A VISIT TO JAPAN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 13, 10 July 1911, Page 8

A VISIT TO JAPAN

MR. T. YOUNG'S IMPRESSIONS.

MORE NEWS OP THE EXPLORERS.

The recent visit of Lieut. Shi rase and hi# band of Japanese Antartic explorers tx> Wellinngton increased the interest which is taken in the Japanese people. Mr T. Young, Japanese Consul for New Zealand, who gave the explorers every assisfcnace during their New Zealand stay, subsequently visited Japan, and he returned with very pleasant impressions of that hospitable people, who made him all the more welcome because of his association with what is evidently a project very dear to the hearts of the Japanese, while his official position gave him special opportunities of entry into circles not usually open to the tourist. Mr Young told a New Zealand Times representative that he regarded the Japanese people as being very earnest in their affairs, and having a particularly high regard for the English. "This is the difference between Japan and China," he said, "In China you are a 'foreign devil'; in Japan you are a friend of the country. The greatest facilities are given to Englishmen travelling in Japan. On the railway station you find the directions printed in English as well as Japanese, and the tickets also. I had a most interesting time, and found that there was considerable gratitude for .the little we did in New Zealand to facilitate the work of the Japanese Antarctic expedition. That was evident not only in expressions heard from those directly concerned in the project, but from others. While I was in Tokio th* 'ladies of the capital organised a great entertainment in aid of the expedition's funds, with good result*, and the Jananese indicated that it will assist the expedition upon confirmation by Parliament."

ANTARCTIC PLANS. The Kainaa Maru, the Japanese exploring ship, is now in Sydney, and Mr Young visited Lieutenant Shirase,' who is awaiting the return of two representatives of the expedition, Captain Nom&ru and the scientist Takeda, who went back to Japan to report to the association and to raise further funds. On this occasion Mr Young had. the advantage of an interpreter (for it is no pretence that the members of the expedition cannot speak English). The commander told him that he proposed to leave for the Pole about August or September, and that lie was getting another supply of dogs. A large number of the Kainan Maru's crew and the commander gave Mr Young a send-off on the wharf when he left for New Zealand, the Japanese flag being waved to the accompaniment of vigorous "bunzais" the .Japanese equivalent to the English "liurrar!"

"I have seen some paragraphs copied from local papers which seem to throw some doubt upon the bona fides of the expedition," added the Consul, "but all the information I received when in Japan and every opportunity I had of conferring with persons responsible for the expedition on private occasions, and also from accounts of meetings which were held while I was in Japan, lam enabled to state authoritatively that the Japanese concerned axe most earnest in their desire to enable the party to reach the South Pole; and there is no ground whatever for the suggestion that there is any doubt about their bona fides." IMMIGRATION OF JAPANESE.

The New Zealander found the Japanese much interested in our immigration laws. They are not in the same position as Chinese, ss they pay no poll tstx, but land in New Zealand upon passing the simple education test. "I have the assurance of a vice-Mini&ter< of Japan," remarked Mr Young, "that in regard to emigration they only desire freedom to enter the colonies so as to open up trade with them. Japan has no desire to send its people away for any other purpose, or to send them away permanently." This suggested the important topic of trade prospects between New Zealand and the progressive nation of the East. Japan can send us silks, phosphates, tiles, metal-ware, and fancy goods, while our meat and other produce such as butter and cheese could find a ready mar'th'ero if trade were developed. The Japs are food of meat, says Mr. Young, but cannot make it a staple food. They get beef and mutton mostly from Hong Kong, and he found beef selling in Tokio at eighteen pence per pound, when we are getting about sixpence on the London market. The conditions of farming in Japan are remarkaibly different from those of New Zealand. They have no room for fences, and the cultivation is so intense that stock cannot be grazed, and there is not a sheep to be found except in the far north. Any stock kept is stalled. The land is not sold in acres but in "tsubos," equal to ft patch 38 feet square. The irrigation schemes are extensive and excellent, and they do not allow their rivers to sprawl over the land, but keep them within bounds and utilise their power for the generation of electricity.

LABOR AND TRADE. Japan wil! hardly be regarded as a welcome competitor of the New Zealand manufacturer, because the cost of labor is ao remarkably low there. Large copper deposits exist in New Zealand, but they could hardly compete against the «oncern which Mr Young visited, the Ashio copper mines, employing 15,000 hands, and paying them ninepotice a day. Women did the coaling at Moji, tlie great Japanese coaling port, and their pay was sevenpence a day. A new tariff comes into operation in Japan this month, and Mr Young, gathered the impression that in deference to the desire to build up Jananese manufacturing industries, it imposes a