JAPAN AS IT IS.

Auckland Star, Volume 304, Issue 304, 23 December 1926, Page 10

JAPAN AS IT IS.

NEW ZEALANDER'S IMPRESSIONS. INTENSIVE CULTIVATION. (By Telegraph—Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. Dr. P. Marshall, who represented the New Zealand Government at the PanPacific Science Congress at Tokyo, told an interviewer that he considered the work of reconstruction after the earthquake in Japan to be marvellous. Huge reinforced buildings were being constructed everywhere, and large spacious thoroughfares were being laid out where small streets previously existed. Fishing and rice growing and other industries requiring intensive cultivation were wonderfully organised in Japan. The scenic beauty of Japan appealed to Dr. Marshall, who mentioned that the scarlet foliage of trees i«i the autumn produced a picture that for effect was almost incredible. The gardens of the, wealthy and the royal gardens in Tokyo and elsewhere, were really marvellous, every part of them being a veritable picture. "Agriculture," added Dr. Marshall, "is carried on, on an intensive scale, but the people do not seem to have any instinct as pastoralists. Hilly country that would support sheep in New Zea"land is not utilised in Japan, due, it is said, to a bamboo which is deleterious to cattle, and springs up everywhere. About one-sixth of tlie country is devoted to intensive cultivation, while five-sixths is practically unused, except to a limited degree for forestry."