414 



ITALY. 



Mediterranean. The fall of Khartoum, in the 

 winter of 1884-'85 determined Italy to follow 

 up the new expedition to Massowah, Beilul, and 

 Assab, which left Naples on Jan. 14, 1885, and 

 in quick succession two additional expeditions 

 were sent, raising the number of Italian troops 

 on the Red Sea coast, between Massowah and 

 Assab, to 3,500 men. From the statements 

 made before the Italian Chamber of Deputies, 

 by Minister Mancini, it appeared that there 

 was no special secret treaty between Italy and 

 England, in accordance with which the former 

 was to lend its military aid to the latter during 

 the operations in the Soudan, but merely a 

 spontaneous u parallel action," as it was termed, 

 interests in the locality being more or less 

 identical. 



The German Steamers. If there be anything 

 calculated to forcibly demonstrate the desira- 

 bility of seeing either the Panama or Nicara- 

 gua Canal, or both, soon dug, it is the question 

 which has arisen as to whether the future 

 subsidized German steamers for Australia are 

 to have their starting-point from Genoa or 

 Trieste. The shortest route had to be selected, 

 and, complying with the wishes of South Ger- 

 man Chambers of Commerce, the choice was 

 left between two non-German ports, Genoa 

 and Trieste. Since the St. Gothard and Arl- 

 berg Tunnels have been in operation, the im- 

 portance of Genoa and Trieste has become so 

 striking, that a new current of commerce to 

 countries in the extreme East is setting in in 

 that direction from central Europe. 



Railroads. On the 23d of April, 1884, the 

 Italian Government made a contract with two 

 syndicates for the leasing, for a term of sixty 

 years, dating from 1885, of its three great 

 systems of railroads, and on October 31 cer- 

 tain modifications were made, the whole sub- 

 ject to such amendments as the Chamber of 

 Deputies might deem necessary. The bill in 

 this modified form was introduced immediate- 

 ly, and finally passed before the month of 

 January came to a close. The two new com- 

 panies rent the lines named from the Govern- 

 ment, and purchase the rolling-stock and other 

 material ; they also agree to complete the sys- 

 tems. Out of the gross earnings the companies 

 are to receive 60 per cent, for operating the 

 lines, and 10 per cent, for repairs, etc., and 

 interest, the remainder to accrue to the Gov- 

 ernment, after the shareholders receive at least 

 5 per cent. net. The three railroad systems 

 on Jan. 1, 1884, were: 



During 1882, when 9,042 kilometres were 

 in operation, the gross earnings amounted to 

 192,938,929 lire, and on December 31 of the 

 same year the aggregate amount spent on the 



entire system, as it then stood in operation 

 had been 2,787,021,700 lire. The Upper Italian 

 Railroad, having 3,929 kilometres in operation 

 on Dec. 31, 1884, against 3,778 on December 

 31 of the previous year, had earned gross dur- 

 ing the year 124,282,726 lire, against 122,953,- 

 148 in 1883 ; the product per kilometre was, 

 therefore, 32,163 lire, against 32,841 in 1883, 

 showing a decrease of a Tittle over 2 per cent. 



Telegraphs. The length of telegraph Hues, 

 at the end of 1882, was 27,613 kilometres; of 

 wire, 93,799 kilometres. The number of dis- 

 patches was 6,454,942. The number of pri- 

 vate domestic dispatches was 5,190,909, against 

 5,015,005 in 1881 ; of private foreign messages 

 521,180, against 517,599. The receipts were 

 12,423,102 lire; expenses for service, 7,974,932 

 lire; for maintenance, 186,765 lire; extraor- 

 dinary expenditure, 457,000 lire. 



Telephones. On Nov. 30, 1884, a new tele- 

 phone company was formed in Eome, with 

 Prince P. Borghese as its president, with a 

 capital of 1,500,000 lire, for the consolidation 

 of all the lines then existing in the Italian capi- 

 tal, and developing the use of electricity there- 

 for, and other public purposes. 



Postal Service. There were in Italy in 1882 

 3,497 post-offices. The number of letters and 



Eostal-cards that passed through the post-office 

 i that year was 177,034,688, and of newspa- 

 pers 160,726,706, while money -orders were 

 issued to the amount of 532,630,867 lire, there 

 having been delivered of such altogether 4,102,- 

 253. The amount of postage, etc., collected 

 was 32,660,886 lire, the expenses summing up 

 27,729,462 lire. 



Packages up to five kilogrammes are now 

 forwarded between Italy and Germany via 

 Switzerland, at the rate of sixteen cents a 

 package as far as the frontier, from where the 

 express charge by mail, at postal-union rates, 

 is added. In 1882 Italy was the nation sev- 

 enth in rank in point of postage collected. 



Wine and Olives. "While the Italian vintage of 

 1884 only produced 14,086,200 hectolitres of 

 wine, the average being 27,538,000 hectolitres; 

 the olive-crop, on the other hand, was very 

 abundant, with the sole exception of the Bari 

 region, where the oil- worm did some damage. 

 As for the quality of Italian wines of 1884, 11 

 per cent, proved unexceptionable, 35 per cent, 

 good, 30 per cent, medium, and 24 percent, bad. 



Iron and Steel* Iron-ore abounds in various 

 parts of Italy, especially in Elba and Sardinia, 

 whence it is exported ; but iron-works, during 

 the past twenty years, have rather decreased. 

 The Ligurian Iron-Works, being near the coast, 

 form an exception, and produce about 35,000 

 tons annually. 



In the Aosta valley the firm of Mongenet, of 

 Turin, have blast-furnaces; and in January, 

 1885, Martin Siemens' s steel manufacture was 

 to be begun. The works will be built under 

 the supervision of the French engineer, Ch, 

 Walrandt, who has lately performed such serv- 

 ice in Germany, France, and Russia. 



