Holland 22 1 



reduction of 50 per cent, on any above that number. In return, 

 way-leave is granted for the streets and public buildings. 



The history of the Dutch trunk lines is rather involved. The 

 Government had conceived the idea at an early date that trunks 

 meant ruin to telegraphic traffic, and fell into the usual fallacy 

 that because the telegraph system belonged to the public it was 

 necessary and essential to protect it against the public. That is 

 to say, that which was no longer the best and fittest for certain 

 purposes must, in the interests of the nation, be fostered and 

 protected by artificial means to the damage of the new and 

 worthier method of communication, because, forsooth, the public 

 had originally paid for the obsolete system. 



As a consequence, the action of the Dutch Government was 

 not encouraging. Owing to financial or other reasons it was not 

 at that time deemed politic for the State to undertake the con- 

 struction of the trunks ; but it was not till 1887, when the com- 

 mercial community had long been clamouring for communication, 

 that it \vas resolved to allow the Netherlands Bell Company to 

 connect Amsterdam with Haarlem. The conditions imposed 

 were sufficiently onerous. The company was to erect and main- 

 tain the line, pay over half the profits to the State, and, moreover, 

 undertake to make good the full value of any diminution of 

 telegraphic traffic that might occur between the points connected. 

 The telegraphic traffic was further protected by the imposition of 

 high rates. Messages were not to be paid for singly, but all users 

 of the trunks were to pay an annual rate equal to the local 

 subscription in the towns to which they spoke. Did not the trunk 

 make a Haarlem man virtually a member of the Amsterdam 

 exchange, and an Amsterdam man a participator in that of 

 Haarlem ? Then let the Haarlem subscriber pay the Amsterdam 

 rate and the Amsterdam subscriber the Haarlem rate in addition 

 to his own, and ends would meet. Notwithstanding these 

 conditions traffic flourished and, strange to say, without pro- 

 ducing any marked effect on the telegraphic revenue. At the end 

 of the first year the company paid a small sum to the State to put 

 the telegraphic receipts on a level with those of the previous year ; 

 but during the second year the telegraph recovered itself, and no 

 further payment was demanded. Then the Government acquired 



