The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2, 1907. MIGRATION OF THE JAPANESE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2000, 2 October 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2, 1907. MIGRATION OF THE JAPANESE.

The overcrowding millions of .Japan arc on the move, and tho national problem of the moment among that progressive people is one •< us to where it shall find room for exjiansion. Formosa, .the island which the Japanese Annexed and proceeded ■to settle after the war with China, utterly failed to absorb the overflow of population in anything like an adequate degree, nor were tho possibilities of trade tlier© found tempting enough to attract the busy minds and active hands that reached out lor something to take hold of. In the past Japan had set covetous eyes upon Hawaii, and thousands of her coolies had been landed there as laborers for the sugar plantations. But the annexation of these islands by the United States effectually closed that avenue of outlet, just as tlio capturo of the Philippines broke up the dream of colonial empire for Japan in that direction. In both these instances the United States barred tho way, and perhaps w© do not sufficiently appreciate the influence of that circumstance in our estimate of the causes of American and Japanese strained relations. To. a proud people like tlio Japanese, excited by victory and the result of two successful wars, this obstinate blocking of her advance and closing of the hitherto, open fields for the expansion of' her population cot'll cl hardly fail to ho a cause of exasperation, to which tho treatment of Japanese subjects in California ; is hut a contributory influence. -But meanwhile the movement of population cannot be checked. It must find an outlet somewhere. Evidently tlio scope for sottlcmc-nt and'business which the war was- expected to open up in Manchuria and Korea is not proving so satisfactory as was hoped. Nor need-we-lie surprised at that; for Korea, after all, offers only a limited area for settlement and improvement, tho rest of the country being of a rugged and mountainous character. As to Manchuria , the territory there is already overrun by its native Ironies, and so far as the prospects of trado go the Chinese merchants and /traders prove themselves quite as shrewd exploiters as the Japanese. No doubt- there is a great deal of work and -development to bo done in those regions, and it may be that the mineral wealth will prove to be as great as was at one time so persistenitly reported. The timber concessions were said to ho valuable assets in ithe hands of Russian official holder's. Dalny, as we know, gav*o promise of developing into a, great Pacific) emporium. Yet we find Japan still looking further abroad for room for her surplus population, and the project- mooted in New York for the sale of tho Philippines seems to he based on a belief in Japan's desine lor expansion in a southerly direc-

tion. Australian ports are closed, but we learn on tlio authority of the “North China Herald” tlia-t the Japanese aro now emigrating to Java in great numbers, and on smelt an orderly and systematic plan, the number of Japanese new set-tiers being carefully proportioned to (the size of the town where they are to reside, as to suggest that tile movement is taking place under authority. lit is announcement is naturally receiving considerable attention ill Australia, and the “Sydney Morning Herald,” commenting on this new phase of the “yellow peril,” says:—i “Java is a near neighbor of on ns, j

bring within a low days’ reach of our unoccupied Northern Territory, of which we show ourselves slow 'to take eflcolivo possession. The country is thickly populated already, and if it were' not for the clastic packing conditions to which Oriental peoples onu°iuhi.pt themselves it would seem that there was not much scopo for new population there. The new settlors are, it is observed, not settling on the land, but hiring out their services in tho towns; so that the conditions ol' the present movement can hardly bo taken as permanent, but rather ns preparatory for something else. Every dogroo of advanco southward, of course, brings the problem of tho future of the Pacific nearer to our own doors. Australia lies directly in tho path of tho Asiatic advance, and w© cannot afford to remain sunk in a-patliy varied by cricket matches and All Black visits while the vortex ol tho worldmovement is eddying closer to us every year.”