Hawaii holomua = Progress. [volume] (Honolulu) 1893-1895, 1894-05-23
OF VITAL INTEREST.
a Conundrum for the P.
G. People.

Hawar today Is dealing with
a practical question of absorbing
interest. Japan. the great em
pire Of Il e West. has sent to our
shores what amounts to an insig
nifcant fraction of her population
but Whist means a most important
fnctor to these islands. Every
thing connected with the land Of
the chlysantheumum and the
Rising Sun is of impotence to
our people. We recommend t
ali those who study and who cafe
to learn to read volume titled
Japan" Of which David Murray
L. L. d. and formerly an adviser
to the japanese Minister of Edu
cation l. the author. The book
deals especially with the early
history q Japan, but it teaches a
lesson 10 those who through
ignorance or Misrepresentation
classify the japanese with the
barblriaus, who inhabit the
great A5iatic continent. The
following synopsis ofDr Murray's
work VIII give some idea of the
interesting facts presented by
that wsll-known scholar and
author:
In 1895 it will be just 600 years
since Marco Polo, returning TO
Venice, brought with him the
report of the existence of great
island, known as Chipangu, living
l 500 miles to the eastward of
China, and peopled by a race
which was described as white,
well-favored, and civilised. If
that daring voyager had ventured
to cross the Yellow Sea and the
Straits OF Corea, he would have
been astounded to find himself in
the midst of a civilisation of ex-
treme antiquity, and among peo-
pie siugnlarly laborious and in
ventive. intelligent, sociable,
simple n manners, cheerful,
temperant. and remarkable for
the urbanity and courtesy of
their manners, these being the
characteristics of the poorest as
we'll as Of the greatest people III
the realm. while in the matter
of the fine arts he would have
observed with equal astonishment
that among the Chipangese the
aesthetic instinct was as univer-
sally developed as it had been in
ancient Greece. But all these
statements would have been re-
ceiyed by the increduious coun-
trymen Of Marco Polo as travel
lers' stories" like most of the
statements contained in his
Fiaqgi. nearly the whole of
which have since been abundant
ly verified.
Japan is the only country in
the world which shows an almost
uubroken Succession of emperors
and expresses for period of
1850 years. and which has COM
bined so much political stability
with such condition of physical
instability that one wonders at
the plaoidity with which forty
millions of people pursue their
daily avocatIUns upon a soil that
is as liable to fluctuations as the
ocean. and is far more terrible
when it's crust is violently dis.
rupted by earthquake or volcanic
eruption About 500 shocks are
experienced in the course of
every year, for the $3.50 islands
which compose the archipel
ago which lie in the line
of that great artery of
fire which may be traced from
the northerly regions of Kant
schatka to the Sunda Islands in
the South. The famous mountain
of Faji-san. which is l. Scott. in
height, was thrown up by one of /
these ontbursts, and, at the same
time, lake was formed by the
same tremendous agency at a
distance OF 800 miles from the |
upheaved volcano 80 miles long. /
20 miles broad, and 330ft. deep |
In ITS greatest depression.
Such ere some of the physical |
features Of the four large islands /
which sustain in the bnlk of the |
of what is known to
as as Japan, and 10 Its people as
Dai Nippon; their area. with
their dependencies, being Ia 600 |
square miles. less than half that
Of New South Wales. Neverthe.
less, as we have said, they carry
/ population of 40 millions in
and plenty. but this is
attributable perhaps to the fact
hat their natural wants are few
u number aud easily satisfied
They are vegetarisns in diet;
heep and oxen are almost I'M
.nown among them; and milk,
utter. snd cheese have rarely
ound place among their articles
{ food. Hence they can devote /:
. tillage those large areas of the
oil which in Europe are reqair-
4 for pasturage. They possess ,
-. u 1. 4 .