Sketcher.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 375, 16 July 1903, Page 2

Sketcher.

fSoiitBEBISG FOB} PIfiiBIJ% '* "" fjniHEKE appears at first %ipit, Jibe |M go possible connectioaTjetweettfce. . JaSp tsSehtiatly practical "^isc of ". engineering and' those* 8 religious enthusiasms which cause people to flock to spots consecrated by their beliefs. Yet, as a matter of fact, the engineer has possibly done as much as the preacher, or the theologian, to popularise suphj, whilst some, of the. most Jmp&rtantoorr r latter-day engineering i been, or are being, carried through upon wbat may be eallea a ♦ pilgrim' basis,, j .It! is, for instance,-' one of? the principal factors in the creation of the lines in the Nearer Ea"Sfc-"whi(&~will-ultimately connect Egypt, with India.. The consent of the Mohammedan rulers of Central. Arabia, _aa.jw.ell as that of their co-religionietß elsewhere," has been" worT'foSTtle" iSsn-' -struction oi a trans-Arabian line solely by 'the arguments adduced! to sho4 J that it will facilitate pilgrimages to the Holy Places; i but for ' tbip,-'ther tribes concerned would. have opposed it tooth and nail. The' Sultan of Turkey has gone a step farther, for,'more than two years ago, he commenced the construction of a line from Damascus to Mecca, practically entirely f or the use of pilgrims, and to be known as the-Hedjaz Bailway. - To <fards its cost the Sultan personally subscribed whilst the Emir of Bokhara contributed .£17.000, and other magnates of the Mohammedan world assisted in proportion. :The line will ultimately become an important link in' the chain of the • suggested Euphrates Vailey Eailway, In the same locality there is the line between Jaffa and Jerusalem, which would never have been "constructed but for the requirements of the 'pilgrim' traflij. Until recently it took at least two days of certainly uncomfortable and expensive, and . sometimes dangerous, travelling to ' traverse the distance between |the port and the Sacred City. Now the journey can-be to the railway e igineer—in three and a half hours, at a c st of 123 81 first and 41 2d second-. ClaSS.' '-'<" -' ; -' '~,iiS : ■' ;;'' s- '

v Further .east the South Indian .'Bailway is. engaged upon a unique project, with the view of connecting the lines, on the island of Ceylon with those of India; very largely for the behoof of the immense numbers of pilgrims who desire to visit Adam's Poak and the sacred spots about Kandy. By this instance, the pilgrims themselves are providing a kind of stepping-off place, for on the island of Bameswaram, within little more than a mUe of the Indian shore, there is a very sacred shrine, to which many thousands flock annually, and which is, ub a preliminary, to be connected with the mainland by .carrying the railway, r From Eameswaram there stretches j right** across the channel to.Ceylon the singular chain of reefs and islands known as Adam'sßridge/ and these-are ultimately ( to.be connected, and a line laid which wilh. make; It ■ possible : for .pilgrinia from any i part "cf India to travel right through t6 the spot of their devotions on the great island. ; ./:■ ai Europe haß several "pilgiim' railways, of which' the greatest at present is tha\ "to Lourdes. '~ Most o£. themy however, would'hav3 ü been" conßtructed for other traffic,arid the engineer^*connection with -the^-shTiaeVis rather in tlie workiag of the; ..traffic to them than in the making Of the jKnee- And-the Loprdes pilgrim& ; .in par• . ticular arp much "trte* railway men for the specially-built-'" carriages andtrains which, at certain' seasniis, leave Paris for the mountain shrine, carrying, with.what: comfort is ,ppssible v the sick, the, maimed, and, too often,* .the dying in search of consolation: arid ; cure. In many other instances the engineer is called upon to smooth the pilgriniß path. Even in .Minas Geraes, a romote Brazilian province, a railway is being constructed solely that, tlie raligious miy with greater ease do'pehance at the famed, shrine of Congongas.—?A.Wi' . - :.