The importance of telegraphy to New Zealand can be seen in the enormous numbers of telegrams sent. More than one million were sent in 1880, less than 20 years after the first telegraph line was set up, and when the population was only 600,000. The number peaked at 10.8 million in 1915. The Post Office ended its telegram service in 1987. It had long been overtaken by telex, fax and telephone.