Phonebook blunder causes confusion

Hundreds of Taranaki phonebooks are being recalled following a printing blunder.

More than 60 pages of the Whangarei White Pages directory have been mistakenly bound into the New Plymouth section of the 2006/07 Taranaki phonebook, the Taranaki Daily News reported.

Thousands of New Plymouth residents, businesses and organisations whose names begin with C through to R have been omitted, and replaced with the Whangarei listings for those letters.

People whose surnames start with Q do not exist in the botched-up directories.

Telecom was notified of the problem after residents began receiving their new directories yesterday.

Telecom Yellow Pages spokeswoman Sarah Radley said almost 2000 of the 95,264 directories printed for Taranaki were affected by the mistake.

Ms Radley said Telecom was investigating.

The directories were printed in Masterton by Webstar Print.

She said new directories would be delivered to homes, businesses and organisations in Taranaki over the next 10 days.

- NZPA