Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/630

These works were executed by the Government’s own cable-laying vessel, the Okinawa Maru.

The old and ill-regulated edifices left by the Chinese were thoroughly unfit for the accommodation of officials under the new régime, more especially as they were deficient in all sanitary arrangements. Hence it became a matter of necessity to erect suitable offices and residences as soon as possible. First, however, in Taipeh, the capital, an entirely new system of drainage had to be introduced and good drinking-water secured; then all the newly-built residences for the Japanese officials were constructed, with special care for sanitation. Many of the new buildings have been completed and are now occupied, the Government Houses at Taipeh, for the use of the Governor-General and the Civil Governor of Formosa respectively, both being handsome and successful structures. The improved health of the staff is indicative of the thorough success obtained in this direction. The mortality among them fell from 4.73 per cent. in 1896 to 1.1 per cent. in 1900. The average mortality for the entire population, excluding the savage tribes, is now 0.76 per cent. per annum.

Prisons also had to be provided in various places, upon the model of the ones used in the advanced penal system that now obtains in Japan proper.

There have been eleven hospitals already provided, of which the Taipeh is the largest. A regular service of graduates of the Imperial University in Medical Science or of specialists who have studied in Europe have been secured for it. Besides the hospital physicians, there are no fewer than seventy-two qualified physicians, appointed and paid by the Government to render medical aid to the people, distributed about the island. At Taipeh, moreover, they have a school for training native physicians, the number of scholars, who are all supported by the Government, exceeding 100. The result of the training they receive is said to be in the main satisfactory.

The education question was a serious one. It is necessary to make the use of the Japanese language prevalent throughout the island, but in the meantime there is a pressing need of Japanese officials conversant with the native tongue. To meet these necessities, therefore, a Central Language School was established in Taipeh in the year following the cession of the island to Japan, for the double purpose of teaching the Japanese language to the natives and the native language to the Japanese.

The Central Language School is divided into the Normal School Department and the Language School Department.

In the Normal School Department Japanese students are trained to serve as teachers in primary schools for native