Sketches from Formosa.

THE JAPANESE AS COLONIZERS 317
Theological College course. Another thing which shows
the energy thrown into this work is seen in the immense
number of publications continually being issued by
the Education Bureau ; those publications including
thousands of volumes in every leading branch of know-
ledge, with dictionaries, maps, wall-sheets, and valuable
Reports from other departments of the Government
service.
I was, however, chiefly
anxious to learn the influence
our Church children came under when going to the
Government Schools instead of to the Congregational
Schools we had hitherto been dependent upon ; and, so
far as this was concerned, there seemed to be a consensus
of opinion amongst the native brethren on several points.
For one thing, those brethren thought that the profession
which the Government made of granting entire religious
toleration to the people of Formosa was a bona fide one ;
because, while the Bible was not used in their schools, all
books which favoured Buddhism or any other form of
native religious belief were also rigidly excluded. More-
over, no objection had been taken to Law-tek and others
giving lessons from our Christian hymn-book to any
pupils who wished for assistance of this kind the ; only
condition being that such assistance must be given
privately out of school hours. Those brethren with
whom I conferred also admitted that their children
obtained many substantial advantages in going to the
Government Schools, such as free tuition of a very
effective kind, strict, but not severe, control of the pupils
in fine airy buildings, instruction on subjects which would
really fit them for future work, and opportunity for
acquiring a knowledge of the Japanese language they
could not get elsewhere. Much stress was laid upon this
last-named item ;
for those converts were shrewd enough
to have noted that any well-behaved young man of