JAPAN. 



453 



Yokoska, near Yokohama ; total, 35, of which 

 24 were true modern fighting ships. The Naval 

 Construction Board have decided to build 25 

 more ships during the next five years. The 

 facilities for ship-building at Yokoska are first 

 .ind in addition to the finest wooden ves- 

 sels of the latest approved types, iron and steel 

 ships are in course of construction. Most of 

 the steel plates used for the iron-clads come 

 from England. About 35,000 sailors and offi- 

 cers comprise the personal equipment of the 

 Japanese navy. For the construction of forts 

 at Tsushima, Shimonoseki, and in Tokio Bay, 

 the manufacture of heavy guns, torpedoes, and 

 other items of coast defense, $2,204.742 are 

 appropriated for the present year. The War 

 and the Naw Departments cost respectively 

 12.156,474 and $11,256.555, or $25,617.771, 

 or five sixteenths or nearly one third of the 

 total revenue of the empire, according to the 

 estimates of 1888-'89. Both army and navy 

 are kept to the highest degree of efficiency. 



Finance. According to the budget of Count 

 Matsukata for the twenty-first year of Meiji 

 (1888-'89), the total annual revenue amounts 

 to $80,755,923 ; of which internal revenue 

 yielded $66,289,576; sale or rent of various 

 Government properties, $8,572,472 ; subscrip- 

 tion to navy and coast defense, 5,893,874. The 

 chief item of income is the land-tax, $42,089,- 

 149 : after which is sake-brewing, which yields 

 14.226,680. The chief expenditures are": Re- 

 demption of the national debt, $20,000,000; 

 administrative expenses of the Department of 

 the Interior, including public improvements, 

 $8,481,315: Finance Department,l;10,143.825 ; 

 military and naval administration, $25,617,- 

 771; Justice, $3,167,636; communications, 

 $4,411,597; Foreign Affairs, $833,854; Edu- 

 cation, 854,835 : colonization of Yezo, $2,066,- 

 149, etc., the total being $80.747,853. The 

 national debt is now $245.921.2^7. Japan is 

 prevented by her treaty obligations from at- 

 tempting to increase her revenue by increasing 

 the tax on imports, which now scarcely more 

 than pay their collection. 



Mint and Coinage. One of the most satisfac- 

 tory, in its workings, of the Government indus- 

 tries, is the mint at Ozaka, which is equipped 

 with the best modern 'machinery and super- 

 vi> -d by Englishmen. During the year ending 

 March 31, 1888, the amount of bullion import- 

 ed into the mint was 134,436-86 ounces of 

 gold; 9,702,703-47 ounces of silver; 11,846.223 

 ounces of copper ; the coinage being 87,016.448 

 pieces, valued at $11,660.141.97, in denomina- 

 tions of gold 5 yen, silver 1 yen, and 20 

 and 10 sen. and copper 1 and 1 sen, besides 

 250 ingots for the imperial treasury valued 

 at $2.587,871.87. The total coinage since 

 1870 has amounted in value to $149.713,- 

 992.69. The annual expense of administration 

 is $226,411.43. The employes number 473, of 

 whom 13 are in Tokio. Of Corean gold in 

 small bars and disk-shaped lumps, 547 ingots 

 and 6 parcels of gold-dust were last year re- 



ceived and refined, and 2fiO-47 tons of copper 

 were obtained by calling in and melting up the 

 large oval copper coin called "tempo." Gas 

 is now replacing coke as a fuel. 



Communications, A distinct department of 

 the Government, with bureaus, has charge of 

 light-houses, telegraphs, nautical schools, Gov- 

 ernment subsidies to steamship companies, and 

 postal service at home and abroad. There are 

 now 59 light-houses and light-ships, 12 of the 

 lights being of the first order. In the tele- 

 graph service, 2,298 miles of wire are in opera- 

 tion, and the business is conducted by 2,569 

 operators, of whom 20 are women. The school 

 of telegraphy is in Tokio. The approximate 

 annual postal and telegraphic receipts amount 

 to $3,217,548, the net profits in 1887 being 

 apparently $251,168. The nautical school for 

 the commercial marine is in Ozaka, conducted 

 at an annual expense of $30,000. In addition 

 to the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, or Ocean Trans- 

 portation Company, with its large fleet of 

 steamers, the newly formed Ozaka Sho Sen 

 Kaisha, or coast-trade company, is also subsi- 

 dized by the Government, the former to the 

 extent of $880,000, and the latter $52,000. The 

 general post-office building in Tokio was 

 burned during 1888, but statistics preserved 

 show that during the year 35,307,658 covers 

 were received, of which 23,091,091 were dis- 

 tributed in Tokio. The new line of postage- 

 stamps as now issued is in sen (cents) as fol- 

 lows: 100, scarlet ; 50, brick red; 25, pale green ; 

 20, red; 15, purple; 10, dark orange; 8, vio- 

 let; 4, brown. Of railways, in March, 1887, 

 431 miles were open, of which 266 were Gov- 

 ernment property. 



Industries and Wages. Returns from all ex- 

 cept two provinces show that the acreage of 

 cereal crops is steadily increasing, as well as 

 pasturage for the enlarged numbers of live- 

 stock rendered necessary by the prevailing 

 fashion of eating meat, in which the city peo- 

 ple are far ahead of the country folks. In 1887 

 there were housed 1,482,642*658 bushels of 

 grain of all kinds, which exceeded the total 

 crop of the previous year by over 1,000,000 

 bushels. As an index of the amount of ani- 

 mal food consumed in the two largest cities, in 

 which butcher's meat was almost unknown 

 thirty years ago, there were slaughtered in 

 one month, February, 1888, in Tokio, 2.2^1 

 animals, and in Ozaka, 772. The use of milk 

 and ice is now quite general in the cities. 

 Whereas coal was popularly unknown as fuel 

 three decades ago, there were consumed in 

 Tokio in 1887 18,000,000 tons of coal, most of 

 which, however, weut to supply the furnaces 

 of steam-boilers in the manufactories. Despite 

 the increasing number of brick buildings, fires 

 are still numerous in the capital, there being 

 806 fires in 1886, consuming 3,491 houses. 

 In 1887 there were 867 fires. In the central 

 district, Nippon Bashi, in Tokio, the wages of 

 carpenters, rooters, wood-sawyers, paper-hang- 

 ers, and shipbuilders, average from 50 to 40 



