The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1895.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 196, 17 August 1895, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1895.

Fpr .the cause .that lacke For the wrong that neede resistance, For the future in the distance. And the good that w< can do.

Japan, in the role of an infant prodigy, is startling the world by her wonderful achievements. It would be difficult, in the history of modern civilisation, to find another instance of a nation which *so rapidly gained such an accession of political and commercial importance. By one bound, as it were, Japan emerged from a condition of comparative insignificance and obscurity to take a prominent position amongst civilised states. That the Japanese were adopting the most recent scientific improvements in naval and military warfare, and that they were moulding their institutions to a great extent upon European models, was accepted as a proof of their superior intelligence, but no particular significance was attached to it. The Chino-Japanese War was an eye-opener. As in a moment,, the world realised the mighty influence that might, be exercised upon both Eastern and Occidental civilisation by a people possessing both warlike and commercial instincts, who had just discovered the almost boundless possibilities within their reach. Everything connected with Japan was suddenly invested with a supreme interest. Probably the Chinese were not more surprised to find how easily their forces were defeated by their warlike neighbours than European mercantile classes were to discover that japan was so rapidly forging ahead as a manufacturing nation that in a few years she would prove a formidable competitor in commercial operations.

It is true that in certain branches of manufacture, European arid American firms have for a long time found the Japanese formidable tivals, but the development has during the last few years been so rapid, that it seems likely that in the near futurejapan will be able not only to supply her own wants in regard to nearly every branch of industry, but will be able to flood the Western markets with commodities at prices that it will be hopeless for British or American manufacturers to compete with. According to Consul Hillier, who is intimately acquainted with the condition of the country, many of the articles the Japs produce are quite equal to those of European or American manufacture, while in other lines they make such clever imitations that the difference between the native and the foreign product is scarcely discernible. In cotton piece - goods, , Turkey reds, and grey shirtings, they are already elbowing Manchester goods out of the market. Germany has hitherto done a large trade ;n supplying Japan with dyes, but the native manufacturers are now producing aniline dyes superior in quality to those they formerly imported. There is apparently no branch of

commerce which the Jap is willing to concede to the foreign merchant. American and European tinned provisions are copied, and Japanese ••wines" are concocted with honey, sugar and perfumes. The imitation of European brands is frequently resorted to in order to give a fictitious value to the home-made article. - " Japan," says the Consul, "is now imitating foreign trade marks to a very considerable extent; certainly in the lines of wines, spirits, soaps; preserved milk, provisions, and other minor articles, and also, it is said, :in more valuable imports, such as piece goods of well-known brands, cotton piece-goods of almest every description being made to resemble the British goods as closely as possible, so far as length and breadth are concerned, and varying very little in.weight, appearance and marks." At present Japan is an excellent customer for European machinery, and for* some years a brisk trade in this branch is likely to be carried on, but the Japanese are already manufacturing a variety of machinery, and with the spread of the industry they will gradually become less dependent upon foreign nations for their supply. ....... ~-.'.'.,''

So far the growth of manufactures.,in Japan has only affected the British produce to the:extent that he cannot find so profitable a market for his wares in that country as lormerly. But a greater danger. looms The ambition of the Japanese is by no means limited.to supplying their own wants, for they are looking for* ward to finding an outlet for their surplus products in European, countries. Mr R. T. Kirby, of. Tokio, a man of extensive commercial experience, recently informed an interviewer that there are now 750,000 cotton spindles in Osaka, and that cotton mills are multiplying with amazing rapidity. There is a great temptation to British capitalists to invest money in Japanese industries, where, owing to the plethora of cheap labour, handsome returns are realised. When Japanese women, who are described as quite equal to the English factory hands, receive about 26. per day, it is not surprising that the existing Japanese cotlon-spinning companies pay 15 per cent, dividend per year, and that they find no difficulty in getting investors to embark capital in that industry.

The readiness with which . the Japanese are prepared to avail themselves of every opportunity for extending their sphere of operations appears in the recently-published British Consular account of,the trade of Corea in 1894. So far as that,country was concerned, the Japanese were by no means satisfied with having asserted their superiority in arms. When the war ; broke out the . Chinese traders iiiv the • Corean Peninsula fled*iin aU directions, and the Japs seized the golden opportunity to get the trade into their 'own hands. . It is a proof of the energy with which these enterprising people have pushed matters, that'notwithstanding the unsettled condition of Corea during the war, the foreign "trade of that country was greater in 1894 than in any previous -j year. Another , instance of the; readiness with which the Japan-1 ese avail themselves of favourable opportunities for increasing their trade more nearly affects these colonies. When the coal mines in Newcastle,New South Wales, were closed down a few years ago, on account of the strike, the Japanese immensely increased the output from their collieries, and by supplying coal at an extremely low figure managed to secure the Eastern markets, the Australian companies finding at the close of the strike that the coal trade with the East, which had been an important part 0/ their business, had entirely passed into the hands of their foreign rivals.

We hope the day is far distant when, instead of sending millions worth of goods to Japan, English people will "get accustomed to the sight of Japanese merchant princes spending an annual holiday in Europe on the fortunes they have made in supplying us with cheap matches, yarns, beer, and the like." But the time cannot be very far remote when not only European nations, but the Australasian colonies, will have to reckon with the industrial competition of Japan, which, whatevet effects it may, have,, ,canpoj fail to complicate the present labour difficulties. If Japanese goods, made by people who can live on 2d a day and a handfal of rice, can be poured into British communities, it is not difficult to foresee that there would be nothing short of, a complete revolution throughout the industrial world.