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offices open to the public. There could be no distinction made by name between the police telegraph-offices, or the railway telegraph, where the service was often exclusively for the State, and other offices open to the public. Later, according to the situation of localities and the state of service, many telegraph-offices were combined with those of the post, under the name of post-office and telegraph-offices. Where there were more than two telegraph-offices in the same place, the larger was called ‘central office’ and the others ‘branch offices.’ On the other hand, the Administration of Telegraphs, having been authorized to utilize for public use the telegraph-lines especially established for the service of railroads, created several public offices in the railway termini and stations.

In 1871 there were 4 offices to 8,277,706 of the population; in 1898–99, 1,267, or one to every 34,492 of the population.

Ordinarily the telegraph-lines are built along the public routes or railways. In the beginning, private property was rarely employed in the construction of lines, and there was no need of any regulations governing the employment of public properties for public utility. But this need began to be felt when telegraph-lines were lengthened and grew intricate. In 1874 the Government issued a regulation empowering the Administration to grant an indemnity to the owners of property indispensable for the construction of lines, and in 1884 another regulation established the means of recovering the expenses occasioned by the construction of lines. The details of the arrangement were usually regulated by the customs of each locality. In 1889, when the law for the employment of private property for the public good was promulgated, the need of a special law for telegraphs and telephones was felt. At length, in 1890, the Government promulgated such a law, which is still in force. The construction of telegraph-lines between Tokyo and Yokohama, and between Osaka and Kobe, in 1869–70, was really only the introductory step; the serious work of construction began with the establishment of the principal lines from Tokyo to Nagasaki, and from Tokyo to Amori, which occupied from 1871 to 1874. These lines form, with those from Hakodate to Sapporo, the great artery of Japan. The various lines to the Island of Kyushyu were constructed between 1874 and 1877; those to the Island of Shikoku between 1876 and 1879; the construction of those lines uniting the numerous important places of Japan proper betwen 1876 and 1882; and, last, the lines to Hokkaido, to complete the chain of the islands, in 1892. During this period the construction of principal and secondary lines was carried on at the same time, and these two lines were joined as the work progressed on the main lines; and cables were laid between