NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11198, 19 October 1899, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The enormous and xapid development that is going on in Japan continues to attract the attention of all interested in the progress and future of the Far East. Japan is in manv respects one of the most remaikable countries in the world to-day. It is difficult to realise the progress that this small and formerly obscure country has made during the last quarter of a century. From a condition of semi-barbarism, it has forced its way to the front of progressive and virile civilisations; it lias proved a m'eat capacity for conquest; for political administration ; for industrial expansion; for adaptation to the usages and manners of Western civilisation; and for the possession or attainment of a great many other qualities that usually make for a distinguished place in the Sanhedrim of the nations. In the meantime, however, Japan is in a transition state. She has resolved on a complete and effectual railway system; oil a powerful navy; 011 a large and up-to-date mercantile marine; on a complete system of technical and commercial education, based 011 the most advanced European methods; 011 the cultivation of Western mechanical systems, looking to the establishment of many great industries; and 011 securing and retaining a position in both the political and the manufacturing world, which will contribute to liar steady advancement alongside wijh, if not in front of, the Western Powers, whose ideas, institutions, and achievements she is so industriously assimilating and applying.' To the rest of the world this is a strange, unique, and interesting process of evolution. Can the Japanese realise their bent and their ambition? Is their geographical position as an Asiatic Power 110 hindrance to this end? Have they the force, the grit, the plodding, the vril, to secure the achievements to which they aspire, or will they not by-and-by sink under the heavy burdens which the attempt to realise an impossible ideal has entailed? Those arc the questions that are to-day occupying the minds of Western onlookers.

Ike Lancet gives a warning and some advice to women who contemplate entering the medical profession. In the first place, it says, no woman ought to embark on the career of medicine without a reasonable certainty of having sufficient capital, not only to pay for her training and keep her during at least five years of student life, but also to Support lier for the first few years after Qualifying. Paid appointments for newlyqualified medical women are few and far between. lo women who are being sent out under the auspices of some society to India or elsewhere, and are certain of immediate employment, this does not so much apply ; but even in these cases it is very unwise for a girl to start as a medical student unless she is sure of sufficient money to keep her without doing outside work, and to allow of a good yearly holiday during her period of study. A medical student, in her student days, ought not to have time to earn anything towards her own support. She should live well and be able to take good holidays without worry about money matters, otherwise her health will probably break down and she.will be useless even if she succeeds in passing her examinations. As regards age, 20 years is quite young enough to begin the medical portion of her training. She should have a thoroughly good general education until she is 18 years of age, when she ought to be able to pass any of the preliminary Arts examinations required before she can proceed to her medical work.

Mr. W. P. Monypenny, the editor of the Johannesburg Star, whom the Transvaal authorities wished to arrest, but who succeeded in getting over the border into Natal, was up to February last one of the assistant editors of the London Times. He left England in that month to assume the position of editor-in-chief of the Star; Born some 30 years' ago in County Armagh, he proceeded from Dungannon school to Trinity College, Dublin, subsequently going to Oxford! where he greatly distinguished himself. He was, it is understood, entrusted with many delicate missions on behalf of the leading daily journal. Mr. Monypenny was an officer of the London Irish Rifle Volunteers. Mr. R. J. Pakeman, the editor of the Transvaal Leader, who was in custody at Johannesburg, but who was released on bail, was formerly editor of the Johannesburg Star. Some two years ago lie went to England and engaged in journalistic work at Derby ; but a few months back lie returned to Johannesburg to assume editorial control of the Leader, a newspaper started in the Uitlander interest. He has, it goes without saying, been exceedingly outspoken in his criticisms of the Boers and their doings. The charge upon which lie was arrested was that of high treason, but it was changed to a breach of the Press Law. Mr. Pakeman, however, deemed it prudent to quit the Transvaal, and is now in Natal.

There is 110 very definite news yet to hand about the result of the fighting in the Transvaal, but evidently some skirmishes have taken place at Mafeking and Kimberley, though details must be difficult to get on account of the telegraph line to Capetown being cut. Seven Boers have been killed, so far as is known. The special session of Parliament to deal with the Transvaal question has opened, and the Government asks for £10,000,000 of a war vote. A motion was submitted by Mr. Jno. Dillon, impugning Great Britain's right to inteflere, but the Government were supported by 322 votes against 54. In the House of Lords, Lord Salisbury declared that Britain -would never reoccupy the position she had occupied in the Transvaal for the past 18 years, and Mr. Balfour, in the Commons, declared that Britain held the cards, and intended to play them, adding that the colonies were heart and soul in support of the action taken in the Transvaal. Mr. Schreiner, the Cape Premier, was, it appears, forced by Sir Allied Milnei to sign the proclamation against treason issued in Cape Colony, the alternative being resignation of the Premiership. The Boers offer £5000 for Mr. Cecil Rhodes dead or alive. '