[ VEGETABLE WAX MAKING [XLVIII].] The wax-tree berries are flailed and then pounded. Next comes boiling. The mush obtained is put into a bag and that bag into a wooden press. The result is wax in its first state. A reboiling follows and then—the discovery of the method was made by a wax manufacturer while washing his hands—a slow dropping of the wax into water. What is taken out of the water is wax in a flaked state. It is dried, melted and poured into moulds. The best berries yield 13 per cent. of fine wax. The variety of wax grown was oro (yellow wax). There is another variety. The sort I saw is grafted at three years with its own variety. The fruitful period lasts for a quarter of a century. Roughly, the yield is 100 kwan per tan. Formerly, wax was made from wild trees.

[ NAMES FOR ETA [XLIX].] Eta (great defilement) is an offensive name. The phrase tokushu buraku (special villages), applied to Eta hamlets, is also objected to. Heimin is the official name, but the Eta are generally termed shin heimin (new common people), which is again regarded as invidiously distinguishing them. The name chihō is now officially proposed for Eta villages. The fact that many Eta have made large sums during the war has somewhat improved the position of their class. Some Eta are well satisfied with their name and freely acknowledge their origin. Year by year intermarriage increases in Japan. A Home Department official has been quoted as saying that in 1918 as many as 450 marriages were registered between Eta and ordinary Japanese.

The population of the village I visited, 1,900 in 300 families, was getting its living as follows: farming 682, trade 185, industry 31, day labour 97, travelling players 180, not reported 180. The Parliamentary voters were 10, prefectural 17, county 19 and village 57. There were 98 ex-soldiers in the community and one man was a member of the local education committee. The birth rate was above the local average. The crimes committed during the year were: theft 2, gambling 2, assault 1, police offences 3. Of the 300 families only one was destitute, and it had been taken care of by the young women's society.

A considerable proportion of the early emigrants to America were Eta. It is now recognised that it was a short-sighted policy on the part of the authorities to allow them to go.

[ PAPER MAKING [L].] A paper-making outfit may cost from 60 to 70 yen only. The shrubs grown to produce bark for paper making are kōzo (the paper mulberry), mitsumata (Edgworthia chrysantha) and gampi (Wilkstroemia sikokiana). Someone has also hit on the idea of turning the bark of the ordinary mulberry to use in paper making.

[ LIBRARIES, THE PRESS AND THE CENSORSHIP [LI].] There are 1,200 libraries in the country with 4 million books and 8 million visitors in the year. About 47,000 books are published in a year, of which less than half, probably, are original works. From one to two hundred are translations, usually condensed translations. The largest number deal with politics. There are about 3,000 newspapers and periodicals. In 1917 some 1,200 issues of newspapers and periodicals attracted the attention of the censor and the sale of 600 books was prohibited. Some sixty foreign books were stopped.

[ JAPANESE IN BRAZIL [LII].] Emigration to South America has latterly been arrested through the rise in wages at home. During the past four years an average of about 3,000 families has gone every twelve months to Brazil, where about a quarter of a million acres are owned and leased by Japanese. The Japanese Government spends 100,000 yen a year on giving a grant of 50 yen to each emigrating family up to 2,000 in number, through the Overseas Colonisation Company. The Brazilian Government also offers a gratuity.

[ CATTLE KEEPING IN SOUTH-WESTERN JAPAN [LIII].] Tajima, the old province which comprises about four counties in Tottori, is a large supplier of "Kobe beef," but it is a cattle-feeding not a grazing district. The number of cattle in Hyogo is double the cattle population of Tottori, but no cattle keeper has more than a score of beasts. The usual thing is for farmers to have two or three apiece. Some of the "Kobe beef" comes from the prefectures of Hiroshima and Okayama. It is in the north of Japan, where the people are not so thick on the ground and cultivation is less intense, that cattle production has its best chance.

[ VALUE OF LAND [LIV].] The value of land in the hill-village in which I stayed necessarily varied, but the average price of paddy was given me as 250 yen per tan. Dry land was half that. Open hill land, that is the so-called grass land, might be worth 120 yen. The rise in values which has taken place is illustrated by the following table of farm-land values per tan in 1919, published by the Bank of Japan:

PaddyUpland
GoodOrdinaryBadGoodOrdinaryBad
Hokkaido 231158951156226
Honshu
(main
island)		{North}802579366477295170
{Tokyo}863607406673442272
{middle}1,226834523875565313
{west}1,226840525727443244
Shikoku 1,120784470752450225
Kyushu 960652416538300175