1266

SPAIN

Shipping and Navigation.

The merchant navy of the Kingdom contained on January 1, 1912, 582 steamers of 750,081 tons net, and 301 sailing vessels of 44,325 tons net ; and in 1911, 577 steamers of 744,517 tons net, and 302 sailing vessels of 44,940 tons.

Bilbao is the chief maritime centre, Barcelona comes second.

The shipping entered and cleared at Spanish ports in two years was as follows : —

Entered : With cargoes In l)allast .

Total Cleared : With cargoes In ballast .

1910

No.

10,919 10,726

Total

21,645

16,242 2,099

18,341

Tons

9,844,131 11,644,523

21,488,654

16,748,806 3,373,513

20,122,319

1911

No. 10,666 10,100

20,766

Tons 9,648,875 11,251,971

20,900,846

15,927 2,230

18,157

16,822,039 3,516,441

li0,33S,480

Of the vessels entered in 1910, 6,492 of 5,491,208 tons, and of those cleared 7,919 of 6,824,201 tons, were Spanish ; and in 1911, 11,358 vessels of 7,948,303 tons (entered) and 9,069 vessels of 7,475,300 tons (cleared) were Spanish. Shipping under the British flag formed 39-3 per cent, of the whole.

Internal Communications.

The length of railways in Spain in 1912 was 9,179 miles open for trailic. The whole of the Spanish railways belong to private companies, but nearly all have obtained guarantees or subventions from the Government. The law of March 14, 1908, sanctioned the construction of secondary and strategical railways, of the former 3,336 miles ; of the latter 2,900. Interest at 4 per cent to be guaranteed by the State. The first of these lines, a railway 18 miles in the Province of Palencia, was opened in 1912.

The Post Office carried in 1911, in the inland service, 114,118,566 letters and post-cards, and 139,615,236 printed papers and samples; in the inter- national service, 35,689,198 letters and post-cards, and 48,636,192 printed papers and samples. There were 5,573 post-offices. Receipts, 33,747,097 pesetas ; expenses, 15,054,889.

The length of lines of telegraphs in Spain in 1911 was 57,8o8 miles; the total number of interior messages sent and received was 4,247,642. International messages sent 764,983, received 846,929, transit 187,948. The number of telegraph offices was 1,944.

In 1911 there were 67 urban telephone systems and 41 interurban cir- cuits ; the total number of telephone stations was 22,101.

A company holding a concession from the Government have opened for the public service 4 wireless stations, Marconi system. These stations have a range of 1,000 miles, and are situated at or near Las Palmas and Teneritle in the Canary islands and at Cadiz and Barcelona on the Penin- snlar. This system is completed by short-range stations (500 miles) at Vigo, Soller (iu the Balearic Islands) and Aranjnez (Madrid).

A royal decree was recently promulgated in accordance Avith wJiich all Spanish merchant vessels carrying passengers or mails must be fitted with

wireless telegraphy.