THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1907. JAPANESE FINANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8545, 27 September 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1907. JAPANESE FINANCE.

I Developments in the Pacific lend considerable interest to the "Seventh Financial and. Economic Annual of Japan" which has just been published. The annual itself is a characteristic production. It is beautifully printed, and its contents are done into Eng--I'sh. It contains an excellent map and some lucid diagrams. Also its authors are well pleased with themselves. Even the contemplation of a national debt amounting to 2,217,722,753 yen, or, say, £220,000,000, leaves the Japanese undismayed. The sum is a big one, it must be confessed. The United Kingdom, with its average income of £2OO or so per annum per family, could but regard it as big. But the Japanese average family income is very small. A skilled Japanese artisan earns but £2O a year, while a farm labourer gets but £4 a year. It is hardly likely that the aggregate income of the 49,000,000 people of Japan exceeds £200.000,000 per annum. Yet the Government raises a revenue of £42,000,000 per annum. It may sound incredible, but it is true. A large part of the debt, and consequently a large part of the expenditure, is the result of war. The Russian war debt amounts to £174,000,000 out of the £220,000,000, and the debt charges njw amount to nearly £17,000,000 per annum. It j is of interest to note some of the chief items of Japanese public expenditure. The Royal family costs £300,000 per annum, or more in proportion to the rational income than the British. The army, efficient as it is, costs but £5,400,000 a year, and the navy £3,300,000. Of course, soldiers' pay is small, as may be gathered from the rates of wages already quoted. E-iucation costs £600,000 a year, and agriculture is fostered at a cost of £560,000. Sixty per cent, of the Japanese people are employed in agriculture, and every endeavour is being made to introduce Western methods of cultivation. A State experimental farm has been established and the selection and supply of seeds and seedlinga carefully studied, The tea and silk industries

have greatly improved through intelligent State aid. Government officials are also engaged in directing stockbreeding. Bulls and staliions are being imported from Europe and America, and lent out by the State to private applicants, A word as to external trade progress. Japanese commerce is now valued at £84,000,000- per annum. How rapidly it has grown the following figures (in millions of pounds sterling) will show

ImpcrLs. Exports. 1876 ... 2.4 2.7 1886 ... 3.2 4.9 1896 ... 17.2 11.7 1906 ... 41.2 42.4 Patriotic fervour has not ceased with the war. While hostilities were in progress the Japanese went without luxuries to h?lp their country. The war over, the war taxes are continued. The Japanese taxpayers are still paying increases such as the following:— Rate of Increase. Land Tax ... 120 p.c. to 700.p.c. Business Tax ... 150 p.c. Income Tax ... 80 p.c. to 270 p.c. And very wisely it has been resolved to clear away the Russian war debt within a short period. The measures taken are such that the war loans, amounting to £174,000,000, will be , entirely redeemed in about thirty ! years.

THE TOWN CLERK. A meeting, the object of which everyone in the community will approve, has be_»n convened for tonight in the Exchange Hall by four ex-Mayors of Masterton. The meeting is convened for the purpose of making a presentation to the Town Clerk (Mr R. Brown) who has diligently and efficiently served the town for the past thirty years. * During his long connection with the Borough, Mr Brown has rendered valuable services, and the opportunity which will now be given the public of showing their appreciation will, no doubt, be most generally availed of. There is no necessity for us to extol the virtues of the Town Cleric. He is justly respected, and deservedly popular, and a substantial presentation would serve to mark the esteem in which he is held by the citizens as a whole.