AUSTRALIA’S NEIGHBORS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 April 1921, Page 5

AUSTRALIA’S NEIGHBORS.

JAVA’S 35,000,000 PEOPLE. QUIET AND CONTENTED. Sydney, April 22. The AustraJhin people-are oeglnmng to take a good deal of interest in Hie great Dutch island of Java, which, iso far as geographical distance is concerned, is an even nearer neighbor than New Zealand. The Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, Count Limburg Stirum, is at present in Australia, and he is certainly doing something to advertise hh country. A census of the Dutch East Indies has just been taken, and it shows 35,600,000 people in Ja\M>and 10.000,000 in the other islands—that is, there are more people tucked away in this archipelago than there are in the whole of the British Isles. There are no political disturbances there. Comparing the country with India, and explaining why Java is calm and peaceful while all the rest of the world is boiling, the Count said that the Javanese were a placid, contented people, and the system of education put into operation by the Dutch was very different to the British system in India. The British, he said, started at the top; the Dutch at the bottom. The British produced a great many lawyers and like, for whom there was no place in the country, and who simply bred all sorts of trouble. The Dutch, on the other hand, simply educated the natives in the native language. Only a fe\V were educated in Dutch, and very few indeed were given a high degree of education. The result was that there was a keen deman 1 for educated natives, all of whom had good positions, and were happy and contented. There is only one university for natives in Java, and it does not teach politics. It is practicallya technical university, turning out engineers, doctors, and so on. There is an abundance of labor in the islands, and the Dutch administration is developing a. great hydro-electric scheme, and at the same time greatly extending the railway system. The result will be seen in enormously increased production presently—the island will produce almost anything—and the increasing wealth of a territory already very wealthy. It is an interesting fact that, although there are no restrictions on Asiatic immigration, the Japanese are not entering the Dutch Indies. The climate, it is said, is too hot for them. But the Chinese from Southern China are coming to this territory in great numbers. The Dutch do not object to them. They were sober and industrious, and made good citizens. It is believed that there is a great future for trade between Australia and Java. At present, the two countries scarcely know each other—although a great tourist traffic between the two has sprung up within the last three or four years.