Celebration time as little-loved party lines get cut off

By ANGELA GREGORY

North Island party lines will be consigned to the history books later this year when Telecom disengages the last two in Northland.

The shared telephone lines were once the bane of rural New Zealanders, with problems caused by phone-hoggers, eavesdroppers and endless ringing.

In the past 10 years, Telecom has tackled the problem and reduced the number of people on party lines from 40,000 to just under 200.

Telecom spokesman Glen Sowry said the bulk of the 197 shared lines were in the Marlborough Sounds and the rest - bar two - in the Abel Tasman National Park.

The two North Island shared lines are on a bushclad Waipu ridge and a backroad at Waiotira, 32km southwest of Whangarei.

Mr Sowry said the Waipu lines would be individualised through a radio system upgrade, and Waiotira through cabling.

He expected the changes would be made before the end of the year.

While it was expensive, Telecom had a policy of continually upgrading its network to provide the best possible service to customers.

The use of phone lines for services other than voice calls is increasing. For the first time this year, there is more internet than voice traffic on residential lines.

Mr Sowry said most South Island party lines would also be elimnated.

Some Northlanders on shared lines yesterday seemed unmoved by the imminent changes.

Waipu resident Peter Burrowes, an alternative lifestyler who is not a big telephone user, said the four Cullen Rd houses which shared the one line were considerate.

"I'd rather they left it. It keeps the rent nice and cheap."

Mr Burrowes was not going to object to the change, but thought he would switch to a prepaid cellphone.

The shared phones had some benefits - when the Herald tried to get through to another neighbour, Mr Burrowes eventually picked up the phone to say they were out for a few hours.

Cullen Rd resident Jan Stevenson agreed everyone in the neighbourhood worked together in many areas, including the use of the telephone.

"It really doesn't worry me. People up here are not on the phone constantly."

But 20km away at Waiotira, farmer Lorna Windlebourne could not wait to get rid of the Paiawa Rd party line shared by three houses.

"I'm desperate. It creates no end of hassles."

Mrs Windlebourne said she could not use an answerphone, have call diversion or call waiting, and cellphones worked only in one corner of the dining-room.

Party lines triggered bad memories for past Northland users.

Former farmer Margaret Finlayson recalled the late 1950s when she had to share a phone at Purua with seven neighbours.

"It was terrible. You could never get a line out. The farmers would be wanting to order something from the dairy company but couldn't get through."

Mrs Finlayson said some neighbours gossiped all day long.

"The telephone went all sorts of hours."

Ironically, when the Finlaysons shifted house and got their own line they had to make toll calls to reach their worker's cottage on the same farm.

Retired Tutukaka doctor Katharine Bowden was spared a party line on the coast as she and her husband were GPs.

But they had to put up with a shared line on holidays at their Bland Bay bach, where dairy farmers put out wake-up calls for milking at 4 am.

"Sometimes it would go for 20 rings. You'd think they would work out the people had gone - but no."