The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1915. WORLD-WIDE CHANGES.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 12 February 1915, Page 2

The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1915. WORLD-WIDE CHANGES.

A very interesting article on the pro of emits in tiie lands bordenn<. on the Paciiic Ocean during the past

liirty years appears in a contemporary

J hirty years ago Japan was tliouglit ol by low persons in Europe and America, who gave- her any consideration at all, as an old nation trying an interesting experiment in new methods. China seemed wrapped in !m----j>"netraljle>"netraljle slumber. Spain was in control of the Philippines. The Hawaiian Islands were an independent kingdom. Turning to the American shore, the Coast States of the Union wore just awakening into new life. J'ritish Columbia was a great vacant and undeveloped land. Alaska was only a geographical expression. Only one lino of railway spanned the continent, although the Northern Pacific way launched 011 its somewhat stormy career, and the Canadian-Pacific was Oil way to become a reality. There were no regular trans-Pacific sailings, except from San Francisco, and the service from that point was not of high class. A Panama Canal was looked upon as an idle dream. Now note first the national changes. Japan, having, defeated China, and checked the ambitions of Russia, has come to the trout as a nation of the first rank, of which the statement has been made bv a high English authority that she can conquer any part of the Pacific Ooasl, as matters now stand, at any time she desires to do so. China, for Hie first time in more years than anyone knows with certainty, has no "Emperor, and has become a "Republic, animated by progressive ideas in respect to political and industrial development. Spain has disappeared from the Pacific and Hawaii has lost her independence, the TTnited States having acquired the latter and all the former possessions of Spain and established a. series of stepping stones across the ocean. The Coast States of j America have become populous and healthy communities. British Columbia has taken Tier place in tin foromo.« ranks of British pourer ioiM. Alaska has been in part developed. So r any triw s-Contin = nl railways have been completed and undertaken that one has to reckon up a little fore fixing their number. Great palatial steamships and scores of freighters of large tonnage plough their way through waters which only a generation ago were undisturbed for months. There are hundreds of people who have watched all these change. l ? taking place. Possibly they do not realise the enormous significance of the changes that are taking place before their eyes, or of those which the immediate future will witness.