INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS
1121
Internal Communications.
On January 1, 1899, there were in Egypt 1,166 miles of railways belong- ing to and worked by the State, and 72 miles of companies' railways : in all 1,238 miles ; 825 miles being in the Delta, and 413 miles in Upper Egypt, exclusive of the military railway in the Sudan, and the agricultural railways of 390 miles on the Daira Sanieh estates. There were 290 miles under construction, 64 miles being companies' railways. Besides, the Government has granted concessions for the constmction of 230 miles of narrow-gauge railways in the Delta.
The following table shows for the last five years the length of line of the State Railways, the number of passengers and weight of goods carried, and the net receipts : —
Year
Line
Number of r^ ^ • j Passengers ; G^ods earned
i
Net receipts
1893 1894 1895 1896 1897
Miles 1,080 1,087 1,098 1,143 1,166
9,301,081 9,827,813 9,518,000 9,854,000 10,742,546
Tons 2,113,002 2,391,868 2,398,000 2,498,000 2,796,096
£E
918,587 1,007,070
994,000 1,033,000 1,123,360
The working expenses, £E859,523 in 1897, represent an average of about 43 per cent, of the gross receipts, which were £E1,982,883.
The telegraphs belonging to the Egyptian Government were, at the end of 1897, of a total length of 2,058 miles, the length of the wire being 8,770 miles. The Government have given concessions to a telephone company for urban telephone lines. The Eastern Telegraph Company, also by concessions, have telegraph lilies across Egypt from Alexandra vid Cairo to Suez, and from Port Said to Suez, connecting their cables to England and India. Number of tele- grams, 2,498,834, as against 2,392,036, in 1896, not including telegrams sent by the Eastern Telegraph.
There are 275 post-offices in the towns of Egypt, 25 travelling offices, and 451 localities where the rural post has been established. The Egyptian post- office now transacts all the services which exist in the post-offices of other countries forming the Postal Union.
The following table gives the number of letters, post-cards, newspapers, &c., which passed through the Egyptian Post Office in the year 1897 : —
Inland
Foreign
Total
Letters and Post-Cards Newspapers .... Parcels
Total . . .
11,300,000
7,000,000
173,000
2,250,000
980,000
56,000
13,550,000
7,980,000
229,000
18,473,000
3,286,000
21,759,000
Post office orders and remittances through the post office numbered 509,500 and amounted to the value of £E16,922,000.
Thirty per cent, of the total foreign correspondence was with Great Britain.
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