CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6134, 22 March 1898, Page 3

CURRENT TOPICS.

A good deal of interest COREA. centres just now in the i " hermit kingdom " of , Corea, on account of the rather hasty and undignified exit of Russia from that country, after having been worsted in a diplomatic encounter with Great Britain, and after a more recent threat of war by Japan. The long hermitage of the Coreans is at an end, and it is well, perhaps, that those who are to introduce to her people a new civilisation should be British and Japanese rather than Russians. Chinese supremacy, lasting through the centuries, has reduced the Coreans to a j condition of abject helplessness. The ! Coreans cannot " walk alone." They must come under the tutelage of some Power, or Powers. And the temptations in the way of some great Power to acquire exclusive ' privileges in Corea are all the stronger because of the country's great but undeveloped natural wealth, and because of its fine climate, under which millions of people — immigrant settlers, or any others — may find room to thrive where the native population is now scanty. Mrs Bishop, an English lady who has travelled in the country, has in a book published a few weeks ago anticipated very correctly the course that events would take. Commenting upon the appointment of a Russian official to the Corean Treasury, she stated that "Russia's policy is too pacific to allow of a quarrel with 'Japan, and a quarrel would- be the inevitable result 7 of any present attempt at dictatorship in Corea. So far; she has pursued a strictly opportunist course, taking no steps except those which have been forced upon her; and even if the Corean pear were ready to drop into her mouth, T greatly doubt if she would shake the tree." " Japan," Mrs Bishop further remarked, "is strong; enough to 'put a brake on the wheel' if Russia should manifest any aggressive designs on Corea." Events have proved the absolute accuracy of this forecast;; Japan threatened and Russia withdrew, and, apparently, Corea is now, as an independent kingdom, to be allowed to develop a national character under British tutelage.

What England haß already England's done for Corea is no mean work. achievement, and it has mostly been the work of one man, Sir J. M'Leavy Brown, of whom so much was heard in the cable news of a few months ago. Sir J. M'Leavy Brown's work receives frctn Mrs Bishop all the high eulogy it so richly deserves. A pupil of Sir Robert Hart, Sir James undertook, less than four years ago, the task of reforming the Corean Customs. Chaos is a mild word for the condition of the Corean Treasury when Sir James took charge. Its officials were utterly corrupt, and their malpractices wore faithfully imitated in every State office in the kingdom. Every effort was made, by these'omcials to thwart -the English reformer, andtabtufftiaturally, for Sir J. M'l<eavy .Brown's success would for their nefarious practices spell ruin. Yet in spitefof it ally instead of T.obrea; being bankrupt;' as both her friends and enemies supposed she would be. in. July, 1896, she closed the financial year in April, 1897, with every account paid and a million and a half in the Treasury, out of which she has repaid one million of the Japanese loan of three millions. It is not too much to say that Sir J. M'Leavy Brown's success has added fresh lustre to the history of . Britain's beneficent influence in the East. Into the State accounts he introduced" uniformity' and' exactitude. He turned out the rascally hangers-on who did nothing but draw salaries. The rest, who did work, he paid regularly, at short intervals, in proportion to the value of their services. There is still much to be done in Corea before the awakening "hermit" will be able to shake off the unspeakable grooviness, the unreformed Orientalism, the parody of China, which still help to paralyse the efforts of an intelligent and improvable people; but with firmness, patience and justice, the work ought to proceed apace. Probably few people American realise the tremendous railroads, strides made in railway building in America during the last quarter of a century. There Has recently been issued in London a large and comprehensive volume dealing with the subject. Englishmen, of course, are most interested in comparisons of the American figures with their own, and it appears- that in, the United -States there; are 181,394 miles as. against 21,174 in the United Kingdom ; that is to say one mile of railroad to: fourteen square miles of territory in the former, and one to six square miles in the latter. The density of population is seventeen to the square mile in the United States and three hundred and eleven in the United Kingdom. In the States, therefore, there is a mile of railway to every 368 inhabitants, and one to 1797 inhabitants in the United Kingdom. Some of the American railways,, however, are nothing more than what would in England be classed "light.' One line in the Pacific group which figures for 328 miles has a 3ft gauge, eight locomotives, eight passenger and baggage cars and 170 waggons. It is, of course, idle to rank this with the British line that approaches most closely in mileage. The Great Northern of Scotland, with its 316 miles, has 99 locomotives, 652 passenger cars and 2888 waggons. The total cost of the American railway system is, in round numbers, .£2,200,000,000, that of the British system .£1,000,000,000 ; and the cost per mile .£12,600 for the States, and .£47,600 for the United Kingdom. The great difference here results from the fact that each yard of land had to be paid for in England, and costly struggles took place in Parliament before the necessary Acts were passed. As to the number of passengers carried, the figures are 930,967,736 in the United Kingdom, and 535,120,756 in the States. In England the railway companies receive less from freight than they do from passengers, whereas in the States the gross returns from freight are almost three times as much as those from passenger traffic. As to dividends paid, the American average is £1 103 6d per cent, but in some States the dividend is as low as 2d per cent. This arises from the construction of railways before there is any population to use them, a proceeding of doubtful wisdom, seeing that population does not always grow where it is expected. The final conclusion to be drawn from the figures given in the Manual is that American railroads are not nearly so flourishing as they used to be, and that there has been a steady falling off in returns during the last fifteen years.