NEWSPAPER 3 \H CMiNA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13791, 24 October 1908, Page 9

NEWSPAPER IN CHINA.

wokkim; a traxsfokmatiox

An interesting account of the pro- -, ol China, lroiu tho pen of Mr V. A McKenyJe, who has written a good c!< ,tl on Ear Eastern subjects, appears in the Daily Mail. There are o\ or tw< hundred native journals. Many ol then print loreigu telegrams and articles ou a groat variety of topics, and contain advertisements ot all kinds ol European jioodx. Exhortations to the people, to reform take up a large amount of space. Some of those papers j>vnt several columns in English, which ibecoming more and more the coinin m language of the Far Kast. The Kn<;lish are liked, but Mr ?»icKenzie warns tlie British public that the anti-foreign spirit is to he found ill many quarters. At a recent examination forty pupils in one school, asked what their greatest desire was, replied : "'To have the blood of every foreigner here drained belore us." The Government is friendly to the press in some ways, ;>nd unfriendly in others. It affords every facility for the distribution of papers, and the Viceroys do all they can to encourage tlie grow ing appetite for news.

But the requisitions which govern tho press arc strict. Those who print matter against the Thro no or "<>isturbing to the peace of the public,'' arc liabJo to o ( > o a o| lov Troni six months to two A w oil-known nropriotor «;is vccontly sontonced to a Jony; term for rjuotin^ from an article in a revolutionary paper, and it is said that another ofiender was llo^ired

to death last year.

Mr McKenzie declares thai, the press is one of the three great forces that are transforming China, the others being the tok^raph and the railway. This beginning of Chinese journalism is iho most wonderful on record. Already a daily newspaper edited and managed by women for women, is doing well in Pekin. A print-ing-press is on its way to Lhassa. The Viceroy of Manchuria has opened a, hall in the main street of Mukden, and has engaged a literary man, whosv solo business is to read the newspapers and expound them to all who will libten. Walking through th«* back streets of Pekin tl;ie visitor v, ill com*' every now and f,hen upon a man chanting aloud to the. ussomhlod crowds. He is not a pries,«, but a newsman raiding the day's papers to those who cannot afie.i.d to. buy them or who do not know how to read.