Italy 259 



For each conversation from a public telephone station, 2-88^. 

 over a line not exceeding three kilometers in length, the charge 

 to be increased at the rate of '48^. for each additional kilometer. 

 The time unit to be five minutes. 



For trunk communication the charge fixed is 2s. $d. for dis- 

 tances not exceeding 500 kilometers, with increments of 576^. for 

 each additional 100 kilometers or fraction thereof, the time unit 

 being five minutes. 



The only reduction authorised to ordinary subscribers is one 

 not exceeding 20 per cent, on each instrument taken in excess of 

 the first. Concessionaries are authorised to require from each 

 subscriber a first-and-last payment, not exceeding one-fifth of his 

 annual rental, as a contribution to the cost of his line. This 

 regulation is permissive, not obligatory. Concessionaries are 

 bound to connect Government, municipal, and parochial offices 

 at half-rates, but such connections are freed from the usual taxes. 

 They are also bound to permit Government, at its own expense, 

 to join its post and telegraph offices to their exchanges free of 

 charge. 



The chief fault of this tariff is that it possesses no elasticity. 

 The rates are made the same for the capital and the villages, and 

 there is no distinction between trunks fifty kilometers long and 

 five hundred. 



The lot of the telephone concessionary in Italy is not, on the 

 whole, a happy one. In addition to the legal obligations already 

 enumerated, he has to deposit, as security for due payment of the 

 Government taxes, a sum equal to 10 per cent, of the maximum 

 legal tariff multiplied by two for each thousand inhabitants of 

 the locality to which his concession applies. Should he contem- 

 plate dabbling in trunk lines he must deposit a further sum equal 

 to 50 per cent, of the annual telegraphic receipts between the two 

 points connected, based on the average of the last three years. 

 He must pay his taxes monthly at the nearest telegraph office. 

 If the concession is worked by a company, copies of its articles 

 of association, proceedings at its general and special meetings, of 

 its balance-sheets, and of its directors' and auditor's reports, must 

 be regularly furnished to the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs. 

 Then the concessionary is bound to reimburse to his subscribers 



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