F.—l

WORLD TELEPHONE STATISTICS. The official figures for world telephone development (compiled oil Ist January, 1929) show that in the matter of telephone density the United States of America continues to lead the world, with 16-3 telephones per 100 of population; Canada is second, with 13-7 telephones ; while New Zealand is third, with 10-2 telephones. The graph shown hereunder depicts the relationship of the three leading countries with other countries of the world.

Graph showing the Number of Telephones per 100 of Population in the Countries of the World.

TELEPHONE STATISTICS. The steady growth of the telephone system is exemplified in the following table, which shows annually since 1921 the number of exchanges, the total wire-mileage, the revenue, and the total number of telephone-stations, together with the number of telephones for each 1,000 of population of the Dominion :—

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Number of Telephone-stations. Year. Number Miles of Wire. Revenue. Exchanges. p j 00Q Total. x-, , .. ropulation. £ 1921 .. .. .. 296 192,027 533,535 88,439 69-80 1922 .. .. .. 301 207,529 614,367 94,683 72-78 1923 .. .. .. 320 229,882 595,967 107,036 80-78 1924 .. .. .. 327 269,421 830,470 111,441 82-67 1925 .. .. .. 340 331,453 867,218 120,097* 87-09 1926 .. .. .. 341 402,433 980,281 130,186* 94-40 1927 .. .. .. 342 440,253 995,071 137.307* 95-48 1928 .. .. .. 344 463,356 1,057,177 144,552* 99-40 1929 .. .. .. 351 495,470 1,135,795 152,541* 103-72 1930 .. .. .. 349 ! 513,096 1,206,714 161,323* 108-37 * Includes approximately 4,000 non-exchange stations.