risen until they have become large employers of labour; but one and all are only admitted into America under restrictive laws which are stringently enforced.

In discussing the question of Japanese labour we are, however, dealing with quite a new factor in the world's history. From the time when the great Shogun Iyeyasu withdrew Japan from all foreign intercourse till within recent years the Japanese labourer was being trained. Everything that surrounded him was regulated by a prescribed ceremonial. In religion he was taught to be so tolerant that at least once a year, in order to show his respect and sympathy with others, he worshipped in the temples consecrated to a form of belief that differed from his own. His natural love and veneration for his country and its Sovereign were accompanied by gentle and respectful treatment on the part of the rulers towards those whom they governed, whilst the stern school of necessity made the labourer accustomed to a life of exertion and hardship that was more severe than in most other countries. After the time of Iyeyasu till the expedition of Commodore Perry none but those Japanese who owing to shipwreck or other mischance had ceased to live in Japan were to be met with. Catharine the Second of Russia appointed one of these shipwrecked mariners Professor of Japanese at the University of Irkutsk in 1792, and three Japanese who had drifted in a disabled ship to the shores of Canada were brought to England in 1831. These were probably the first Japanese in Europe since the gorgeous embassy from certain Japanese feudal lords to the Pope in 1582.

After Commodore Perry's expedition it was some time before the Japanese of the lower classes commenced to go abroad. In fact, during the first twenty-two years after the signing of the treaty with America not more than a hundred Japanese were to be found in California. Since then they have come to America in ever-increasing numbers, till there are at the present time, according to the Rev. M. C. Harris, some 40,000 in California and some 80,000 in the Sandwich Islands. The report, however, of Mr. Bellows, the United States Consul-General at Yokohama, of those Japanese resident abroad, taken from a return for the years 1889-1900 inclusive by Mr. Yamawaki, of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce, is as follows:

JAPANESE SUBJECTS RESIDENT ABROAD.1

This and the following table are from The Anglo-Japanese Gazette

Whilst the destination and classification of the Japanese emigrants in 1900 were:

From the first table it will be seen that in 1897 there were 58,785 Japanese, of whom 15,078 were females, residing abroad; but three years afterwards, in 1900, the last year for which returns are available, the total had increased to 123,971. It will also be seen from the second table that the great majority of these Japanese had taken up their residence in Hawaii and California, Great Britain and her colonies coming next with less than one-twelfth as many, followed by the Japanese residents in Korea, Russia, and China, who are not nearly so numerous as we should expect to find them.

As to the character of these Japanese emigrants, the Rev. M. C. Harris, formerly of the 12th Ohio Cavalry, and now Superintendent of the invaluable Pacific Japanese Mission, says: The outlook is very hopeful. The Japanese emigrants are picked men, young and ambitious. They are men who bring things to pass; not a tramp amongst them. They readily adapt themselves to local conditions, and are all occupied and prosperous.' Mr. Bellows, the United States Consul-General at Yokohama, confirms this, and says that the Japanese farm labourers are able-bodied men, accustomed to a life of economy, frugality, industry, and sobriety; and he adds that from a Japanese standpoint these labourers are strong, well developed, of good physique, and healthful in appearance. Many of these men, as was to be expected, have served as soldiers; but in spite of their possible usefulness to the State in this particular the Government of Japan is disposed to encourage emigration, and there is seldom any difficulty in obtaining passports. Emigration companies examine the intending emigrants to see that they can pass the requirements of the laws of the United

States, but no pecuniary help is given. Mutual assistance is common amongst family and village communities. All the emigrants wear the clothing of an ordinary American labourer.

The testimony of the actual employers of Japanese labourers is also greatly in their favour, though the farm labourers from the Southern Provinces of Japan, who form four-fifths of the Japanese emigrants, do not present that marked intelligence which we are accustomed to regard as the birthright of all Japanese. They are, however, anxious to do their best, scrupulously clean in their persons and in their dwellings, and good reasonable fellows that the American foreman understands and sympathises with in a way that he never could with the Chinese.

The remaining one-fifth of the Japanese emigrants belong probably to the old Samurai class, the blood and brains of old Japan; and whilst they have all the qualifications of good labourers, their greater intelligence soon causes them to rise, and they quickly become prosperous and respected.

On arrival, to whatever class they belong, one of their first objects is to learn English, and for this purpose they attend some of the selfsupporting schools of the Pacific Japanese Mission, which have an annual attendance of about three hundred students, amongst whom Japanese young women are by no means rare. Anyone acquainted with the merest rudiments of the Japanese language will know of the great difficulty which it presents to foreigners owing to the total dissimilarity in the expression of ideas. Consequently it is not to be wondered at that the Japanese of the farmer class do not as a rule get much grip of Anglo-American. The American foreman is confronted by the difficulty that nearly every Japanese labourer knows the word 'yes,' and is prepared to use it in reply to every question that he is asked. The foreman's first object is consequently to find out in each gang the Japanese whose knowledge of Anglo-American is the most extensive, and then to explain what is required, leaving it to him to interpret. Not infrequently after a somewhat lengthy explanation the Japanese gang, through their interpreter, will answer, 'We understand now what you require, and will try to do better.' And the best is that they obviously do try-and succeed.

As for those labourers who come of the old Samurai race, they as a rule come over in order to pay their expenses for that college education which has been so graphically described by Mr. Lafcadio Hearn in his Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. It takes them two or three years to save out of their earnings the 2001. which they require; and generally, after this is accomplished, the American foreman, to his regret, sees these gentlemen of Japan no more. A certain proportion of them, however, find good and distinctly remunerative employment in California. These become overseers of from 200 to 300 of their countrymen, and enter into a bond with the American foreman for the supply of

Japanese labour. Every Japanese for whom they find employment pays them 10 cents per day, which amounts to an income by no means to be despised. The writer was present when one of the Japanese overseers was introduced by an American foreman to a director who had been specially sent out from England. 'Tabe,' said the American, 'this is a big boss sent out from England to see what we are doing.' 'Glad to see you, but excuse me,' said Tabe, 'I am very busy.' The way Tabe hurried off to superintend his countrymen in loading up fruit-cars was a sight that was good to see, and which all who saw it will long remember. His heart was in his work. Whilst the men are employed in picking, hauling, and doing the heavier sort of work, the Japanese women are sometimes employed in wrapping fruit and deftly packing it in boxes. This is labour by which considerable money can be earned, and seems to be coming into favour amongst them.

A visit on a Sunday afternoon to one of the so-called bunk-houses where the Japanese reside is a pleasant experience. The small selfgoverning colony is provided with its own kitchen and bath-house, and everything is as clean and wholesome as fresh air and scrubbing can make it. The bunks are all scrupulously clean, and not a few are ornamented in the way to be expected from such an artistic and loyal nation, in some cases a special place, or Tokonoma, having been constructed, in the limited space available, for portraits of the Mikado and Empress of Japan, in front of which fresh flowers are placed daily. Their loyalty, in fact, is a pleasure for the patriotic Anglo-American to witness. They celebrate the Mikado's birthday with a gathering in some public hall, to which they invite their American friends, concluding with loyal speeches, and have contributed generously to the funds for the war in Manchuria.

Outside the bunk-house on a Sunday afternoon the Japanese will be, for the mere fun of the thing, practising feats on their bicycles; in fact, all of them are apparently regarding life as a joke that's just begun.' But on the morrow all this will end, and no one can be more staid than the Japanese when at work, and striving to do their best to earn their 1.60 dollar to 1.75 dollar per day of ten hours, during which time they accomplish as much as labourers belonging to any other nation. Perhaps one of the most extraordinary things is the organisation of the labourers. Almost before the American foreman realises that he is in want of extra labour a gang of neatly dressed Japanese arrives, each with his bicycle, their advance agents having sent for them on the chance of their obtaining employment, and their arrival in the district being as unexpected as a flight of birds. But in spite of their migrations they are companionable and fraternise with Americans, and the result, as stated by the Rev. M. C. Harris (and no one can know better), is that there is now a tendency towards permanent residence in America on the part of the Japanese.

From letters now before me written by Americans who are some of them paying as much as 16,000l. annually in wages to Japanese labourers engaged in various occupations, I can gather nothing but unstinted praise for their many good qualities.

We are growing accustomed to reading newspaper accounts of Japanese foresight and bravery; but these qualities have too often existed amongst nations with military instincts, who, when the need for active exertion was over, were incapable of turning their attention towards that organised and plodding industry which should secure them the fruits of that peace their powers in the field had won. What the Japanese can do in this way has been shown by the progress they have made in comparatively a very short time towards establishing a wise and firm government amongst the lawless tribes in the island of Formosa. A better example could perhaps not be found than in the Report of Mr. Consul Playfair on the trade of North Formosa, in which he states that the methods pursued by the Japanese in regulating the smoking of opium have resulted, it is reckoned, in a decrease of about 1,000 opium-smokers each month since 1900, the year when the register of opium-smokers is believed to have been for the first time complete. It is, however, not the excellence of the administrative power alone which can ensure permanent success of this sort, but the qualities possessed by those who, compelled for the most part by economic necessity, take advantage of the opportunity offered of a fresh start in a new country.

I believe that in the character of the Japanese labourer there exists a force that will not only add materially to the inevitable prosperity of the countries bordering on the Pacific, but will also be for the good of the whole civilised world as soon as it is properly appreciated.

W. CREWDSON.