Holland 223. 



compensates for any diversion of traffic between particular points. 

 Exact comparisons are not possible, as, since the telephone trunks 

 came into operation, the telegram tariff has been reduced and 

 receipts have fallen, although messages have multiplied. The 

 Dutch internal telegram tariff is 4'95</. for ten words, with "59^. for 

 each additional word ; but for telegrams passing between parts of 

 the same town the charge is only 2-97^. for ten words, with '198^. 

 for each extra word. 



The subscribers' lines in all the large towns are single, but the 

 Netherlands Bell Company recognises the superiority of the metallic 

 circuits, and some of its recently constructed exchanges have been 

 fitted with it, as all future ones will also be. The Zutphen 

 Company has adopted the metallic circuit ; but the other con- 

 cessionaries continue to run single wires. In Amsterdam there is 

 a considerable amount of underground work, the extent of which 

 is growing rapidly. To date of writing, no international trunk 

 lines actually exist, but an agreement has been signed with 

 Belgium by which the Dutch and Belgian centres will be brought 

 into communication at as early a date as possible. The rate 

 agreed upon, as between Amsterdam and Rotterdam on the one 

 hand, and Antwerp and Brussels on the other, is 2s. $d. per three 

 minutes. Last autumn experiments were tried with the view of 

 establishing telephonic communication with England by means of 

 a direct cable, the Dutch being averse to adopting a route via 

 Belgium. It was found possible to telephone fairly well, using 

 ordinary instruments, through the old telegraph cables between 

 Lowestoft and Zandvoort and Benacre and Zandvoort, so that, 

 given a special telephonic cable, the practicability of the scheme 

 is beyond doubt. The Dutch Government has given the promise 

 of a concession to Dr. Hubrecht, managing director of the Nether- 

 lands Bell Telephone Company, for the works on the Dutch side, and 

 that gentleman proposes that an Anglo- Dutch company shall be 

 formed to lay a cable between Aldborough in Suffolk and the Hook 

 of Holland, and establish the necessary connecting lines on both 

 sides. But nothing can be done without the consent of the 

 British Post Office, which now has several memorials on the: 

 subject before it. 



