Sketches from Formosa.

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SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
unlike that which was seen in 1888, when the Chinese
Governor, Liu Ming-chuan, tried to obtain funds for his
reforming schemes by the imposition of a Land-tax, but
whose well-meant attempt so roused the people that a
large military force and two gun-boats had to be called
into action. I have myself no hesitation in giving it as
my opinion that the industrious, the intelligent, and the
more influential of the natives of Formosa are beginning
to see that their bread is buttered on the Japanese side,
so to speak. Some of the mal-contents I have spoken to
are rebels through sheer ignorance, while others are " agin
the Government " because they dearly love adventure
which keeps the pot boiling, and does not bind them
down to any kind of daily honest occupation. I think
the Japanese Authorities have no desire to use harsh,
cruel measures with their Formosan fellow-subjects, and
that the present opposition being without any real
justifying cause will soon give place to quiet, if not even
grateful, citizenship.
The other point on which I wished to make a remark
or two refers to that influence which the arrival of the
Japanese is having on public morals amongst the people
of Formosa. No doubt, some readers may think that
this is going a little further than I have any right to, but
I have really no desire to show how " Babylon the great
is fallen, is fallen," or to express myself in any Pharisaic
sort of way. I simply meant to enter a slight caveat
against that style of representation which assumes
material prosperity to be the summum bonum in all at-
tempts at colonizing, and looks on everything as going
on famously so long as Imports, Exports, and Income-tax
returns keep steadily on the increase. But,
if the Tariff
claims its percentage on such Imports as opium, sake,
courtesans, dancing-girls, singing-girls, and waitresses in
houses of entertainment, it surely becomes more than