Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/625

communication. Railways become the mainspring of industrial advancement, an efficient military defence, and a good administration. No time, therefore, was lost in pushing on the building of those lines to completion. It was hoped that it would be possible to construct some of the necessary railway-lines with private capital; but it was found impossible to arrange this, even by offering substantial subsidies, and the work had to be undertaken by the Government, special sums of money being raised by loans.

The road-making in the island was at once commenced, and has proceeded steadily ever since. Highways along the railway lines that run lengthwise through the island were projected.

Formosa abounds in ports and harbours, which are, however, only available for small craft. For sea-going ships of any considerable dimensions, almost all of them hardly afford anchorage. Hence, the formation of good harbours was one of the enterprises that claimed the immediate attention of the Government. Both Kelung and Takow were surveyed with a view to forming plans for the improvement of those harbours. The former port constitutes an important intermediate station on the line of communication with Japan, while the latter forms the basis of communication with the South Chinese ports.

The improvements of railways, roads, and harbours were necessarily accompanied by an outlay of no small sum from the State Treasury, but the future development of Formosa, as well as the advancement of our national power, were felt to more than justify the Government in defraying the requisite expenditure.

Formosa (Tai-wan) may be taken to include Hokoto—that is, the Pescadores—and the adjacent islands, numbering in all about seventy-six. The total area of this group is 15,535 square miles, and the total population in 1899 was 2,758,161, including 33,120 Japanese. Twelve months previously the total stood at 2,665,511, including 25,585 Japanese, and this indicates the colony’s rapid growth.

The Home Government had to provide for these islands a stable form of government, to enforce approved sanitary regulations, to introduce an equitable system of land taxation, to provide for the education of the natives, and to undertake