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to report on a number of subjects in this connection—among others, of the following: (1) The amount of iron ore obtainable in Japan; (2) the trial manufacture of pig-iron and steel; (3) the organization of the works.

This Committee was successful in furnishing an elaborate and exhaustive report on the questions submitted to them; but the Government, being dissatisfied with the report in question, ordered a new Committee to make further investigations on the same subjects. This was done, and subsequently the trial manufacture of iron was successfully carried out at Kamaishi by the Committee, under the personal supervision of Viscount Enomoto, the then Minister of Agriculture and Commerce.

Encouraged by the favourable completion of the various preliminary investigations, the Government finally decided to put its scheme into practice, and with that object in view, it applied to the Diet in the ninth session for the disbursement of the sum of 4,195,793.41 yen as expenses for the establishment of the Works. The Government’s proposals were passed unanimously by both Houses. On March 30 an Imperial Edict regarding the official organization of the Works was issued.

In February of the same year the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce announced that Yawatamura, Onga-gori, Chikuzen, in the Prefecture of Fukuoka, had been selected as the site of the new Works. The necessary land was purchased soon afterwards, and the survey of the ground and the foundations was at once begun. In the meantime, Mr. Oshima, Technical Director, and three engineers belonging to the works were sent abroad to examine the existing condition of the steel manufacturing works in foreign countries, and also to seek the opinion of the noted experts in Europe and America on the various subjects connected with the new undertaking. As a result of the careful inquiries made by these gentlemen, it was found that the original estimates of the cost of construction were too small to admit of the successful carrying out of the plan which had been adopted by the Government.

In 1898 the Diet was applied to for a further sum of 6,474,056 yen, the application being presented in the form of a supplementary Budget. The expenditure for the establishment of the works was thus increased to an aggregate total of 10,569,849 yen, which was to be defrayed during the four years ending 1901. The attention of the authorities was also directed to the importance of securing for the Works cheap and regular supplies of ore and coal, etc., as well as to the advisability of facilitating water transportation, owing to the abundance of goods coming to and leaving the Works all the year round. The Government therefore submitted to the Diet in February,