Norway 283 



siderable extension, notwithstanding the present ratio of 2*9 

 instruments to every 100 souls, is looked for, and an order has 

 been placed with Messrs. Ericsson & Co. for a multiple switch- 

 board comprising the latest improvements. It is usual for 

 partisans to asseverate that, even if -very low subscriptions do 

 exist, they are applicable to very small exchanges only. Here, 

 however, is an instance of a system, surpassing in size the vast 

 majority of those belonging to the National Telephone Company, 

 paying a 6 per cent, dividend year after year on a subscription 

 of 3/. 8s. \v\d. \ The fact speaks eloquently of the competency 

 and conscientiousness of the Bergen managers, as well as of the 

 enterprise of the population. 



Besides these five chief exchanges, there are about one 

 hundred and seventy others in Norway, mostly worked quite 

 independently (although many of them are joined by trunk lines) 

 by concessionary companies, co-operative societies, or individuals, 

 but occasionally by municipalities or rural authorities. The rates 

 charged are, from a British point of view, absurdly small ; but two 

 facts cannot be gainsaid : that this system of concessions enables 

 the Norwegian citizens and even peasantry to enjoy facilities 

 which are denied to the English public ; and that, low as the rates 

 are, the companies succeed in more than making ends meet. 

 The following statistical table, which the author has been enabled 

 by the courtesy of the companies and gentlemen named therein 

 to compile, abundantly demonstrates these facts, and also gives 

 some idea of the constitution and mode of working of enterprises 

 which contrive to do so much for so little. One of them, that of 

 Hammerfest, is well within the Arctic circle, being situated in 

 latitude 71 '6 and within a few miles of the North Cape. The 

 population of Hammerfest is some 2,500, yet telephonically it is 

 far in advance of some of the London suburbs with populations 

 counted by the fifty thousand, and of a greater number of British 

 towns than could be tabulated in a day's work. There is another 

 small exchange, that of Tromso, within the Arctic circle. With 

 these exceptions, nowhere does the midnight sun obtain a glimpse 

 of a telephonic switch-board. Two of the towns named in the 

 list Christianssand and Hammerfest were destroyed, together 

 with their telephone exchanges, by fire a few years since ; but the 



