The telegraph and telephone service is managed by a director,
who is under the Public Works Department.
Norway has been a member of the international Telegraphic
Convention since its foundation in 1865. Special agreements are
concluded with Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Russia and Holland.
The railway telegraph is not included in the above. In 1898,
their lines amounted to about 1,200 miles, with 246 stations.
With regard to the number of telegraph-stations (not including
the railway telegraph) in relation to the population, Norway,
according to the international statistics for 1897, stands 6th in
the rank of European states, as there is a telegraph-station to
about every 4,200 inhabitants. The length of telegraph line in
relation to the population is considerably greater than in any
other land (2.5 miles per 1,000 inhabitants, Germany being next
with 1.7, and the average for Europe, 1.1).
With regard to the amount of the correspondence in relation
to the population, Norway is 4th in the European series, with 76
telegrams per 100 inhabitants. More favourable conditions can
only be shown by Great Britain, Prance and Switzerland.
The first private telephone Imps were • completed in 1880.
They were the subscription systems established in Kristiania and
Drammen by the «International Bell Telephone Co. of New York,
Limited». The subsequent development was rapid, and especially
from the end of the eighties made a great advance. Upon the
whole, the private telephone in Norway has undergone an extension,
in relation to the population, such as hardly any other land
can exhibit. Its wide-spread establishment in the country districts
is especially worthy of remark.
The value of the private telephone-lines at the close of 1898
may be put at about 7 million kroner. The number of telephone
apparatuses in the same year, according to statistics published by
the country telephone unions, was 25,376, the number of central
stations 505, the length of line 37,158 miles, the number of conversations
47,423,000, and the number of telegrams telephoned
179,30i. The statistics, however, are incomplete, so that the actual
figures will certainly be considerably higher.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Norges officielle Statistik.
M. B ib k e lan d . Det norske Postvceseyi i dets Oprindelse og f0rste Begyndelse.
(Smaaskrifter tilegnede A. F. Krieger. KjoBenhavn 1887).
F. Bu g .g e . B en norske Statstelegrafs Gnmdlwggelse og Vcekst. Kristiania 1890.
Indstilling f r a Komiteen til TJdarbeidelse a f en almindelig Plan fo r det Offent-
liges Forhold ligeoverfor Telefonvcesenet. Kristiania 1894. (Stii. Fork.
1896, 2 D. t>', No. 104).