The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-14

care Is taken that the estimate of cost
| is not exceeded. At the central uniyer-
sites each prefecture maintains its own
dormitory. in which are housed the
students from that prefecture The
parents pay lump sum to the manager
! which is TO include every expense. II
, the expense exceeds the estimate, the
deficit is paid by the prefectural treas
ury in the form of a subsidy. At one
of these dormitories hundred boys
will live in quarters which would not
suffice ten Americans. and the expense
will rarely be greater than $3.50 a
month for each boarder. The food Is
rice and fish, of course, except that the
cheaper millet and beans are sometimes
substituted for the rice.
The only weak point about the Jap
anese school system, so far as the jap
anese are concerned, is that the higher
institutions can by no means accommo-
date the students who apply for adj
mission. The Higher Commercial
School of Toxic is a school comparable
to the large business colleges of the
United States. The annual tuition Is
$3.50. Last year there were 1900 ap-
plieations for admission. but the build
ings are so small and the appropriation
so limited that only $40 could be ad-
mitted. There is three year course
and the total enrolment is 1900, al
though the plant was designed to &C
commodate but 500. The same condi-
tion obtains in every higher school in
the country, although the greater num-
Der of applicants are turned down by
the technical schools. Five hundred
applicants desired to enroll themselves
as students in the school of Electricity,
but only 100 could be received. These
technical schools embrace every branch
of industrial and engineering study and
every one is full to overlooking. The
agricultural and forestry colleges show
the same inability to take care of those
who come to study.
The Toxic Fine Arts school has
classes in Japanese painting, European
painting. designing, sculpture, craving
on metals and lacquer work, and in
this institution but few more than half
of the applicants were admitted last
year. Then there is the Academy Of
Music. a school which seems strangely
out of place in the government educa-
tional system of a country which, to
Occidental ears, knows nothing what
ever of music or melody. But the
figures show that the Japanese boys
and girls are willing to learn, for there
were a thousand new pupils knocking
at the door of the Freshman class last
year. only ESQ being admitted. 1t is
partly from this school that the Japa-
nese bands are recruited, and judging
by the programs played by these
bands, the most popular kind of Occi-
dental music is what Americans call
rag time" That there is an essen
tial difference between this institution
and many American Conservatives"
is proved by the fact that of a class
of 262, only fifteen passed the examina-
ton and were graduated.
The intensely paternal government of
Japan has attempted to supply every
seeker for education, general or special,
with the school to meet his needs. That
1t has failed in this has been due to
the lack of money, for school buildings
cost money, and teachers salaries, even
those in Japan, amount up Therefore
the Imperial Department of Education
is encouraging the establishment of
private schools. There are already
many private colleges for teaching
special professional courses, and q
great number of theological schools,
Christian and Buddhist. Two private
rank well up with the I'M
perial Universities of Toxic and Kioto.