New exchange was a major milestone

Past Times

The opening of Timaru's new automated telephone exchange in September 1959 was cause for a full page of editorial and an accompanying page of advertisements.

SEPTEMBER 25, 1959 – Tonight's long-awaited opening of the new automatic telephone exchange comes almost on the seventy-fourth anniversary of the inauguration of telephone facilities in Timaru.

It was on October 16, 1885, that Timaru became the ninth centre in New Zealand to gain a telephone service. Sixty subscribers were connected to the exchange. It was located in the present post office building which was opened five years earlier.

The original Timaru exchange was what is described by technicians as "earth working" – only one wire was used, with the earth connection giving a common return circuit for each instrument.

The overhead lines for the exchange terminated on massive totara poles in King George Place at the front of the post office, and were led into the exchange by overhead cables attached to the clock tower which, many will remember, once stood above the telegraph delivery entrance.

On one occasion, in 1903, lightning struck the cables – disrupting the telephone service and setting fire to the clock tower.

Equipment in the early days of telephonic communications was bulky and unwieldy. For example, the lightning arresters attached to the cable wires in the exchange were made of cast iron and mounted on wooden racks which occupied considerable space.

The manual exchange which tonight will become a thing of the past was opened in July 1909. Originally, 600 subscribers were connected. Additions were made in 1915, 1925, and again in 1950 to cope with Timaru's growing population.

Underground telephone cables were first installed in Timaru in 1908. Laid on totara planks in a trench, they were fed out from the exchange for what would now seem a ridiculously short distance – to the Bank of New Zealand corner, and to St Mary's Church. The original cables have remained in use since then, and have continued to give satisfactory service.

In contrast with the new Timaru district telephone directory, which is a substantial book of 68 pages, the early directories contained only a few pages.

Some of the numbers allocated to the original subscribers have never been changed, and include the Timaru City Council (3), Levels County Council (4), Grosvenor Hotel (70), Timaru Harbour Board (9), The Timaru Herald (11) and so on. The original books suggested that any person wanting the jail "for any reason" should ring 61!

A voice is silenced

Tomorrow, when Timaru telephone subscribers pick up their receiver to make a local call, a dial tone will ring in the earpiece. Gone will be the operator's voice and inquiry – "Number, please?" – which has been the key to all telephone conversation since Timaru first gained the service in 1885.

The only association subscribers will have with operators in the future will be when a toll call is made or information not contained in the telephone directory is sought. Otherwise automation will be in complete charge.

Over the years the operators employed in the Timaru exchange have given excellent service. Theirs has been an unenviable task at times, particularly in recent years when they have had to bear the full force of complaints arising from faulty equipment. Often they have been wrongfully accused of "sleeping on the job".

The telephone operator has always tried to satisfy his customer, and he has often gone further than the call of duty in an effort to oblige. Night-shift operators – those who work while the city sleeps – have seldom refused a request to "give me a ring at 3.45 in the morning, I've got to catch a train".

Mr M ("Moss") O'Connor, an operator in the Timaru exchange for more than 25 years, recalled this week some of the exciting moments of his service.

"Probably our biggest night was at the time of the snowfall in 1945," he said. "Lines collapsed all over Timaru under the weight of the snow, and the switchboards recorded a mass of `out of order' circuits. Then, there was the big flood in the same year, and we had another busy night when St Patrick's Hall in Browne Street was burned to the ground in 1954."

Mr O'Connor said an operator working throughout the night – the shift was from 1am to 7am – was always kept busy. When not answering the switchboard there was always a certain amount of "paperwork" to be attended to.

The night operator has often had to act as guide and counsellor to worried subscribers.

"A newspaper reporter rang one night and asked if I thought his paper would believe that a huge elephant had just perambulated down Stafford Street," he said. "Then one morning, when I plugged into a calling number, a voice asked: "What do you do when somebody dies?"

The statistics

The erection of the new telephone exchange building and the installation of the automatic equipment has been a four-and-a-half year project. Extensive planning and designing was necessary before work began on the site which formerly was the Post Office tennis courts. Highlights of the job have been:

Late 1954, tenders called.

January 1955, contract let.

February 1955, site cleared and excavations started.

March 5 1955, first concrete poured.

May 1956, shell of three-storeyed structure completed.

September 1957, building finished and handed over by contractor to department.

October 1957, first automatic equipment installed.

July 1959, exchange virtually completed and ready for use.

For the statistically minded, the building cost about 99,000, and the automatic equipment 561,000, a total of 660,000. In its erection 75 tons of reinforced steel and 1400 cubic yards of concrete made from 360 tons of cement, were used. Of the 21,600 square feet of interior floor space, excluding the basement, about 20,000 square feet is covered by quarter-inch thick linoleum. There are 7000 square feet of plate glass windows, 217 light points, 67 heating points, and 222 fire alarm points. All this to provide a telephone service for 7500-plus subscribers.

- © Fairfax NZ News