Segak. — The Struggle for Foreign Trade. 529 



in Sydney, is that Germany really takes from New Zealand 

 goods to the value of £750,000 yearly, the wool alone amounting 

 to £500,000. So great is this trade between Germany and these 

 colonies becoming that it is unlikely to continue much longer 

 to pass so largely through the English market ; the goods will 

 be carried more and more direct to Germany, and much of it 

 in German vessels. Again, the import of butter into Germany 

 in 1904 reached 34,340 metric tons, and was of the value of 

 £3,000,000. It had considerably more than doubled in two 

 years. Russia and the Netherlands each sent butter to the 

 value of about £1,000,000. It is a good thing to have a choice 

 of markets, and it is worthy of consideration whether New Zea- 

 land would not be doing better to cultivate the rapidly growing 

 continental European markets instead of pursuing a policy 

 tending in the direction of confining her trade to the Home 

 market. 



As Germany is the leading example of a striking tendency in 

 Europe, so in the East we find Japan the leader of an important 

 movement in Asia. The country has attracted the attention of 

 the world by reason of its rapid development in many ways. 

 She does not yet cut a great figure commercially in the world, 

 for in 1905, even after some years of rapid increase, her trade 

 was less than £83,000,000. But even this represents a striking 

 change and a great advance upon small beginnings. It is the 

 rapidity of this advance and the great possibilities of future 

 progress that arrest one's attention. In Japan, China, and 

 India there has long been present one important condition 

 favourable to an extensive commerce in the density of the popu- 

 lations of those countries. But it is only recently that Japan's 

 pursuit of western knowledge, adoption of western methods, and 

 willingness to trade with other nations has given play to this 

 influence, and the world to-day stands expectant of a further 

 remarkable industrial development in Japan. In China we have 

 a great population, of great density, with resources of the richest, 

 including one of the largest coalfields of the world. The Press 

 has informed us at intervals recently of the many ways in which 

 she is freeing herself of the shackles of her traditions. Amongst 

 social reforms in progress are the suppression of opium-smok- 

 ing, the removing of racial distinctions between the Chinese and 

 Manchus, the permission to daughters of upper-class Chinese 

 to marry into the Imperial family, and the abolition of the 

 binding of the feet of females. We have, further, such political 

 and economic forms as the forming of a Government Council, 

 intended to be the nucleus of a regular Parliament, the adoption 

 of uniform weights and measures throughout the country, and 

 the adoption of the gold standard. Chinese students are going 



