The Taranaki Herald.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8799, 7 June 1890, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald.

PUBLISHED DAILY.

SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1890.

A noteworthy Japanese gentleman, Mr Tetjiro Ono, Ph. D. of Michigan University, has written a highly interesting paper on the industrial transition in Japan, which has been published by the American Economic Association, a society noted for the solidity of its information. The author says that Japan has at its disposal an abundance of cheap and skilled labour, which will be utilised before long ia the development of the extraordinary mineral wealth which that country possesses. It was at one time renowned for its gold and silver mines, but these seem to have been almost exhausted, for in 1885 the return of gold was only 9,616 ounces, and of eilver 83,634. Of copper some 500 mines are in operation, but more than half of the quantity produced, 10,467 tons, is derived from four of these mines. The most valuable mineral in the country is coal, which only awaits tho application of capital and machinery for its development. The quantity raised in 1884 was only 870,382 tons, a good deul of which was exported to China, Asiatic Russia, and the East Indies. Mr Teijiro Ono says that coal has been found throughout the whole of the Archipelago. In the northern island, Teso, four principal ftrata have been explored, one of which has an extent of 2,400 square miles, with a thickness of ten feet. In the main island, Hondo, 18 mines are in operation. It has also been found in the island of Shikoku. but the most southern of the larger islands, Kinshin, will be the great seat of the coal industry in the immediate future, for it is coal bearing throughout, and is the Pennsylvania of Japan, with the city of Nagasaki as its port of export. As regards iron, it is said that important layers of magnetic ironsand are found in the north and the south-east of the island, Hondo. Up to this time the metal has not been produced to any great extent, the quantity in 1884 being 11,766 tons, 4,775 of which are obtained from a mine belonging to the Government, which is situated vpon the sea which lies between the main and the two southern islands. It will be interesting to know whether this magnetic ironsand ia identical with that which exists on our shores. The writer speaks of a mine, a word which is generally used for a stratum lying below the surface of the ground, but the singular expression which follows upon tlie sea, (sur la mer), would seem to indicate a beach of the same character as that of Taranaki.

Captain 7 Edwin telegraphed at 11.40 a.m. to-day :—": — " North east to north and west gale after 16 hours from now, with heavy sea ; glass fall again soon' The ordinury meeting of tho Education Reserves Board was postponed on Friday till next week as a quorum could not be got. Constable Hewitt, who used to be stationed in town, and latterly at Waitara, and who was laid up in tho Hospital with an incurable complaint for some months, died at Waitara this (Saturday) morning at 8 o'clock. He leaves a wife and family to mourn their loss. Mr Kirkby, Government Life Insurance Agent, who left here about two months ago, to work on the East Coast, returned on Friday night by train. He will take up this district again at the expiration of the present month.