AWAKENING OF THE EASY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13767, 4 June 1908, Page 6

AWAKENING OF THE EASY.

THE MODERN CHINA. A GREAT MOVSMENX SURPRISE FOR THE WORLD. -WK know now that Chin-. «»»« ™* «* wonderful -miry, so bound up » cmtorn* a „d tradition, of mmttcraMe age « never going to be e,vnn£.'ehsed b --," never go,««r to be ovan.e ( missionaries, rtid the w ' l ". M,> ; '.' , the Canton Mi-ton Station who .spend ins a furlough in hi* native country * Xew Zealand, when speaking to * Hkb.u.i» representative yesterday. '•There is. he went an, "an tnomwm gulf between the Oriental and the We*tor* mind that we. can never hope to bridge proper! v, and our plan of campaign has developed into a scheme of educating young Chinese missionaries and ending them amongst their own countrymen- If Uim» is ever to bo won for the Cnritlna forth, it will be through Chinese i»i»ionaiw. The native teacher policy has already proved a wonderful factor. The Chines*, take to education naturally, for they have olwavs honoured it. The order in China has always been firstly tho scholar and writer, secondly the farmer and agriculturist, thirdly the workman, and fourthly the "merchant. It docs not matter how rich a man is in China, if he in not educated ho is looked down upon.'' China, ho went on, had suddenly "awakened;' and was educating her people along Western lines. The Chinese Govomrnent had now over 10,000 students is Tofcio colleges, and had stmt many hunred to European and American universities, and these men were coining fn«n every province in China: in fact, the largest number were from Hunan, which was the very last province to open it* doors to Western ideas. The Government was opening primarv schools, high schools, and colleges in every pari of the vast Empire, and tho curriculum was just, the same at, in. European institutions, except that instruc- ! tion was in the Chinese language. The great difficulty was to find teachers. Schools, well equipped in every way, had been established in many places, but there were no teachers for them. The teachers wore now being trained in Japan, Europe, and America. The marvellous faculty of memory in tho Chinese gave the student* an advantage over European student*. There were boys and girls at- the mission schools who could repeat the four Gospels from memory.

CHINA FOR THE CHINESEThe students in the Covernnient school* were all being trained as cadets. In tho primary schools they received .1 groundwork of military training, and this w.ik followed up in the high schools and college?. " China, for the Chinese, was the great cry throughout- the Empire. An far as could bo seen by careful observers, there wan no idea of world-wide conquest.; tho object of tho • movement- was self-defence, and the integrity of the Empire. China had lout, territory to oilier nations, and was afraid of losing more. There wan very bit-tor feeling against- Japan, .-Mid China- would never forget the insults and humiliation she was forced to submit to over the feiauie of a Japanese vessel. A* sure as night- followed day, China would pay hack that humiliation with -compound interest. Already she had used a terrible weapon in imposing the boycott on Japanese goods, and what that boycott really meant could only be understood by one who knew the country. What a. tremendous market war. clewed to Japan around Canton alone! The. citv it:elf had 2,000,000 inhabitants, and Within a radius of 20 miles there was anything from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 people. Many people- had; the. idea that when China really woke up she would want colonies oversea, for her population, but immeasurable colonising areas lay ready to hand in the vast back country of the' Empire. The population of 400,000,000 people lived now along the (tea coast* and along tho rivers, and the cities and tho river banks were much congested, and they lived there because there, was no means of infernal communication l>eyond water carriage. Once the railways went through China, said Mr. McNeur, there would 1«? a march of colonisation such as the world had never seen before, and which would dwarf the Canadian movement to insignificance. All the. country was good land, Hack to the west then* were mountains, but they were rich in minerals: in fact the back country of China, war, the richest mineral storehouse in the world, and especially'for coal and iron, the most valuable of all to. a country, as a country. Those mineral belts had scarcely been touched yet, but the railways would open.them up, and railways were going to g<> through every part of China. At present the Manchue, the Conservative party, were the drag on tho wheel, because they feared that with modern government by Parliament they would be hopelessly outvoted, and their power swept away. The Dowager-Em-press was. their mainstay, but even ;>he had given way to very many reform*. When she died there would be a new China.

IDOLATRY BANISHED. Idolatry,- continued Mr. McNciir, was being banished. The students who bad. been.abroad ridiculed the idols, and in the spread of education idolatry had to go. But ancestor-worship still remained «« strong as ever, a worship of fear, not of love. Still, it, too. would ho doomed by ilie march of Western education. "The intense patriotism being bunt in China m not going to make foreign mission work any easier, but it will make Chinese missionaries' work much easier. .«nd in that not the hope of the world lies. The Chineee ate abandoning then old superstitious, and the younger generation ii going to face the world with no taith at all, a bad thing lor any nation, and in th« words oi one writer, 'to educate tin 1 Chinese without Clirisiiynissing them i* puttings wings on a tiger.' I consider o»v legislatures make a great mistake in speaking of the Eastern races with the note of contempt usually adopted, and this tone 1* the result of ignorance of the re;d state of things, and of the real character of the people, Australasian legislation against Asiatics, by and by, is going to be worth just the force of aims the country its able to put behind it India will throw in its lot with the East, and it won't, be the world against Chin;*, if it conies to a struggle ultimately, but it will be a case of a united Ea D t against the West— China has four hundred millions of people, and India, three hundred millions.

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