Dial telephone

Only 127 years ago New Zealand's rural pioneering community was getting its first glimpse of a device which would cause its users to respond more rapidly to its shrill beckoning than to a knock at the door. Mrs Sheehy of Roxburgh started our love affair in 1877, as the first kiwi to have a conversation on a private line using the new-fangled talking telegraph. No-one thought to keep a record of what she said.

New Zealand's first phone office opened in Port Chalmers in 1879. The first exchange in Christchurch in 1881 had 30 subscribers. Auckland followed suit with 10 subscribers

Within a decade the first private automatic branch exchanges (PABX) appeared. In 1930 all the main centres had been connected and callers could pay a toll to call between cities and towns. It was official the telephone was here to stay. People were talking, not just across the back fence, but to friends, relatives and businesses across towns and cities. The news of the world was more readily available. Gossip travelled at light speed