Community Contributed

Manawatu telephone Directory September 1945

Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T16:47:29+00:00
The 1945 Manawatu Telephone Directory comprised 95 pages of phone numbers - In the Horowhenua: Levin had 8 pages, Foxton 3 pages, Shannon 2 pages, Tokomaru 1 page - those pages have been scanned to PDF files and included here for your information. Click on the page number to go to the PDF to view the original page.
CreatorPost and Telegraph Department
Creation date1945

Morse Code list In 1945 many people had "party Lines" and in the directory the number includes a letter to indicate the ring pattern in Morse code - e.g. K is long ring-short ring-long ring - this allowed customers to know who an incoming call was for.

According to Wikipedia:
"Originally, in order to distinguish one line subscriber from another, operators developed different ringing cadences for the subscribers, so that if the call was for the first subscriber to the line, the ring would follow one pattern such as two short rings, if the call was for the second subscriber, the ring would sound another way, such as a short ring followed by a long one, and so on. Since all parties utilized the same line, it was possible for subscribers to listen in on other subscribers' calls."

The book was lent to the kete by a local collector.

Disctict Page Number Contents
Levin

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

Emergency Numbers

Abattoir to Carmichael

Carter Bros. to Fraser

Frechtling to Kehoe

Kellaway to Mental Hospitals Dept.

Methodist Parsonage to Post Office, Weraroa

Potter to Tantrum

Tantrum & Greenaway Ltd to Young's Joinery Works

Foxton

61

62

63

Emergency Numbers to Hannay

Harbour Board to Small

Small & Co. to Young

Shannon

89

90

Emergency Numbers to Edmonds

Gardner to Woodmass

Tokomaru 91