Community Contributed

History of the Levin Telephone Exchange

Kete Horowhenua2020-03-23T16:51:11+00:00
Levin's first telephone exchange opened on 7 August 1907 with just 46 subscribers.

By 24 October, 1920, the telephone service was in such demand the Chamber of Commerce had asked for the exchange to open on Sundays and public holidays. It did, for one hour from 9am with an extra hour from 5pm on Sundays and from 7pm on holidays.

In 1930 there were 544 subscribers looked after by a woman supervisor and a staff of about eight male operators using four switchboards and one toll board.

When war broke out in 1939 the number of subscribers had climbed to 581 and women got their opportunity. They were permitted to work at night, as long as they went home by taxi when the shift finished at 1am. The two remaining male operators worked unbroken night shift for over three years.

By 1947 there were 964 subscribers and the operators were moved to a new manual exchange at the rear of the Post Office. The exchange had some 900 lines - but the number of subscribers promptly rose to 1049.

There were 2701 subscribers in 1957 and when the big move was made to an automatic exchange of 4500 lines in 1963, the old manual boards were coping with nearly 3800 subscribers, some of them packed nine to a party line. The new exchange cut out a lot of party lines with most of the remaining ones carrying only three to five subscribers each.

The automatic exchange was built in Devon Street and nas been expanded since then to cater for today's 6780 subscribers.

Party line subscribers in Manakau and Otaki also won their own lines when these areas were brought into the Levin toll-free dialling area, adding 1752 subscribers to the 6780 operating through the Levin exchange.

From: Chronicle Levin Borough 75th Jubilee Publication, reprinted in the Horowhenua-Kapiti Chronicle 8 February 2006.