LABOR IN JAPAN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1703, 25 February 1888, Page 3

LABOR IN JAPAN.

Perhaps it is because amusement is considered important in Japan that labor makes but slight demands upon the energies of the people. A ' sojourner in that happy land writes; — “ The year before last I had to employ two plasterers to repair a place in the wall of a house, where a pi«ce of plaster two feet square had fallen out. The two artists turned up at ten o’clock in the morning, and sitting down upon a couple of empty wine cases, lit their pipes. At about halfpast ten one approached the damaged place within a yard, took a mental photograph of it, and sat down again. At eleven o’clock a mutual friend appeared, who was warmly welcomed, and, after smoking a pipe or two, amused them by standing, on his head, and by that time they had got very hungry, and made a pause of two hours for tiffin. Pipes again. Then the one who had carefully sounded the wall, knocked another piece of plaster down. Pipes again. By five in the afternoon they had made the hole three times the original size, and were so thoroughly exhausted that they left off. Next day a stray drop of water—wherever it may have come from—lighted on one fellow’s nose, "and made him conclude it was going to rain, so that no wort could be done in the afternoon.