Arrangements were also entered into with Japanese steamship lines for largely increased facilities for shipping between Brazil and Ori ental ports; and encouragement was given to theJapanese lines to increase the immigration ofJapanese to BraziL Among the lines in clu ed in this agreement were the Oriental Navigation Company and the Japanese Com mercial and Navigation Company.
For several years past the Brazilian govern ment has encouraged the national shipping by subsidies and other privileges. The amounts thus paid out and the favors extended have in creased from year to year. In 1917 $1,854,487 were provided in the budget for these shipping subsidies, almost 60 per cent of which went to the Lloyd Brasileiro Company which is owned by the Brazilian government. The other companies receiving subsidies from the govern ment were: the Coast Navigation Company, the Amazon River Navigation Company, the Empreza Viacio do Sao Francisco, the River Paranhyba Steamship Company, the Marana ha° Steamship Company, Empresa Fluvial Piauhyense, Cia. Estradas do Ferro do Norte do Brazil, the Baixa San Francisco Navigation Company, the Bahiana Navigation Company and the Pernambucana Steamship Company. Some of these companies also receive subsi dies from one or more of the Brazilian states. The budget law of 1917 empowers the Presi dent of the republic to econcede a premium of $12 per ton displacement from 80 up to 500 tons; of $19.20 per ton from 500 to 1,500 tons and of $24 per ton from 1,500 to 6,000 tons to all vessels constructed in the ports of Brazil.° Vessels constructed or acquired abroad and brought under the Brazilian flag, provided they are of more than 1,500 tons burden, receive a premium of $6 per ton displacement. In his report of 30 June 1916, the Brazilian Minister of Transportation and Public Works fur nishes a confessedly incomplete list of 659 ves sels under the Brazilian flag with a total capac ity of 316,587 tons. Of this tonnage, the Lloyd Brasileiro furnished 126,000 tons with 66 steamers; the Companhia Commercio e Nave gacao, 55,500 tons with 20 vessels; the Com panhia Nacional de Navegacao Costeira, 17,500 tons with 18 steamers; and the Amazon Steam Navigation Company, 15,655 tons with 33 boats.
Of these only the Lloyd Brasileiro and the Companhia Commercio y Navegaiao were regu larly engaged in over-seas trade in 1917. They also carried on a coast and river business.
The attention paid by the Brazilian govern ment to the encouragement of the merchant navy and native shipping in general has resulted in giving Brazil a much larger body of domes tic shipping than is possessed by any other Latin-Amencan nation. The significance of this will be readily recognized when it is re membered that the country as a whole is de pendent upon its rivers and coastal shipping for the greater part of its transportation. In 1915 there entered the ports of Brazil 22,059 steam and sailing vessels, carrying 19,494,771 tons, while 22,504 cleared, with a tonnage of 19,471,800.
An overland mail service for letters and small packages was established by the Brazilian government in March 1917, between Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, in Argentina. This mail route passes through Santa Maria, Rivera, Livramento, Uruguayana and Montevideo. In 1915 there were 3,603 post offices in the re public, and they handled during the year a total of 7,915,124 pieces of mail. Since then a con siderable number of post-offices have been es tablished, more especially in the interior of the country.
The telegraphy system, which is under the control of the government, had 725 offices in 1915, which handled 3,853,405 messages.
An extensive wireless system, in the process of completion in 1917, included 15 new sta tions already erected along the Amazon and the Paraguay rivers and five on the coast.
Telephone lines are generally found in the larger towns and cities, and telephone facilities are being rapidly extended in the centres of population.
By a decree of 28 March 1917, official ap proval was given to a plan for the linking up of the various telephone lines in the Federal district and the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and the work of carrying the de cree into effect was at once proceeded with. The two telephones concerned were the Com panhia Ride Telephonia Bragantina and the Interurban Telephone Company of Brazil.