Across China.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 19 May 1910, Page 4

Across China.

PENDING CATASTROPHE. The famous Pekin correspondent of the London Times is contributing 'to that journal a series ot articles describing a journey he is making across China, and Turkestan to the railway at Tashkent. It was in January that he loft Pekin oil the first singe of his journey along the great highway of Central niul Western China, and his letters convey a vivid impression of the present conditions of Central Chi mi. The first portion of the wonderful journey was accomplished in a train, and the cor respondent bears witness to the extraordinary chiangea for the better that thb railway has effected in the condition of the population whom it serves. An interesting fact the traveller discovered is that the greatest difficulty t.he 'management has to contend with is the nigliltly thefts of ring-bolts and plates, no fewer than 00,000 bolts per month, and 10,000 plates per annum, being stolen from the railway. As tlio aneienits who framed the laws in the dim and for;4otlten past never had to deal with such an offence of the theft of screwbolts, they had no law bearing on the subject, and consequently there is no law on it to-day. The stolen . cl teel, heing much superior to the native product, is turned into razors, hoes and plough-shares, and other articles. Though the inhabitants cannot r'esist the temptation to pilfer from the railway, .tliev prize highly the advantages It brings, and wish to see it extended, that desire being readily understood when one reads of the existing

METHODS OF TRANSPORT. For tho moat part modern innovations cease abruptly at the rail head. For instance, passengers who want change at Honanfu must get it iby chopping it off a silver bar, and this, it is pointed out, is in the country where banknotes were in circulation in tlie days of Charlemagne, and where money-orders are now issued by post offices even in romoiter provinces. From Honanfu westward, the traffic is carried on as it was carried on centuries ago. Coolies, oxen, ponies, mules, and camel trains plod along the .traciv worn by many generations, and the vehicles used are springlesa carits'and wheelbarrows. These last still carry sails, which are sot when the wind is fair. A great catastrophe is threatened in tho valley of the Yellow River.' Sediment' is brought down ithis river in enormous quantities, and the water is constantly rising. To keep tho river in bounds the Chinese raiso the banks above the level of the water, and the resulifc now is that for miles the great river flows through country that is on a lower level than its own bed. No planting is done along tho banks,, and the terrible catastrophe is drawing 'nearer every day, when the river will burst its too weak bonds, and rush over miles of thickly-populated country, carrying death and devastation in its train.