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There are also 2 language schools with 11 branches for teaching the Japanese language to the natives and helping them to improve their daily life. They have a staff of 20 teachers and 355 scholars.

The monopolies created by the Government are in opium, salt, and camphor. It goes without saying that the habit of smoking opium is pernicious, but when the Japanese took possession of Formosa they found there a population more or less addicted to the use of the drug. It was decided to abolish the practice by degrees. Only those who were already addicted to the use of the drug to the extent that it occasioned intense pain to deprive them of the pipe are now permitted by a special warrant, which they are obliged to procure, to continue its use. To commence opium-smoking is strictly forbidden, or even to continue its use, unless it can be shown that abstention is impossible. The Government monopoly of the article was expressly established to facilitate the final extinction of the opium habit. The revenue thus derived amounts at present to about £4,000,000 a year.

In the Southern portions of the island of Formosa salt is obtained in considerable quantities by solar evaporation of sea-water. The Chinese, when they owned the colony, always favoured an official monopoly of its production; but Count Kabayama, the first Japanese Governor-General, thought by the abolition of the monopoly to give rise to a beneficial development of the industry under private enterprise. Many of the salt-fields were purposely destroyed, and a sort of corner was created, with an alarming rise in the market price. Baron Kodama re-established the monopoly, but on an improved basis; and production having been encouraged, Formosa now actually exports salt to the mother country. The revenue is from £30,000 to £80,000 per annum, and it will probably increase.

Formosa supplies almost the whole world with camphor, but when Japan took the island the industry was in a precarious state. Camphor-trees were cut down with an utter disregard of the consequences, and the most crude processes were employed in the manufacture. A Government monopoly was established, with the triple object of protecting the trees, improving the method of production, and placing the industry on a secure footing. The world’s consumption of camphor is computed to be about 8,000,000 pounds weight per annum, and the production in Formosa is regulated accordingly. The yearly yield to the revenue is about £875,000 a year.

Besides these Government monopolies, the future of Formosa is eminently hopeful, for it is based upon rich agricultural and mineral resources. Tea, rice, sugar, hemp and