The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, MAY 17, 1886. SHIGETAKA SHIGA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2297, 17 May 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, MAY 17, 1886. SHIGETAKA SHIGA.

Teehaps move distinguished visitors than Shigetaka Shiga have been received in Masterton, but we question whether a.more interesting personage has been among us than this cultured bright-eyed emissary of the Mikado. His name may appear a little outlandish to us, but probably in his own country it is as prosaic as Smith or Jones is with us, and if it be a little long we must bear in mind that the Japanese alphabet contains forty-seven letters, and with such resources a fond parent there can afford to be n little prodigal in naming his offspring, How the Japanese infants manage to master such a long alphabet, to say nothing of the four different forms of written language which are used there, wo know not, but are quito contented with the twenty-six letters which our own olive branches have to tackle, At present Japan is a country very little known to New Zealand, and New Zealand is all but unknown in Japan. Shigetaka is of the opinion that it would be to the advantage of both countries if they knew a little more of each other, and to that sentiment we say amen. As we understand our late visitor, Japan would be willing to exchange its manufactures for our wool, As a manufacturing community, Jupan can undoubtedly excel New Zealand, Coal, iron, arid labpr are cheaper in the Empire of Niphon than with us, and with these advantages Japan is pretty certain to be able to do a large export trade. It is almost a pity that we in New Zealand have no Shigetaka Shiga'whom we could send to Japan to pick up a few notions for our own guidance, Japan is but half as large again as this colony as yet it maintains thirty-eight millions of people in tolerable comfort, a .feat which none of oifr statesmen could undertake to perform. Their laws, too, in many respects, seem to b'<i

superior to our own. AJapaneseiaw will stand wear and tear for a thousand years, while a New Zealand act generally comes to grief in a hundredth part of that time, Shigetaka informed iiR that his Government gave notice in the year 1880 of a reform which is to be introduced in a,d. 1890, thus giving the people ten yeavs in which to preware for a political change, How nappy should we be in this colony if we could follow this excellent example. What an advantage it would be if Sir Julius Yogel had to give ten yours notice of the" big" big loan which lie is anxious to launch, and Messrs Stout and Ballance had to announce for 1896 the introduction of that land nationalisation reform which they are I now trying to slip in edgeways. We must not despise the Japanese. They possess railways, telegraphs, primary schools and universities all borrowed from European models, but they also undoubtedly retain many institutions peeculiarly. their own which Western nations might copy with advantage. When England was peopled by savages Japan was a highly civilised' nation, We hope the time will yet arrive when direct commercial relations will be established between this colony and the country of the Mikado, and that Shigetaka Shiga will not be the last distinguished Jap who visits Masterton,