IN THE LAND OF THE CHRYSAN THEMUM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 9 July 1907, Page 2

IN THE LAND OF THE CHRYSAN THEMUM.

•ADMIEBS BY MISS MUUC'CTT. In li Despite the unfavorable elements, the >ody of Uii! Theatre lioyul, New Piy- u nouth, way well iillecl last evening, when {, Uiss Murcutt, the well-known lectures* uid writer, delivered a lecture on "Japan .mil the -Japanese." Miss Mureutt was sent by a N'ew York press syndicate <• round the world to study social, indus- i trial, and religious conditions of the peo- ; pie, and give her impressions to the } American piess. Miss Mureutt is with- * out doubt one of tlx* best and most elo* » <{uent speakers '*ew Plymouth has had j tiio pleasure of hearing. Last night she ] hold the interest or the whole ot her i auditors from start to finish. She is evi- | denlly a woman of keen observation f and tho faculty of retaining ' and lucidly describing the salient fea- < tuns of tilings she lias seen and lteard. j She has a strong individuality and a j manner—a charming manner it is—pe- ] culiavly hev own. Miss Mureutt is a warm and thorough • admirer of the Japanese, individually • and nationally, and this admiration stood out in strong relief throughout her discourse last evening. The Japanese, , she said, were the most progressive people of any of tho peoples of the Orient, and it was a matter of which we should feel proud Unit Britain was tho first of the Western Powers to ally herself with the Kast. No people in the world loved Naturo and Nature's beauties to the same extent as the Japanese. They are worshippers of Nature. To them Nature's beauties are everything. The Japanese are the only people in the world who cultivated the plum and the cherry tree for their flowers and not j for th.eir fruit. All classes, the plebian and the aristocrats, ignoramus and scientist, worship the flowers. The Japanese are past-masters in the art of horticulture; it is instilled in them from childhood. Miss Murcutl traced the history of the Japanese from the very early times to the present, touching on the social and religious, ami as well ns the industrial, features of tlie country's evolution. She. reFerred to their late war with Russia, and how the nation's pride had been hurt by Russia's grabbing of Manuchuria and Port Arthur. The industrial progress of the Japanese was nothing short of marvellous. No country Hint the world lias i seen has made more progress in fifty I years as has Japan in the last fifty. I Strangely enough, the Japanese were not inventors; they were however, great and successful imitators. Speaking of the position held by the Japanese women, the speaker said that In the old days of Japan the women occupied a very high place, but when Confucianism became the religion of the Empire, women were relegated to the background, the tenets of the religion being to keep females in subject from the cradle to the grave. Woman's condition has, she explained, not been greatly ameliorated (luring recent years, but

there were not wanting signs that the ' shackles would some day be removed. j Formerly only tlio males were educated; | now t hoy have schools for girls and nni- : versitios as well. Afiss .Murcuit spoke of the great inter- j est being evinced by the Japanese in Western religions. On one occasion she told (o a large assemblage the story of j the Redeemer. 11 was listened to, she said, with hated breath, and at the eonelusion she was asked to give a second address, which was attended by over ' ">OOO people, tlie building not being large enough to accommodate all who wished In hear the story. Of the 44,000,000 1 people of the Empire, only one million, she remarked, know anything of the Christian religion. Though they know so little of Christianity they knew a great deal about British whisky and beer. big, Haniing advertisements about which were to be seen throughout the country. The East judged us by our national policy, and if our national policy i was Christian-like in manner and spirit j we could then go amongst the people ' of the East, and with a better show of | I consistency and regard for their moral I well-being acclaim and inculcate the ' great truths enunciated by the Great Re- i deemer. I The lecture was punctuated with ap- ! planso and laughter, some of the lec- : hirer's simiSies and witticisms being i particularly mirth-provoking. Mr J, 11. I Kov made a capital chairman. i