Sketches from Formosa.

242
SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
when deliberate attempts are made to help and en-
courage them in doing so, the following extract from a
published Report of missionary work in Manchuria is
interesting :
"
For many years, Manchuria has surpassed
all the provinces of China in the number of Bibles
and Testaments sold, and other Christian literature
has been not far behind. One of the many indirect
effects of Christianity has been the creation of a desire
to be able to read. Many men and women of all ages
who, before their conversion, could not read, have now
a good working knowledge of their own written language.
One missionary's baptismal register, covering the
numerous baptisms of ten years, indicated that of the
catechumens who could not read before conversion,
of the Catechism
ninety per cent, learned to read all or part
and some of the New Testament before their baptism.
In all but exceptional cases, some knowledge of the
character has been made a condition of baptism."
The victory of Japan over her unwieldy opponent
in 1905, and the more recent upheaval in China, gave
a much wider impulse to all forms of educational work
in both countries. Government schools and improved
methods of teaching were started everywhere, and the
colossal yearly output of books, periodicals, and daily
newspapers in Chinese and Japanese came to be something
almost bewildering. It need scarcely be added
that the rapidly increasing literature thus created
contains substantial contributions in every department
of human knowledge : educational, historical, scientific,
and religious.
Nor was Formosa overlooked in this onward march
of affairs ; for the education of children from eight
years old has now all the force of a binding law ; every
good-sized village has its Government school, in which
free tuition is given in Japanese and Chinese ; daily