MAKING AMAZING STRIDES.

Gisborne Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5666, 21 December 1920, Page 2

MAKING AMAZING STRIDES.

JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL EX-

BAN SION

) (Specially written for the Gisborne Times by the Rev. F. Stubbs,

F.R.G.S.)

The chief exports of Japan (I givo them in order) are silk, cotton goods, copper, coal, tea, sugar, rice, whilst her chief imports are raw' cotton, iron, steel, oil-cake, timber and flax. Her trade is chiefly with U.S.A.. from -which she imports double as much us from any other country.—China. British India. Great Britain. French Indies. the Dutch Indies and Australia following order. Of course British trade was greatly affected by the war. and we hops may recover. Nor can one sec why trade between Australasia and Japan should not be greatly increased, though the increase will necessarily be slow. At present, e.g.. the J.ypanese do not. like mutton, but eventually they will come to like it, and even now import a considerable quantity from China. But they do like beefFwhen they can get it! —and also appreciate Australian jams, flour, butter, Truits, wool and gold; whilst wo on tne other hand are not averse to wearing Japanese silk and giving our children Japanese toys, so that there ought to be an expanding trade. The butter trade has suffered through inferior brands of butter being put upon the market. Australian butter is necessarily an expensive commodity here, and ought to be good, but it is sometimes quite rancid soon after being opened. I do not know how to account for it. Perhhxk it never was good butter, oif^it'Om'ay,..-be that the fault is in idle packing; or' in itp, carriage through the, tropics. At all events, dear as it is, a good deal more Australian '•'butter would be eaten ‘if i.t, were of more reliable quality. I* present the. hint to those, concerned. Ilere, then, is the main fact to be noted, 'inid which I have tried to illuminate. above Japan is making amazing. strides, and already occupies a dominating position in the East, both commercially , and ■ politically. 'The whole country is a hive, of industry. Factories are going’ up everywhere. There is hardly an article of commerce which.the Japanese are not. now 7 making. The commercial penetration of China and India by Japanese manufacturers, I although ..checked somewhat in the'former county by boycott, is wonderful. Trade is being pushed in Manchuria, in Shantung, m Korea, in the Malay States, in the Vangtse Valley. New‘ openings are being sought all over the'world and markets are being captured wholesale. Only in this way, indeed, can Japan feed her population. There is not enough Soil and it, is of too x*>or quality to adequately feed 60,000,000 people, so | she must extend her manufactures, and with the money thus gained purchase food from other countries. And it is here, it 6eem& to me, that Australia and New Zealand may benefit, especially the former. Australia is, and must be, a great foodproducing country, and here in the Far East there will bo an ever-increasing market.