THE JAPANESE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11839, 20 April 1909, Page 5

THE JAPANESE.

TOURING NOTE-TAKERS

In connection with the statement^ regarding Japanese visitors making notes of what they see on their travels through the colonies, a highly-respected Gisborne citizen, a Justice of the Peace, who was in business in China, and is well acquainted with Japan, related to a Herald' representative an incident of a few years ago. He went down in the steamer by which Fitzgerald's circus . company travelled. . That company included some Japanese jugglers, also a Japanese interprefer, with, whom the Gisborneite entered into conversation. He learned that the jugglers would not be allowed to accept the engagement with the company unless the services of the Japanese interpreter were" also engaged. This young 'man' 'had been trained by the Government at considerable expense, and when asked why a man of his acquirements should be allowed to fill in his time travelling round* in that way with a circus, he was informed that that was, only a minor matter, his real inissipri'.being to report on "industrial" matters' for -tho Government he represented.. He thereupon showed a note-book which he car-;, ried, and which contained a ... daily record of the places he visited, a duplicate copy of each leaf beinc, : he* stated, taken arid forwarded to Japan. The book contained full records of Gisborne's harbor, its situation, depth, and so on. Oil further inquiries, the citizen mentioned found that the Japanese had been travelling extensively in this way,, and, for instance, knew much more about; Scotland than did thr citi zen ' who had been reared there. The latter states that whatever use the .information riiay be put to, industrial or otbsVwi-se,* he is quite satisfied that there is a gopd supply of it in the archives of the Japanese Government; His own impression of Japan is that it will find the weight of its naval armaments a burden too crushing to he maintained, and that it will go back in that respect instead of .becoming a great , and growing power, as many people imagine. •