The attempt of the Government to raise loan of 50 million yen in America, I have already described in the columns of the "N.C. Daily News." Subsequently Exchequer Bills were issued to the amount of six millions and at once taken up by the Bank of Japan. Taking to heart the past attempts of Japanese Governments at loan-raising in foreign countries, the Katsura Cabinet has decided to cut down its expenditure, which is undoubtedly the wisest thing it could do under the circumstances. The Hypothee Bank is doing good, the loans it has made so far to agriculture ists and artisans totalling 14 millions. It works in conjunction with the agriculture al and trade banks established under official direction throughout the provinces for the sake of helping agriculturists and illed artisans. These banks have been copied from Germany; and they ought to help the people a good deal.
10th January.
Japanese Literature Last Year.
The literary men of Japan were not very active during 1901, and the only thing worth recording in local literary history was, of all things in the world, the development of a craze for Nietzsche's philosophy. 'The Japanese savants, ever on the lookout for novelty, are quite capable of enthusing over' St. Thomas of Aquin asa philosophic guide in the morning, and over Zola as a philosophic guide in the afternoon: and this trait in their character is, I suppose, the abandonment by of them of their former idols, J. $. Mill and Herbert Spencer. and their sudden devotion to Nietzsche, whom they will have probably forgotten in a month or two.
Drifting away from China.
The colloquial and un-Chinese style of composition first adopted by writers of siderable headway among journalists and stave authors, so that the movement for "the identification of the written and spoken languages" made fair progress.
Fiction.
Hardly any works of fiction made their appearance in 1991, but several prominent European authors, notably Ibsen, were translated.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.