JAPAN IN 1900.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIII, Issue 12242, 30 June 1900, Page 4

JAPAN IN 1900.

I first visited Japan ten years ago (says Frank G. Carpenter, -writing to this New Orleans “ Times-Democrat ” from Osaka, Japan, early in the year), and it then had on the seven-league boots of modem industrial progress. I came again just before the war with Chino, and found that the country had again made giant strides. Since then its business has been growing like a snowbaL rolling down hill, and it is now one of the great manufacturing nations of the globe. New mills of many lands are going up. Hera at Osaka are two score largo cotton factories, operating more than 1,000,000 spindles, and last year 80,000,0001 bof cotton yam were exported to China. A great part of the cotton used in' Japan is made here, and the business is so growing that in, the case of the division of China among the Powers, this region will be turned into one vast cotton mill for making clothes for the Celestials-.

Just above Osaka is Kioto, where there are now modem silk mills, run by electricity, developed by water-power, and about here and below at Kobe are factories which are making matches by the millions of gross for shipment to China, Corea, India and Australia. In Tokio, three hundred miles to the eastward, some Japanese 'have just completedl a woollen mill, and have now 1500 hands employed in making doth to supply tiie Japanese demand for warmer clothing, and 1 at Nagasaki, the extreme western part of tie empire, a shipbuilding yard has been established, which is making 6000-ton steamers, as good as any constructed in Europe or the United States. JAPAN GROWING RICH.

The Japanese are, in fact, growing intto a rich nation. They are already the nabobs of the Orient, the richest of the native races of the far East. Ido not mean that they are wealthy in comparison with the Americans or the Europeans, but they are far ahead of any people of their own kind. There are no beggars. I have nob been asked for aims once during my stay in. the country, and I see no unemployed. Since the Japanese-Chinese war wages have increased from 50 to 10 per cent, and mm wild were working before that time for 8 and 10 cents a day are now getting 20 and 25, and more than double the prices paid fear the same class of labour in- China and Cor&i. Wages are steadily rising, and though they are still not more than oneten'th the sums paid our workmen, they are enough to be riches to the people here . They are so high that many of the working people are saving money. There are new more than 12,000,000d0d on deposit in the postal savings banks, owned) by about 1,200,000 depositors, and this noth withstanding the people chiefly invest their savings in other ways. BIG THINGS IN JAPAN. As to the growth of wealth among, the capitalists and the business class ;s, this is still more remarkable. There is no end of factories, banks and companies of various kinds which arc paying good dividends. The Nippon Yusjran Kaisba Steamship Company, for instance, is paying 25 per cent, and there is a horse railway in Tokio which is paying 35 per cent. The road is the only one in a city of a million and a half population. Its owners were recently asked to increase their capital and equip it electrically. They refeed, saying they were doing very well, and they doubted if they could pay a bigger percentage by the electric system. There is no doubt, however, but they will soon have to mate the change. The railroads of Japan are paying, even those which belong to the Government. There are now between two and three thousand miles of track in the empire, and more have been projected.

As to banks, they are to be found everywhere, and as a rule they axe doing well. Two per cent a. month is not an uncommon interest rate,'and the banks as a rule pay interest on deposits. The total amount of native capital now used in this way foots up more than 125,000,000d01, the Bank of Japan alone hawing a) capital of 30,000,000 yen, or 15,0€0,000d0l The banks do business just as our banks do, keeping their accounts and lending money in the same way. They do no “ thank yen ” business of any kind, and charge their customers for any and every favour. There ai'e large Stock Exchanges in Tokio and Osaka, and the yellow, almond-eyed bulla and bears fight here over the rise and fall of stocks just as our white, straight-eyed ones do in New York and Chicago. MONEY IN STEAMSHIPS. In their steamship lines the Japanese aro making wonderful progress. They now have lines of steamers whieE go to nearly every great port. They have twelve big steamers which give them a fortnightly service to Europe via the Sues Canal; a lute of large ships to Australia, via Hongkong and Manila, regular steamers to all the Chinese, Corean and Eastern Siberian ports, and two lines which make regular sailings for Seattle and San Francisco. They are experimenting now with a line to Peru, and have sent several of their ships to Mobile and New Orleans to test whether it will ret pay them to import our raw cotton for their mills here in their own steamers. Last year the Nippon Yusen Kaisha added sis vessels to its line, the six aggregating a tonnage of 34,000, and, it now has twelve steamers which average more than 6000 tons each. Japan is very ausious to See the Nicaragua Canal built, and' will undoubtedly have its regular lines to New York as soon as it is finished. At the same time there are scares of other steamships from the great lines of Europe and the United States in the Japanese perts every month. The trade is so increasing that all want their share of the freight. One of the latest in the field is the North German Lloyd, which now has regular steamers from Europe to Japan, and which is said to be about to put on a service of fine vessels to plv between Hongkong and San Francisco. To-day the freight between these ports is congested. The Japanese merchants toll me they cannot get their goods promptly, and that they have to wait for months for the filling of their orders. THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN. As to the foreign trade of Japan, it now amounts to enough to ba well worth our consideration. It was more than 220,000,000 dots last year, and of this the largest share of the exports went to the United States. We take, in fact, about one-fourth of all the goods Japan sells to foreigners, and it is only lately that we have been selling her anything like our share in return. W© buy momof.herraw. silk than any, ■othernaiam^

our exports of this alone footing up more than 12,000,000d01s We pay her more than 3,000,000d0l a year for tea and an equal amount for silk goods, while we annually buy a million arid a half dollars’ worth of Japanese matting. We send 300,000d0l a year to Japan for drugs and chemicals, and a large amount for curios, porcelain and other such things. We buy more and more every year, but it is only lately that our •ales have largely increased. WE ARE AHEAD OP THE BRITISH. At present we are gaining more rapidly in the Japanese market than any other nation. Twenty years ago we furnished only about 5 per cent of the Japanese imports and England furnished over 60 per cent. Now we are supplying 15 per cent of all that Japan buys and the English have lost about half their trade. During tho past few years the Americans have been .-ending locomotives and railroad machinery to Japan, and our exports of iron and steel manufactures now amount to more than 2,500,000 dol a year. We are having an increased' trade in wheat and flour, some of the Pacific coast mills being rum almost entirely to supply the Japanese markets. The people are becoming bread caters as well as riceeaters, and in the army bread has been lately introduced as one of the rations. A great deal of flour is used for paste in the fan and other manufactures cf paper, so that tho demand for the American article is six times as great now as it was ten years ago. JAPAN AND RUSSIA. In this connection comes up the strained relations which are said to exist between the Japanese and the Russians. The people here are very hitter, and they feel that they will have to fight Russia sooner or later. Many of them would like to see war declared now, before the transSiberian Railroad is finished, and while France has her bands full with the International Exhibition at Paris. There is no telling that war may not come between now and next summer, and many believe that the Japanese are not only preparing for it, but that they will force it, rather than let Russia go on as she is now doing. THE RUSSIANS IN PEKIN. I have met .within the. past few days severed men who have just returned from Pekin. They' all speak of the assurance and air of proprietorship which the Russians now stationed there show. They go about as though they already' owned the Chinese empire, and they put their fingers into everything 'that the Government does. They are also at Tientsin, and are maldng themselves felt as far south as Hankow', in the Yangtse Valley. One of the European diplomats who has lately visited Pekin tells me the Russians already practically own Manchuria, and that they have forbidden the Chinese to give concessions to any but Russians for mining and manufacturing there. The Chinese Government has been warned that Manchuria belongs to Russia, and that any inclination to permit others than Russians to come into it will be considered as an encroachment upon Russia’s preserves, and will be treated accordingly. Not long ago an American attempted to get some gold-mining concessions in Manchuria, but was told that they could only be secured through the Russians. THEY WANT ALL ASIA.

This American travelled extensively through Siberia, and spent considerable time among the Russians in Manchuria He found that the common feeling amon fe the Russians was that all Asia was bound to come into their bands, sooner or later, and that they were noW moving along the road to that accomplishment. They said that Russia wanted Manchuria as a breeding ground to raise Russian soldiers and a Russian population to raise food and supplies for the great army of the future. The army will soon be followed by emigrants, arid Russians arc already coining in along the line of their new railroad. "There are regular emigrant steamers which come from Odessa, bringing .colonists to Siberia. These will soon be directed to land their passengers at the Russian port on the Yellow Sea.

At present the Russian soldiers sure, I am told, bringing their families with them and are colonising all along the line of the Russian-Ohincse Railroad. The invasion, of troops has been going,on since 1897, and it is claimed that there axe now 150,000 Russian • soldiers in Manchuria and Eastern Siberia. The Russians take the lands along the lino of their road, paying their own price for them, and; all their actions go to show that' they consider Manchuria their own territory. They look upon Mongolia in the same light, and these two great countries have perhaps the most valuable provinces of China. Manchuria is naturally rich. It hast great areas of • good wheat lands, and it will in the future, be one of the bread-baskets of Asia. It contains valuable minerals and deposits of gold and silver, Mongolia is said to be rich in its agricultural and mineral resources. It is the chief horsebfeeding ground of East Asia, and as such will bo of value to the Russians as a feeder for its cavalry. THE RUSSIANS IN COREA. At the same time, the Russians are working their way more and more into Corea, and it is this, that the Japanese most object to.- ’The Russians do all they can to secure the friendship of the Coream, a feeling which would naturally go to Japan, had ita people not angered the Coreans by their rude treatment of them after they had defeated the Chinese. The Japanese have been very conceited in their actions toward the Coreans. They are domineering, and at times very insulting. The Russians, on the other hand, ara conciliatory. They are employing the Coreans along the northern boundary of the country, and are doing all they can to gain their goodwill. , , JAPAN’S PREPARATIONS FOR WAR; But what is Japan doing? She is by no means idle, I can tell you. Her preparations are going on bath, openly and in secret. She is perfecting her military organisation, and she could fill Corea with troops within a few weeks. She. has to-day on© of the best fleets of war vessels afloat, and is, it is believed here, far better prepared for a long struggle than Russia. Japan has her spies all over the Chinese Empire. They are Japanese who under* stand and speak the Chinese language quite as well as the natives, who wear pigtails like the Chinese, and are supposed to be Chinese. The great variety of dialects and features in the different provinces of .China makes such spying comparatively easy. There spies arc in the employ of the Ja- j panose Government, and make regular' re- , ponte to, it. Bora© of., them are supposed j

to be Chinese merchants ;, others are employed on the Chinese ships, and they are to be found even in Pekin.

I am told that Japan has fcr some time been sending men into Corea, and that she has already soldiers there in disguise. She has, I know, a largo number of Japanese at all of the ports. A largo part of the business of the seacoast towns is now done by Japanese. The high officials of Japan claim that these people are in Corea merely for trading purposes, but the whole world has not a more patriotic nation than the Japanese, and the Mikado knows that he can call upon any of his subjects in time of need. The Russians may conduct themselves so discreetly that there will be no excuse for wax, but any overt act cn their part may precipitate it at any time, and there is a strong likelihood that it will come sooner or later.