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the situation of the localities, and to examine into the expense of installation and maintenance before consenting to the demands. By this means telegraphic communication was rationally developed, until in 1884 there was no important locality without it.

About this time the employment of the telegraph developed so rapidly that the Administration was obliged to suspend the construction of new lines till it could increase the number of wires on the lines already existing. The service was also reorganized by modifying the laws and telegraphic regulations, and thus determining the rights and obligations of the Telegraph Administration.

The system of payment by distance, which had been in force till this time, was replaced by a uniform charge for all Japan. Since 1890, the country advancing in all ways of progress more and more, the Administration had to occupy itself in the more prompt and regular distribution of telegrams, at the same time increasing telegraph lines and bureaus. In 1890 the cables in the Straits of Tsugaru and in the Inland Sea were doubled. In 1891 the Administration of Telegraphs laid the cables to the Isle of Sado and in the Gulf of Funkawan (Hokkaido), and bought from the Danish Great Northern Telegraph Company the cables connecting Yobuko (Isle of Iki) with Idzugahara (Isle of Tsushima), which formed part of the cable line between Japan and Corea.

When the war between China and Japan was declared in 1894, the Japanese Government constructed telegraph-lines for military purposes in the interior of Corea. These lines, connected with those of Japan, were employed exclusively by the military administrations. After the war they were opened to private as well as to official service. During the war, for the defence of the country, there had been constructed towers of observation along the most important military lines; these were changed into telegraph-offices for the various neighbourhoods traversed by the military telegraph-lines. The wires were increased on the lines between Tokyo and Nagasaki, and between Tokyo and Shimonoseki. A new cable was laid in 1895 between Yobuko and Idzugahara, and in 1897 the Island of Formosa was connected with Japan by a cable for military purposes, which was later opened to general use. Thus, the war contributed much to the progress of the telegraph in Japan.

In the beginning there was no distinction of class made in the telegraph-offices of different localities; it was only in 1873 that the offices were divided into three distinct classes. In 1886 the telegraph-offices of various Ministries or of other administrative sections received a special name, to distinguish them from the