Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/270

 Recently gold has been discovered in seemingly large quantities in Hokkaido and kerosene in Echigo as well as Hokkaido. The practical value of these discoveries remains to be determined.  —The Japanese have been skilled weavers for many centuries, but a great impetus was given to this enterprise by the introduction of improved machinery and the use of aniline dyes after the opening of the country to foreign intercourse. Indigo has always been the staple dye stuff of the country. Twenty million yen worth is produced annually. But for colours other than blue and its various tones, aniline dyes are now imported to the extent of one and a fourth million yen yearly. The growth of the textile industry has also been greatly stimulated by the introduction of cotton yarns of fine and uniform quality. Formerly all cotton cloths were woven out of coarse, irregular handspun yarns, so that nothing like regularity of weight and texture could be secured. It thus appears that Japan owes the remarkable development of her textile industry to foreign intercourse.  —Japanese mills are kept at work twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four, with one shift of operatives, and their production per spindle is forty per cent greater than the production of Bombay mills and nearly double of the production of English mills.  —The railways and posts constitute additional examples. The Japanese have long been able to survey, plan and build their own lines of railways, to run the trains and to manage the traffic. For these achievements they deserve much credit. But their arrangements for handling, forwarding, and delivering goods are very defective, when judged by good Occidental standards, and their provision for the comfort of passengers leaves a great deal to be desired. So, too, their postal service invites criticism in some very important respects, if it merits praise in others. All such defects would soon be corrected if free recourse were had to the assistance of foreign experts, who have the advantage of familiarity with higher standards. It is unfortunate that a people so liberal in their adoption of the best products of Western civilisation, should hesitate to avail themselves of the best means of learning to utilise them. 