FROM LOS ANGELES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 676, 29 November 1909, Page 3

FROM LOS ANGELES.

THE CAPITAL OF.ORANGE LAND. : Visiting Wellington at present is, Mr. R.'W. Larritt, manager of the Hot«l : Westminister, one of the, big hotels, of Los .Angeles; in .California. :The place is one of the., woiider'iities of the West, the population having leapt in twelve years from 70,000 to, something:,over 300,000, and it is still growing. Los Angeles is'situated a little south of San Francisco, adjacent to the Pacific Coast,-and irrigation has made it a hugo' garden: city,: the ■ climate of which is -famous throughout • the -States. Thither the tourists from' the East und North pour during certain . monthsr, to .escape, the rigour of . tlie, winter. - Its \yater ; supply r :is brought from the head ot tho Owens River, 300 miles away, • and is used not only for ordinary purposes,- but for irrigation, andpower tor the generation of electricity. . Mr. Larritt claims that jit is the 'best lighted city in the : world, the arc lights being suspended on highly-ornamental ; standards in bunches of four, at short ■ intervals all' the,' way down !the main streets. . The city; has: a: magnificent tram. service,, both in tho city and away out into tho country.-. Beyond tho cify boundaries there :is a double, Tail on one 6ido of 'the track in order that" the-wider express cars may travel at a high tate of speed comfortably, while it ;does not exclude tho" city cars froiu running over the.. tracks. - The visitor suggests, that the: laying down of an extra single rail from Sydney i to:'.-Melbourne' I would enable all cars to Vrun right through instead of ■ relaying the whole, ui the traclr.' The idca is good testimony to the smartness of. the American in overcoming -a'variance ;'in the gauge of caTS.' 1 , ■■*>-< ■ ' "Nothing grows in Los Angeles without irri■gation," says Mr. Larritt, "and there's nothing that won't grow, with irrigation. .The result of this is that a man buying an .acre or: 106 acres looks out smartly after liis water rights; Water is everything there. Many of the. city business men, have little far&s,. or,: orange groves a little .out from tho city, and rest there among' ; the' orange trees.' A very delightful life it is. ■ if a 'man plants out ten acres or so of orange trees lie gots. Quito a good income from it,while it doesn't.interfero with liis business. Last season .45,000 car loads (400, boxes to tlie car) or oranges. were sent away from . Los; Angeles. Each box fetches" about 1.25d0!„ so you can liguro what tho crop was worth. , Then there are the peaches and pears. I see them in your ' windows—in cans!"' '• ' :■

The luxury, of : the. big new. hotels.:.in.-,Los Angeles, San Francisco, and. elsewhere in California was a theme on which' Mr. Lairitt talked freoly. In the season, it was . quite ordinary for these'houses to put up 1200 guests. .In tho new hotels, , tho very , last luxuries were provided. 'Thert were telephones in ovcry bedroom, by which any one could speak either to ;the office or 500' miles away, and there were hot and iced water taps alongside one another in-each roonu. In Los Angoles the hotels have to close at 1 a.m., but in marvellous 'Frisco they never close'at all It used to be the boast : with some of the Sau Francisco hotels that-the doors had not been closed for forty years-then tho earthquake, aud lire came. • '