Rice was being assailed by a pest which survived in the straw stack and had done damage in the prefecture to the amount of 30,000 yen.
In this prefecture and two others during our tour my companion delivered addresses to farmers under the auspices of the National Agricultural Association. The burden of his talk was their duty as agriculturists in the new conditions which were opening for the nation. His three audiences numbered about 700, 1,000 and 1,500. They were composed largely of picked men. At the first gathering the audience squatted; at the next chairs were provided; at the third there were school forms with backs. What I particularly noticed was the easy-going way in which the meetings were conducted. No gathering began exactly at the time announced, although one of the audiences had been encouraged to be in time by the promise of a gift of mottoes to the first hundred arrivals. At each meeting the Governor of the prefecture was the first speaker. At one meeting the Governor arrived about 8.30 a.m., made his speech and departed. When my friend had been introduced to various people in the anteroom, had drunk tea and had smoked and chatted a little, he was taken to the platform half an hour or three quarters after the conclusion of the Governor's speech. Nothing had happened at the meeting in the interval. The idea was that the wait would help the audience's digestion of the speech it had had and the speech it was going to have. There was no formal introduction of the orator. He just mounted the platform and spoke for two hours.
SCHOOL SHRINE FOR EMPEROR'S PORTRAIT.
THE AUTHOR ADDRESSING, THROUGH AN INTERPRETER, LAFCADIO HEARN DEATH-DAY MEETING AT MATSUE.
At the second meeting the Governor awaited our arrival but "went on" alone. The star speaker meanwhile refreshed himself in the anteroom with tea, tobacco and conversation as before. In a few minutes the Governor, having done his turn, rejoined us, and my friend proceeded to the meeting to deliver his speech, the Governor taking his departure.