Life in Java.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 December 1922, Page 4

Life in Java.

BATHING AVITH A DIPPED. LAND AViIEBB TITEDE ARE NO j FLIES. ! “There are no flies in Java,” said Mr W. Salek, who has just returned thence to Wellington, “and it is just as well, as the sanitary conditions are disgusting. The Dutch houses are very fine places. Built ol brick, they arc lined throughout with tiles, and have tile floors. Some of their interiors arc magnificently fitted, s s indeed are those of the richer Chinese merchants who abound. But just op:posite, or even alongside these cleanlooking homes, are the straw-roofed hovels of the Javanese, whose ideals of sanitation are exceedingly primitive, and in front of palatial residence and hovel alike runs a stagnant ditch ol pestilential odour. No resident of Java, knows the meaning of tho word bath, as we un-

derstand it. Their ‘bathrooms’ arc concrete, tiled rooms, where the i bather stands on the floor and with a specially constructed dipper takes the water from n large tank placed there for the purpose, and pours it over himself. Tt is very refreshing, and the climate is such that half a dozen ‘baths’ a day are very welcome to the stranger. The mosquitoes are awful, but it is strange to see no flies. T e lack of extremes of seasonal temperatures may account for it. “The Batavian trains are all run by natives, including the stntionmastors. Tho first class is reserved for whites, tho second for the hotter-class natives, and (he third for the natives ; from the backbloeks. The Javanese are I an industrious‘mid honest people, and j the women-are remarkably modest end . moral. ! “I saw the cleanest fish market of all in Batavia. The samnans come

ulongsido Ilia wlia.rf and the fish arc clipped out of salt water alive and so exhibited to the purchaser. • the lu-at vanishes as one. climbs nut Tosaii. and one i-: glad of fires ' ; >[t Hi’, as ti ■ in ,-irts arc very cold. 1 had tun.ml in one ni :ht a lien a knock ‘(time *U> lii.V door, tt uen .1 opened it I could not see very much, as the only light was a very dim one in the passage. Hut 1 made out what ! )!;.”! like an enormous native, naked ■ve for a loin doth who was pointing at me with a naked sword. Neither could understand what the other was saying, and we stood looking at one another for an interminable period, until 1 noticed that the hand that held tlie sword held al-o a key. It was merely a visit from the local watchman, wli"■ had noticed that 1 had not locked my door, according to custom. I lost no time in doing it.”