JAPANESE AND EDUCATION.

Mataura Ensign, 20 March 1909, Page 4

JAPANESE AND EDUCATION.

A t'KHSEYERINC! NATION. No one can Jive in Japan without sueiiig that the Oovcniinont at the present limo is keepine a carofnl ovg upon the stream of emigration to Canada and the United States (writes the Tokio correspondent or t)ie London 'Standard'). Indeed, so j.;rcat is the change from conditions prerailine; a year ago that most ■>! the many emigration companies hare eonc out of business, and the stream has heon reduced (<> a mere trickle. There is practically jio possibility of laborers obtaining passports to Canada or the United States except in cases of persons returning to their families or when specially contracted by the country of destination. The main stream of lapanese emigration during the past vear has been to South America. Korea, Manchuria, and Saghalicm. But hundreds of students, merchants, and professional men are constantly going to Canada and the Cniled Stales. When a Japanese student pains admission to n foreign country, unless lie is s > placed as to be tl,e protegee of his 'Government or the son of a rich man his usual uractice is to enter domestic service and pick up as much of the language as ran be aoniiircd in a few months, until he is able to enter a chord. The emtio of school or collet he aims lo enter denends on the cvtent •■r_ his education before leaving home. His main ides, however, is lo become ihmnt in the language of the country ind familiar with its customs. .After he is able to enter the foreign schools 'lo works only mornings and evenings, ni lower wanes, being scliool hours off for attendance in dnss. During the .mnmer months and other holiday times he may, with many others of his countrymen, be found on the big ranches, hi the orchards or the vineyards of California.

And so from Hie time be- applied For ■i passport aI. ibe lneal nfTiee at borne 'o the end of four or five years hence Then lm connilcies Ids education i„ the '""reign eniiiitrv. bis career bus been one ■f openness and bonestv in a sincere oii•'envnr to f-f himself for Ibe duties of life and without ininrv to the place that has afforded him the coveted intellectual ecmionieiil. Householders, especially in California, are. only too glad to avail themselves of these Japanese "boys," as it is their only opportunity "f obtaining domestic servants at a "casonable wage. During the period of the. writer's connection with the University of California many of the Japanese students in attendance. 1 hero Kcra in domestic service in the towns and villages about Oakland and Berkley; and in boarding-houses they were the usual waiters on their fellow-students of America at table and in dormitory. No one complained of them as intruders or as rnmbrrcrs of the ground, but all rather regarded their sometimes astonishing perseverance through every disadvan-

tnge in order to secure an education as worthy of all emulation and respect. I Upon resuming their residence at. home these Japanese sUulcnts, fortified 1 with a foreign education, are sure to obtain positions in the industrial and mmmeicial world thai would never otherwise he open to them. In fact, the advantage possessed by a man educated duoad is regarded as immeasurably above that of his fellows Jess fortunately trained. His knowledge of a foreign tongue and bis familiarity with the ens. loins of the foreign country give him precedence in all important circles of the, empire. Consequently no sacrifice is considered too great to lie faced or too humiliating lo be borne provided the voting man can ultimately claim to have been educated abroad.

At the present time lite American i duration is most- sough) after for business purposes: since the expansion of commercial and industrial interests is iimv the dominant idea in Japan, the majority of students going abroad are Hooking to (ho schools and colleges of tho United States. The Government sends abroad a limited number annually, but- these are under obligations to serve the. Stale on their return. The majority, even though fortunate enough to be selected to be'senf abroad, would prefer ,in independent course; for, the linaneia! prospects outside, the Government being brighter, (hey are anxious lo be free for private enterprise when their eduction is completed. Some of I Japan's greatest men received their I si-ivr in life in this wav.