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associations with a total membership of 78,500, and 535 town and district corporations. The National Association, which is under the patronage of the king and queen, receives a State subsidy (for 1900-21, 25,000 kroner). It publishes a quarterly journal, of which over 20,000 copies are issued. The secretariat is in Christiania." For the combat of tuberculosis the Norwegian Government has established five sanatoria Reknes sanatorium at Molde, Landesko- gen sanatorium in Seteadalen, Vensmoen sanatorium in Saltsal, and coast hospitals near Fredriksvaern (on the eastern side of Christiania Fjord) and in Vadso (Finmark). The work against tuberculosis in the large towns has been much hindered by the shortage of housing accommodation. Official communications from the communal offices in Christiania alone in Sept. 1921 reveal the fact that 15,000 people were without accommodation. The poorer classes were crowded into rooms which were too confined; many had already been condemned as insanitary. The tuberculosis section of the Christiania Health Committee state in their report for 1921 that 40 % of the accommodation which had already been condemned as unfit for human habitation had again been put into use. Out of 381 newly reported tuberculosis families in 1920, 8-14% lived in rooms without kitchens, 37 % in quarters of one room and kitchen, 35-43 % in two rooms and kitchen, and 1 1 % in three rooms and kitchen ; only 18-64% f tn i. s accommodation was found to be satisfactory from the point of view of health. Only 22-75 % of the sick had their own room, 77-25 % shared a room with others, up to 8 or 10 sick in the same room. A proposal for house rationing, which was rejected by the Christiania Town Council in 1919, therefore came to the front again in the autumn of 1921. Similar housing conditions existed in Bergen and Trondhjem.

Railways. Norwegian railways underwent great development after 1910 when the plan adopted by the Storthing on July 9 1908 for the extension of the railways of the country was being carried out as far as the more important lines are concerned. The total length of rail ways in operation in July 1920 was 3, 286 km. (2,041 m.). To this must be added the Dovre railway between Dpmaas in the northernmost part of Gudbrandsdal over the Dovrefjell to Trond- hjem, opened for traffic on Sept. 19 1921, which has a length of 158 km. (98m.) from Domaas south over Dovre to Storen station on the old Hamar-Trondhjem line. The total length of the Nor- wegian railways was therefore 3,444 km. (2,139 m.) late in 1921. Of the total rail length 2,290 km. (1,423 m.) are standard gauge (1-435 metres between rails); the remainder, exclusively branch-lines or small private railways, are narrow gauge, for the greater part with a gauge of I -067 metres. Among the newest railways is the line between Kongsberg and Hjuksebo, opened February n 1920, quite a short line (37 km. or 23 m.) but of great importance because it was the first section of the projected trunk-line through Norway's " S0rland " (southern part) between Christiania and Stavanger.

After the completion of the Bergen railway in 1909, no event in the railway field attracted greater attention than the opening of the new railway across Dovre. The trunk-line between Christi- ania and Bergen (492 km., 306 miles) constitutes Norway's main connexion with the outer world. The trunk-line (553 km., 343 m.) between Christiania, Eidsvoll and Domaas 214 m.; Domaas and Storen 98 m. and Storen and Trondhjem 32 m., constituted in 1921 the main connexion between South and North Norway. It was in fact the spine of the railway system, and no later line of importance can be constructed without having some reference to the Dovre railway. Its importance from an economic and military as well as from a traveller's point of view is obvious. In 1908 the cost was estimated at about 17,000,000 kroner (944,000), and the final cost is estimated at 61,000,000 kroner. The Dovre railway was officially opened on Saturday Sept. 17 1921 by the king at Hjerkinn, the highest point of the line, 1,017 metres (3,334. ft.) above sea-level, and was marked by great celebrations at Trondhjem. On Sunday night, Sept. 18, when a special train left Trondhjem for Christiania a serious collision with the north-going express from Christiania took place not far from Trondhjem. Six persons, all men of prominence, were killed, and thirteen injured.

The Rauma railway starts from the southern terminus of the Domaas- Dovre railway and was under construction in 1921 be- tween Rpmsdal and Aandalsnes, a tourist centre at the outlet of the Rauma into Romsdals Fjord. It was intended to carry this railway westward to Aalesund. The Domaas-Bjorli section of this railway, the eastern half, was ready for working about the end of 1921. Domaas had already become an important junction. In the west- lands districts, interest in the development of railway construction - had increased considerably during 1920-1, and two railway com- mittees were working in Bergen on the investigation of several plans. One of these relates to a connecting line between the Dovre railway and the Bergen line, and a probable solution inclines to the laying of a broad-gauge line of about 200 km. between Torpe station on the Bergen line (274 km. east of Bergen) and Kvam station 66 km. south of Domaas, the estimated time of construction being 10 years and the cost 36,000,000 kroner. This railway is not, however, included in the scheme worked out by one of the chief railway authorities for a construction period of 12 years (starting 1922) at a total cost of 2 73, 000,000 kr. (15,000,000). The railway authorities have also worked out a general scheme for the future development of the railways of the country at an estimated cost of 1,300,000,000,

kroner. This scheme was to be brought before the Storthing in 1922. The Storthing had, however, in 1921 already approved the immediate commencement of work on the construction of the Sunnan-Grong section of the proposed great trunk-line, Norway's greatest railway project through Nordland. Up to July 1920 an invested capital of 412,120,000 kr. had been sunk in constructed railways. The interest-earning capacity of this capital has shown a falling tendency in recent years, and in the working-year 1917-8 the working ex- penses for the first time in the history of the railways of Norway were greater than the traffic receipts. The railways afterward worked with a deficiency which was for the period mentioned 7,550,- ooo kr., in 1918-9 2,510,000 kr., 1919-20 3,530,000 kroner. The reason for this deficiency is first and foremost the extraordinarily increased expenditure on wages, and secondly the high price of coal during and after the World War. Although all rates had been more than doubled, yet it had not been possible to cover expenditures. Freight increases finally brought strong protests from traders, and at the third Scandinavian Trades Meeting held in Christiania on Sept. 13-14 1921 the traffic question was one of the principal topics of discussion; an urgent appeal was made to the authorities con- cerned to look into the matter of traffic between the three Scandi- navian countries as regards relief by reductions of charges and freights. The general director of the Norwegian State Railways immediately promised to comply with this appeal.

Work on the conversion of railways to electrical power was re- sumed, after having been practically stopped during the World War. The line between Christiania and Drammen, the first electrically operated railway in Norway, and the section from Christiania to Asker (23 km.) with heavy local traffic, was to be worked on this system from Jan. I 1922.

Roads. The Norwegian system of roads is being steadily ex- panded by new construction and by rebuilding. A thorough re- vision of highways legislation (which dated from 1851) was made by the Highways Law of June 21 1912, which came into force July I 1913. Public roads are either high roads or parish roads. By high roads are understood (l) the more important highways which con- nect Norway with neighbouring states or provinces, (2) roads which, within a province, convey through traffic between two or more districts or form the principal means of access to towns. All other roads are Considered as parish roads. The high roads are con- trolled by a Director of Highways for the whole country, who is directly under the Department of Public Works. In addition there is a provincial Direction of Roads for each province, consisting of the head of the province and two elected members of the provincial council. Norway's high roads in 1915 had a total length of 13,146 km. (8,165 m.), parish roads 20,139 km- ( I2 .5!O mj, a total of 33,285 km. (20,675 m.) of public driving roads. There were in 1921, on the average, 1 10 km. of such roads for every 1,000 sq. km. of the total land area of Norway.

Simultaneously with the Highways Law of 1912 a " Law for the use of Motor Vehicles " was passed, which opened all the roads and avenues of the country to automobiles. Including motorcycles, the total number of motor vehicles in Norway in Jan. 1921 was about 14,000, while 30,000 licences had been issued to motor drivers. About 270 motor routes have been opened up over the whole country and these play a big part both in general passenger and goods transport, as well as in tourist traffic. Among the most important routes which connect areas of the country where railways do not exist are the following: Otta-Geiranger-Stryn-Domaas-Aandals- nes; Fagernaes Tyin-Laerdal; Fagernaes-Bygdin ; Gol-Laerdal; Dalen-Haukeli-Odda ; Christiansand-Aaseral-Mandal ; Christian- sand-Arendal ; Osebykle (Setesdalen)-Arendal-Evje; Krager0-T0r- dal; Notodden-Kviteseid ; Elverum Trysil-Faemund ; Stenkjaer Namdalseid; SjpVeien-Saetermoen-Finsnes; Vard0-Vads0-Tanen.

There were two Norwegian automobile factories in 1921, but both imported finished parts.

State-Subsidized Steamer Services. In the inland State-subsidized steamer services it was necessary during the war to make restric- tions from 1915, and in 1917 freights had to be materially in- creased, both on coast and local routes. These restrictive measures especially affected northern Norway (the provinces of Nordland, Tromso, and Finmark) whose communication with the rest of the country became greatly restricted. In 1917 it became necessary to impose very considerable extra taxation on the public to maintain the necessary service, especially on the northernmost portions of the country. From Feb. 1917 to the end of Nov. 1918 steamer services between Bergen and Newcastle were entirely stopped, and the same was the case with the Christiania-Fredrikshayn route from the end of April 1917 to the end of Oct. 1918. When the contracts with the coastal service companies expired on July I 1921 the State contribution to this service was materially reduced. For the financial year 1921-2 the State contribution to the north- ern Norway routes was placed at about 11,500,000 kroner. The Bergen Steamship Company in 1921 established an express route between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Bergen with railway connection to London and Christiania, so that travellers between these two places were able to do the journey in 70 hours, of which 22 were on the sea.

Tourist Traffic, which prior to the World War had been a source of revenue of no little importance, was practically entirely suspended