Directory_and_Chronicle_1879 — Page 387

JAPAN.

NAGASAKI.

Nagasaki is a city of great antiquity, and in the early days of European inter- course with the Far East was the most important seat of the foreign trade with Japan. It is admirably situated on the south-western coast of the island of Kiusbiu. A melancholy interest attaches to the neighbourhood as the scene of the extinc- tion of Christianity in the kingdom and the extermination of the professors of that religion in 1637. Near the harbour lies the celebrated island of Pappenberg, where thousands of Christian martyrs were thrown over the high cliff rather than go through the form of trampling on the cross. Not far from Nagasaki is also the village of Mogibay, where 37,000 Christians suffered death in defending themselves against the forces sent to sub iue them. When the Christian relig.on was crushed and the foreigners expelled, to the Dutch alone was extended the privilege of trading with Japan, and they were confined to a small patch of ground at Nagasaki called Desima, the monotony of their life being broken only by the yearly arrival and departure of the one or two ships in which the trade between Japan and the West was at that time carried on. By the treaty of 1858, Nagasaki was one of the ports opened to British trade on the 1st July in the following year. On entering the harbour of Nagasaki no stranger can fail to be struck with the admirable situation of the town and the beautiful panorama of billy scenery opened to his view. The harbour is a landlocked inlet deeply indented with small bays, about three miles long with a width varying from half a mile to a mile. The native town is on the eastern side of the harbour and is about two miles long by about three-quarters of a mile in extreme width. The foreign settlement adjoins the nat ve town on the south side. The chief mercantile bouses are situated on the bund facing the harbour, behind which are a few streets running parallel with it, and there are a number of private residences on the bill side. There are English and Roman Catholic churches an l a commodious club. The climate of Nagasaki is mild anl salubrious, but in summer it is hot during the day by reason of its geographical position in a hollow surrounded by hills.

After the opening of the port the trade for several years stea lily developed, but the Consular reports for the last few years show a continuous decline. Mr. Consul Flowers in his report for 1876 speaks of roads as being the great requ.rement to connect the port with the traffic of the neighbouring districts, but, he says, the want of roads, although it might account for a slow development, or even for a stationary e ndition of trade, can scarcely be accepted as a reason for the continual ani lamentable falling off which has been shown of late years. This decline he ascribes to the impoverishment caused by a too severe drain of funds towards the central government. The country people in this portion of Japan, though pretty well off, so far as actual necessaries are concerned, are not rich, having little profitable outlet for the surplus productions; their available funds are, therefore, soon absorbed, and the heavy land tax imposed upon the populat.on is much fel, and more so, doubtless since its collection in money instead of in kind, as formerl. In 1878 there were indications of an improvement in the tra le of the port, but there are no figures available as yet to show to what extei t.

The chief articles of import are cotton and woollen manufactures. The principa! articles of exports are coal, tea, camphor, rice, vegetable wax, tobacco, and dried fish. There are several pro luctive coal mines on the islands near Nagasaki, of which the Takas ma mine, wh ca is under European management, is the most important. Mr. Flowers says the probabilities are that one vast coal-field exists under the ses