Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal (NSW : 1851 - 1862; 1872; 1882; 1885 - 1897; 1899 - 1904), Tuesday 10 June 1902, page 2


The Bathurst Telephone Service.

Our local telephone service continues to increase in numbers and is third on the list of country exchanges in New South Wales. The exchanges at Broken Hill and Newcastle, where in each place the population is considerably in excess of Bathurst, are the only towns claiming a larger number of subscribers than does the Bathurst exchange. These townspeople recently con-nected to the local Exchange are as follows: — No. 187, L. E. Lawford, residence ; 188, Rev. Jas. Kinghorn, residence ; 189, G.D. Donkin, William-street; 140, E. T. Webb, " Little-bourne " ; 141, E. H. Taylor, residence ; 142, C. R. McPhillamy, residence ; 148, Palmer and McPhillamy, Russell-street ; 144, P. Furness, William-

street. Thc Technical College and Benevo-lent Home have each discontinued the service. The remarkable progress made with telephony in Bathurst should be more than gratifying to the postal-telegraph authorities. The local exchange was opened by the Telegraph master, Mr. W. A. Black-stone, on August 1st, 1896, with 25 subscribers, to-day there are 144, and fresh subscribers are being added almost every week. Every business place of any importance in the city is connected with the exchange, while the number of private residences connected would alone suffice to keep the exchange going throughout the year. Four out of the five banking institutions doing business in the city are connected as are also the whole of the members of

the medical profession. Taking the population of Bathurst at 9,500, the average number of in-habitants per subscriber is 66, a record that no other town in New South Wales can equal. Compared with the exchanges at Goulburn and West Maitland, the centres of the southern and northern districts respectively, Bathurst has in comparison six subscribers to every one connected at the above mentioned town-ships. ——————————