6
The policy with regard to immigrants is one of advice and protection rather than of active assistance in the way of grants; but they are given reduced rates of passage from their homes, and farmers are in certain cases exempted from local and national taxation on the land they occupy, for a period of years. The land, as will be seen later, is allotted to them on favourable terms. Propaganda is carried on by agents of the bureau, and by successful immigrants sent to their home provinces at Government expenses. It has transpired that these agents sometimes paint an exaggerated picture of the advantages of life in the Hokkaido, and some iminigrants have complained that they were brought to the Hokkaido on false pretences.
It is hard to say whether immigration has so far been a success. In point of numbers, on the whole it probably has, for a net annual increase of nearly 50,000 by immigration seems a reasonably high figure; though the fact that more than 20 per cent. of immigrants subsequently leave the island seems to indicate that something is wrong.
Classified according to occupation the emigrants (ie., returning immigrants) numbered in 1912-
Emigrants.
Immigrants.
Farmers.. Fishermen
3,953
53,000
2,934
5,318
Artisans
587
2,705
Traders..
764
2,880
Miscellaneous
3,295
9,969
Unknown
2,430
7,084
Perhaps the proportion of "miscellaneous " and "unknown is rather high. It is true that the conditions of life for newly-arrived immigrants are severe. They have to contend with cold and hardships, and no doubt some of them are unlucky in the selection of land. But the climate is not severer than that which the early settlers of, say, the New England States had to struggle against, while it is certainly less trying than that of Manchuria. To judge from the manner in which they are able to stand cold weather, with no great modification in the clothing and housing to which they are accustomed on the mainland, the Japanese population are remarkably hardy. This is fully borne out by vital statistics of the Hokkaido, which for 1910 showed the death rate to be 213 per 1,000 (below the average for the rest of Japan), and the birth rate as high as 443 per 1,000, giving a net annual increment of 23 per 1,000, or nearly double the rate for the rest of Japan.
The true explanation of the lack of success which has attended the development of the Hokkaido-or perhaps it would be fairer to say of the slow progress in develop- ment probably lies in the fact that it is not well suited to a population whose staple diet is rice, and whose needs and customs are in many respects not properly adjusted to their environment. General Capron, throughout his term of service in the Hokkaido, gave it as his opinion that-
The obstacles to a profitable and permanent development of the resources of the island lie neither in the soil nor in the climate.
To casure a healthy and vigorous development and settlement of the island it is first necessary to change the habits and food of its present and prospective population. It is folly to attempt a forced settlement depending upon the rice of Nippon as their principal food; to be successful, this island must produce its own food, and, not only that, it should be able to export to other countries.
The settlement
were an easy matter had we to deal with the hardy people who settled America. If thrown open to settlement on the liberal terms offered by the Government of the United States in similar cases, every available acre would at once be occupied."
He admitted that it was no easy matter thus to change the habits and food of a people; and certainly it must be remembered in a survey of results achieved that colonists are not as a rule confronted with such a problem.
Land.
The area of land in the Hokkaido, amounting to about 23,500,000 acres, is distri- buted by ownership as shown in the following table.
7
DISTRIBUTION of Land Ownership, 1912.
1. Government Departments
2. Imperial household
9. Private owners
4. Local authorities
5. State-owned, in course of development by private lessees
6. State-owned, surveyed and capable of development, but not taken up, 7. All other land
Total
Acres.
540,000
1,694,000
2,878,000
788,000
891,000
2,228.000
14.436,000
23,450,000
The policy governing the allocation of land to immigrants and others has changed frequently since the first regulations were enacted in 1872. Without entering into details, it may be stated that the present system (dating from the inception of the fifteen-year development scheme) provides for the sale of state-owned lands as well as for the rent free occupancy of land in certain specified areas by bond fide immigrants. Since 1886 a topographical survey has been in progress, with a view to marking out localities suitable for settlement in respect to situation, soil, climate, &c. From 1890 parts of the areas thus determined have been set aside for allocation to immi- grants and divided into settlers' lots of from 12 to 75 acres each. Item G in the foregoing table represents the total area of all lands thus surveyed and found capable of development but not yet occupied. Item 7 represents the balance of unoccupied land, including, as well as mountains, swamps, and uninhabitable areas generally, that which has not yet been surveyed with a view to ascertaining its suitability for settle- ment; so that each year a proportion of No. 7 is transferred to No. 6, and thence to categories 4 or 5, though, of course, at an annually decreasing rate. It follows that, at the end of 1912, there was an ascertained area of 2,228,000 acres available for settlement, cultivation, pasture, or plantation.
The grant of lots of land in the specified areas to immigrants is made by rent and tax free lease for a period of from five to ten years, according to size, &c., which is converted into ownership if, at the end of that period, the holder has satisfied an inspecting authority that the ground has been properly and completely utilised. Inspections may be made yearly and the tenant deprived of his holding if due progress has not been made (in practice the powers thus given to inspectors are said to have been abused in many cases); while for ten years after the conversion the land is exempt from land-tax.
As for the sale of land, this deserves some attention. Only land which has been surveyed and publicly notified as in the category capable of development" (excepting that in the specified immigrant allotment areas) is purchasable, on application to the authorities, subject to the following conditions:--
1. A maximum purchasable area of arable land (1,200 acres) and a maximum
price per acre (38. 9d.) are fixed. Other lands in proportion.
2. Intending purchasers of over 75 acres must give evidence of financial standing, by showing that they pay direct national taxes over a given amount (varying with the acreage to be bought).
3. Ownership is not confirmed until the expiry of a term (five to ten years), within which the land must be developed as undertaken by the purchaser. But he may transfer bis title by sale or otherwise during the period, the responsibility then falling upon the transferee.
These regulations were framed with the idea of obtaining revenue by land sales for the prosecution of the fifteen-year development scheme. At the same time they aimed at freeing laud sales from needless restrictions while keeping out speculators. In practice the results appear to have been exactly contrary. Applications for land cannot be entertained until such land has been notified publicly, and the authorities are supposed to make an impartial selection among applicants. Actually there las occurred, it appears, considerable unjust dealing, amounting to peculation, and it is not an oxaggeration to say that the history of land allotment in the Hokkaido has been very discreditable to the Administration. It has its comic side, as when speculators, taking up tracts of land ostensibly for stock-farming but in reality for a rise in values, hire a herd of cattle for the day of the inspector's visit, and send it on the next day to some similarly placed landholder.
472
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.