unexpected error " tables can have at most 1600 columns"

Situation

I have a co-developer installing a new Virtual Machine and encountering a postgres error during the installation.
One of our SQL patch files is failing unexpectedly.

The patch is attempting to add columns to a table, The table involved currently has only 2 columns,
Interactively I can generate the same error in his current state.

psql -h ohio -U redcom ace_db
psql (9.3.6)
Type "help" for help.

ace_db=# select * from log.conference_history;
conf_id | max_size
---------+----------
(0 rows)

ace_db=# ALTER TABLE log.conference_history ADD talker_limit integer DEFAULT 0;
ERROR: tables can have at most 1600 columns
ace_db=#
ace_db=#

Puzzled ?

Any thoughts ?

Regards

Dave Day