262 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Europe 



Turin four ; in Verona four ; in Venice five ; in Genoa three. 

 In Naples, Bologna, Palermo, Messina, and many other towns 

 there are none at all. The legal maximum tariff is 2 '8&/. for five 

 minutes, but this is imposed in two towns only, Leghorn and 

 Venice. In other towns possessing public stations five minutes' 

 local talk costs as follows : 



Rome : i Turin . . . 2-4^. 



Societa Romana . i '44^. Genoa . . . -96^. 



Societa Co-operativa -96^. Padua . . . 



Milan . . . 1-92^. Verona . . . 



In some towns subscribers use the public stations free of 

 charge, but the more usual plan is to make everybody pay. 



3. Internal trunk lines. These have, so far, attained but 

 little development. Milan is connected with Monza, and a line 

 from Milan to Legnano is in course of erection. At the date of 

 writing (February 1895) none of the chief towns are in regular 

 telephonic correspondence, but the Italian Government has 

 prepared a very large scheme which, when given effect to, will 

 place all the business centres in communication. The trunk rates 

 have been fixed in anticipation by law, as already stated (p. 259). 



4. International trunk lines. The Italian Government has 

 approached the French, Austrian, and Swiss Governments with 

 proposals for international lines, but the schemes have yet to be 

 matured. 



5. Telephoning of telegrams. This traffic is not large. The 

 direct connection of telephone exchanges with telegraph offices 

 for the transaction of the subscribers' business appears not to be 

 practised. Thus at Milan, the second largest telephone centre in 

 Italy, the subscribers' telegrams are taken down at the central 

 office and sent across to the telegraph station by messenger ; 

 conversely, telegrams arriving for subscribers are delivered at the 

 telephone office and thence dictated to the addressees. For this 

 service the company charges 1-92^. per message, irrespective of 

 the number of words. 



WAY-LEAVES 



The law of 1892, which hits the concessionary very hard in 

 most directions, comes to his aid a little in the matter of way- 



