Great Britain. The only national highway authority is the road board established in 1910, which has the power to make contributions toward approved schemes of improvement and until 1916 was provided with revenues from the motor vehicle registration fees and the li cense tax oa motor spirits, amounting to about $8,000,000 annually. Otherwise, the roads and streets of England and Wales are maintained by 1,891 local authorities, those of Scotland by 337 and those of Ireland by about 370 local au thorities. England and Wales have a total of 152,085 miles of roads, of which 33,624 miles were in urban areas or practically city. streets. The average annual expenditure is about $52, 000,000, or $730 per mile on the city streets, and $28,000,000 or $230 per mile on the rural roads. Of the roads in rural areas, however, 23,833 miles, or 20 per cent, are classed as main roads and require an annual expenditure of about $600 per mile. Scotland has 24,908 miles of roads of which 2,244 might be classed as streets. The average annual expenditure on the streets amounts to about $2,50 000, or about $1,000 per mile, and $4,000,000, or $175 per mile, for the rural roads. Ireland has a total of 58,334 miles of road which cost annually about $5,000,000, or $86 per mile.
France. The roads are divided into three general classes national roads, 23,756 miles, built and maintained entirely by the national government; departmental roads, 8,161 miles, maintained at the a xpense of the departments and 331,855 miles of vicinal roads, built and maintained by the communes with occasional subsidies by the national government. In addi tion there are about 155,000 miles of rural lanes of entirely local importance. The national roads as well as most of the departmental roads are under the care of the corps of bridges and roads of the ministry of public works consist ing of a complete, non-political organization from the highly trained engineers and adminis trative officials down to the road men or can tonniers. Each cantonnier has immediate charge of about 2.8 miles of road. The average annual cost of maintaining the national roads is about $335 per mile, the departmental roads $190 per mile, and the vicinal roads about $110 per mile.
The construction and mainte nance of the public roads is in the hands of the several states without any control from s the central authority. Classification and methods of management and control differ among the several states. In general, however, the roads are divided into state or provincial roads, under the control of the state or province, county or district roads under the district, and parish or local roads which are usually a local burden.
There are approximately 36,000 miles of im proved state roads distributed as follows: Prussia, 20,489 miles; Bavaria, 4,200 miles; Sax ony, 2,267 miles; Baden, 1,890 miles; Whrtem berg, 1,710 miles; and the other small states 444 miles. Of county roads Prussia has 38,400 miles, 14,598 miles of parish roads and 1,100 miles of private roads, all of which are improved with a hard surface. The total annual road expenditure in Prussia is about $35,000, 000, of which the provinces pay 28 per cent, the districts 33 per cent, and the parishes 39 per cent.
Italy. The roads of Italy aggregate a total of 92,000 miles divided as follows; National, 5,200 miles, built and maintained by the national government at an annual average cost of $275 Per mile; provincial roads, 27,800 miles, built and maintained by the provinces at an average cost of $185 per mile, and 59,200 miles of local roads provided for by the communes.
Norway. The roads of Norway have a to tal length of 17,550 miles, of which 6,570 are main roads for the construction of which the national government has contributed from: two thirds to three-fourths of the cost. The cost of maintenance is almost entirely a local bur den, though under the supervision of a national director of roads.
Russia. There are about 12,000 miles of post roads in Russia either under the control of the ministry of ways and communication or the department of war. The average annual maintenance cost of these roads is about $200 per mile. The cost of other roads is borne by the local communities.
There are about 34,000 miles di vided into state and provincial roads. The state roads are constructed and maintained by the general government through the department of public works at an annual average cost of about $240 per mile.
There are 36,000 miles of road in Sweden made up of 12,000 miles of main and 24,000 miles of district roads. On the main roads which are under the supervision of the royal board of road building and waterworks the government pays two-thirds of the cost of construction and 15 per cent of the maintenance. The total annual expenditure is about $70 per mile for all classes.
Switzerland has no central road authority. The roads are left to the can tons and their municipalities, though the federal government grants aid to certain more impor tant roads, which have a total length of about 350 miles. The cantonal roads have a length of 875 miles and local roads 6,250 miles.