PROGRESS IN SYRIA AND PALESTINE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1908, 16 March 1887, Page 3

PROGRESS IN SYRIA AND PALESTINE.

Most marked le the progress mads of lato years m and abnnt Jaffa, the matt toutherly seaport of Syria. The changes In this auoient and interesting little town are eminently striking. The <Id wall that surrounded it, after the primitive Eastern fashion, has been palled dowa, and the a oat filled up to admit of an extension of the area available for budding. North and south of the town is quite a series of suburbs, substantial y built by Arab immigrants from Upper Kgyp», who •re settling In Syria and Palestine And It it notioed, too, that the houses have glass window*, a thing unheard-of 20 years ago. The country round about Jaffa Is even more changed than the port Itself. It la being converted into quite an earthly V paradise," one vast orange-grove, a region of orchards and fruit-gardens. The number of auoh holdings has increased fourfold m the past qaarte^ of a century, and it is eatimaied that there aro now, In the immediate vicinity of the port, 400. of these orange-g*rdens, ranging In slzo from two to 15 aore<; and finer oracget than those of .Jaffa are not grown m the world. They are ova-shaped, run ■ometiraes to 15 inches m circumference, are exquisite m fl »vor, and one mass cf delicious jaiee. He who has not tasted a Jaffa orange m fine condition does net know what an orange if. Large quantities have been shipped to Liverpool lately, where they have fetched high prices ; and the trade would admit of indefinite expansion, and provo a source of great profit, were there a direct service with Jfingland, As it le, oranges shipped at Jaff* have to be trambipped at Alexandria or Smyrna ; and this effects tho eondititn of the f-uit when landed. wri'e it adds materially to the cost of carriage. The orange production of the district at present is about eight to lon millions annually, and they are cold at eight to ten a penny retail. 7 ha most omvinclng proof of tbe growing prosperity of Jaffa is to be found m the price of the lend. It has risen ten, and m some cases fifteen fold. A plot that would with difficulty have fetched ■£5 twenty years ago is now bought for £50 or £60. Practioally speaking, land i evr Jftff i is not to be had.

Even the lesser towns along the co .%*, ■how signs of renewed activity. H»)fa, the Httle port at the foct of Mount C «r---mel, hai roused from ita torpor, and gone In for building and rebui'ding— on a ■mall scale, of course. It is so changed that Herr Shfck, the Government Surveyor cf Buildings, declares he did nit reoognise the place when he revisited U m 1880 Cscsaroa, onca famous, but wholly deserted for cent uric*, is on the high Toad to become once agn'n a centre of trade. There is the nucleus of a ntw iown rising, inhabited by Moslem iromigtantfl from Bosnia and Herzegovina ; a custom house is built, and a line of «t*amenwlll oall there regularly. In the larger towns of the interior the note of progress has been struck, and all are m • state of transition. Bethlehem has been almost entirely rebuilt,, and improved out of all knowledge. The streets were almost impassable m winter ; now they are paved and tolerably clean, pass abl* at any time. The same may be eaid of Tiberias and Naziretb. JNablous— the ancient Sheohem where Joseph was gold— is become one vlst soap-boiling establishment;.- Its product is m general demand throughout Syria, and it may jet become the Nortbhemptcn cf Palatine for b'ots. Between Knzarelh, Pafet, and Nablous, where the olive thrives best, olive trees »re being planted at the rate— it is locally stated— of 600,0C0 a year ; and the product of the dis'rict m {he shape of olive oil is already upwards of six million okes, or fifteen million ponnds' weight, for it is so msneured ttbete, annually. Highly significant is tthe fact thtt the country people and peasantry are investing their money largely In citile re-rlng, a thing undreamed of a few years btck.

The order of things m Jerusalem, too, ii very d Cerent from what it was onl> a /ew years ago, and the chanpe the Holy City is gradually m dergo ; ng strikes every traveller who has revisited the place after an interval of eight cr tun seasons. Whole quarters have been rebuilt, sanitation b pared for, the streets are well lighted* docks are placed on many public buildings, fled the gate* are no longer closed at sundown, to the inconvenience of residents and the hindrance of tradespeople. The tanneries and slaughterhouses have been removed to adistauoe, and outride the walls of the ancient enclosure a " new Jerusalem " if slowly riling, that at the present rate of growth will m a very few years quite overshadow the old city, exceeding it both m are» and poj ulation. — The Spectator,