806 REPORT— 1895. 



How far this would affect the I'ost Office revenue in its various branches — 

 telegraph, postal, and parcels — it is not easy to estimate. The author believes that 

 compensation for losses in one direction will always be found in another. 



5. Some Lessons in TeUiohony. By A. E.. Bennett, M.Inst. E.E. 



It has recently been demonstrated that the development of telephonic com- 

 munication in the United Kingdom is ini'erior to that whicli has been attained in 

 many foreign countries. 



Why this is so may best be discovered by ascertaining by what means, 

 technical or economical, those nations which have most conspicuously outstripped 

 us have acquired their superiority. For the purposes of this paper the countries of 

 Europe have been divided into three groups: (1) well telephoned; (2) indifferently 

 telephoned ; (3) badly telephoned. 



A country may most properly be said to be well telephoned when its smaller 

 towns and villages enjoy facilities ; for the existence of a few large exchanges in 

 the capital and chief towns does not entitle it to that distinction. France, Russia 

 and Portugal all possess good exchanges in their capitals, but are nevertheless 

 badly telephoned, since their smaller towns and villages are excluded from partici- 

 pating in the service. On the other hand we find that Norway, Sweden, Switzer- 

 land, Luxemburg, Denmark and Finland are in the first rank as well-telephoned 

 countries, since not only their capitals and chief towns, but their villages and even 

 hamlets, are provided with communication. With them the telephone is no longer 

 a luxury, but an adjunct of everyday life, within reach of even the poorest. 



Of these six countries, which compose Group I., four owe their development 

 to companies and co-operative societies, and two — Switzerland and Luxemburg — 

 to their Governments. 



A considerable gap exists between the worst country of Group I. and the best 

 of Group II. This is the German Empire, exclusive of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, 

 which possess their own systems independently. Thereafter the countries follow in 

 the order indicated in the Table, which shows that Norway is the best and Russia 

 the worst telephoned country of Europe. 



The questions naturally arise, ' To what causes are such vast differences in 

 development to be ascribed ? ' and ' Why is the United Kingdom, with its prepon- 

 derating commercial importance and unparalleled spirit of enterprise, only tenth on 

 the list, instead of first ? ' 



A study of the table supplies the answer. It shows that telephonic develop- 

 ment is proportional to the prevalence of the following features : — 



(1) Low rates; (2) Local management of exchanges ; (3) Facilities for rural 

 intercourse ; (4) Competition. 



At least three of these are characteristic of each of the six countries which 

 compose Group I. 



On the other hand, they are almost completely absent from Groups II. and III., 

 the leading characteristics of which are : — 



(1) High rates ; (2) Centralised management ; (3) Neglect of small towns and 

 rural districts ; (4) Absence of competition. 



On inquiring in what manner circumstances differ so greatly in the United 

 Kingdom as to preclude the possibility of small towns and rural communities 

 sharing in telephonic communication, it appears that the inelasticity of the 

 prevalent system of tariffs, which was originally invented for towns, is chiefly to 

 blame. In towns distances are short, and subscribers, if the switch-rooms are 

 properly distributed, have seldom to pay more than the unit charge ; but in 

 country districts distances of several miles must often intervene between the sub- 

 scriber and switch-room, and as the annual rental exacted increases rapidly with 

 the distance, the charges become piled up by the extra mileage entirely beyond the 

 means of the vast majority of the people. What is wanted is the application of 

 the Austrian (which, with some modifications, has also been adopted in Luxem- 

 burg) system of tariffs, and under which all subecribers, whatever their distance 



