WIDE RANGE. It is the aim of my Department to provide such a toll service that a person at North Cape will be able to speak by telephone with a person at Bluff at any hour of the day or night. In the march towards this goal much has already been achieved. The range of the inter-Island telephone service now extends well into both Islands, and it is possible for a person in Auckland to converse with a person in Dunedin at certain evening hours. Fuller information regarding the extension of the inter-Island service appears at page 25. EXPEDITING TOLL CALLS. The toll service between certain places has been speeded up by the utilization of apparatus which enables a toll operator at one exchange to call a subscriber at a distant automatic exchange without the assistance of a toll operator at the automatic exchange. For instance, a toll operator at Lower Hutt is now able to call a Wellington subscriber direct, instead of having to invoke the aid of a toll operator at Wellington. The system is in operation also in the Napier District and will be extended as opportunity offers. Fuller information is given at page 25. INTERNATIONAL RADIO-TELEGRAPH CONFERENCE. The Dominion was represented at the International Radio - telegraph Conference at Washington, D.C., by the Chief Telegraph Engineer, Mr. A. Gibbs, M.I.E.E. During the Conference matters affecting every phase of radio signalling were discussed, and regulations drawn up governing their international use. A matter of signal importance to the Dominion was the granting of a special concession, to New Zealand, permitting the operation of wireless installations on the smaller coastal vessels by specially trained officers of the ships' crews. Any one with a knowledge of the dangers of the New Zealand coast and. of past mishaps will recognize in the providing of the smaller vessels with wireless a great forward movement in the maritime world of the Dominion. A. full report of the Convention is published separately. WIRELESS BROADCASTING. 2YA, the now well-known broadcasting station at Wellington, was opened in July, 1927. It was considered that the opening of the new stations at Auckland and Christchurch represented a great advance in Dominion broadcasting, but the new Wellington station greatly exceeds in power and range any other New Zealand station, and is said to be equal in power to any broadcasting station in the Southern Hemisphere. The three other Dominion stations continued to function during the year. Wireless broadcasting has now grown to be of considerable importance in the home life of the community. By its means people in the backblocks are given market reports, weather reports, press news, and other information. Broadcasting offers the dweller in the lonely farmhouse as well as the city resident a bright, cheap, and withal an excellent means of entertainment. It has proved an unexampled means of removing much of the isolation of rural life. Moreover, it enables the dweller in distant Pacific isles, and even in countries farther afield, to learn something of the affairs of the Dominion. TRANSFER OF MONEY BY WIRELESS. Money-order telegrams and telegrams authorizing withdrawals from the Post Office Savings-bank may now be sent between New Zealand and Chatham Islands by radio-telegraph. The system was inaugurated on the Ist October, 1927. The charge for either class of telegram is a fixed one of 3s. The charge for a private message included in a money-order telegram is 6d. a word. The maximum

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