SIAM.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 July 1923, Page 1

SIAM.

“Matnlia'rt” -“Eye of the Day”— is tile Malay term for the sun : it is also the name that Mi 11. (). Mergonthalcr has chosen [or his impressions of life up-eountry in Siam. The author is a S« iVs engineer. wlm went to the East it few years ago. ami was stationed in that tangle of mountain and jungle where Siam stretches down the narrow Malay Peninsula, ‘‘where the transition of race from Siamese to Malay is s.eari fly noticeable where thousands of t'iiiueso toil in the mines where the scattered villages Inn hour nearly every Oriental rue from the tall Hindu t< die tiny .lap: where hurries of enormous liuffulue.s wallow in the slime and where in the shade ol slender coco nut palms and arena trees peaeefti brown people dwell in huts with pointed roofs as in an earthly paradise.” This part of Siam is still very undeveloped. The .contrast with the Malay States, and tile Straits settlement is striking. Across the border uiidci the British regime straight -month motor roads penetrate the remotest valleys to fetch down the tin. But in Southern Siam there are no roads. The scanty in-land traffic is maintained by means of narrow paths, hy coolies, boats and elephants, and, save for the few paddy Helds around the villages and in the alluvial deposits of the rivers, the whole country is covered with dense virgin forest. Mr Morgoiitloiler’s business was to investigate new mineral ‘Tools.” The procedure was always the same—a native would come along wiili specimens of ore, telling fabulous stories of immense treasures lying somewhere deep in the jungle. The author was the mail who had to “got there quickly.” I’aching a howith provisions, he would go off with Ids guide, and be swallowed up Todays in the fastnesses. Periodically he would refresh himself with the fleshpots of Biingok, but most of bis time was spent in the wilds. ]t was a rough life, but Mr Morgonthaler soon succumbed to the fascination of the country and the eluirm of its people of the female portion of which, in particular lie writes with the utmost enthusiasm