The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1913. CHINA’S CHANCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 18, 27 May 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1913. CHINA’S CHANCE.

Nothing is so impressive at the' present time in the Far East as the emergence of China. In the course of a specially written and very interesting article appearing in the Otago "Daily Times from the Rev. William Hay, this is specially stressed, and he shows how the south especially is becoming so foreignised that the picturesqucness of the.Chiueso is becoming relegated to the past, and even North China is not without its foreign tendencies. While it is daring to prophesy anything concerning China, yet there are some broad principles upon which, Mr Hay holds, one may fairly reason, and there are certain facts that has a definite significance, other tilings being equal. The greatest factor of all is the renaissance in her national life amt civilisation. The most prominent superficial fact of recent date is the Revolution, but a renaissance proceeded it. The emergence of a new China lias not been a sudden coming into existence with the establishment of the Republic. China admittedly has all the potentialities of talcing a great place among the nations of the earth. She has an extremely largo country. Above any other country she has the labour for the development of industry. There are immense mineral deposits' in China. Her canals and water conduits are an evidence that sbo has no need nf training in the art of irrigation. Dr. Chambers, of Canton, who lias lived in China for many years, said recently: “In intellect i believe the Chinese are the peers of any race in the world. They are not as smart as the Japanese, but for sweep of hitcllect, for profound reasoning, for insight into things,

they are the peers of any in. the world.’’ Dr. Foster, of Swatow, assured the Rev. Mr May that ho lias learned from long experience that there is nothing that others have diVno that the Chinese cannot do. There are many who donht whether they will ever rise ahovo imitation and become independently progressive and creative. Their emulation of Japan is frequently referred to hy those

who forget, or who never learned, that! it was’China that taught Japan arts' and letters, and that Japan is exeeedingly imitative. That they have possessed creative power in the past ■ cannot ho controverted, and latent; powers spring into active life with; renaissance. There is already much proof of it. In industry it is speci-. ally true that China excels; and just as Chinese industry wins in competition whenever it is to ho found, so' there is little doubt that it is going! to win the Far East in relation to the industrial life of the world.