d in 1903. Railways
were also constructed from Pegu to Martaban, 121 m. in length, and from
Henzada to Kyang-in, 66 m. in length; and construction was contemplated of
a railway from Thazi towards Taung-gyi, the headquarters of the southern
Shan States. The total length of lines open in 1904-1905 was 1340 m., but
railway communication in Burma is still very incomplete. Five of the eight
commissionerships and Lashio, the capital of the northern Shan States, have
communication with each other by railway, but Taung-gyi and the southern
Shan States can still only be reached by a hill-road through difficult
country for cart traffic, and the headquarters of three commissionerships,
Moulmein, Akyab and Minbu, have no railway communication with Rangoon.
Arakan is in the worst position of all, for it is connected with Burma by
neither railway nor river, nor even by a metalled road, and the only way to
reach Akyab from Rangoon is once a week by sea.

_Law._--The British government has administered the law in Burma on
principles identical with those which have been adopted elsewhere in the
British dominions in India. That portion of the law which is usually
described as Anglo-Indian law (see INDIAN LAW) is generally applicable to
Burma, though there are certain districts inhabited by tribes in a backward
state of civilization which are excepted from its operation. Acts of the
British parliament relating to India generally would be applicable to
Burma, whether passed before or after its annexation, these acts being
considered applicable to all the dominions of the crown in India. As
regards the acts of the governor-general in council passed for India
generally--they, too, were from the first applicable to Lower Burma; and
they have all been declared applicable to Upper Burma also by the Burma
Laws Act of 1898. That portion of the English law which has been introduced
into India without legislation, and all the rules of law resting upon the
authority of the courts, are made applicable to Burma by the same act. But
consistently with the practice which has always prevailed in India, there
is a large field of law in Burma which the British government has not
attempted to disturb. It is expressly directed by the act of 1898 above
referred to, that in regard to succession, inheritance, marriage, caste or
any religious usage or institution, the law to be administered in Burma is
(_a_) the Buddhist law in cases where the parties are Buddhists