“THE CITY OF ANGELS.”

Hokitika Guardian, 5 September 1924, Page 4

“THE CITY OF ANGELS.”

A NEW ZEALANDER’S EXPERIENCES IN CALIFORNIA,

“With 11 population that has doubled in the last six years, and that now stands at 1,073,!).Vi, Los Angeles (the City of Angels) is one of the wonder cities of the world,” says the Rev. M. W. I’. Laseelles, an ex-Napier resident, who inis returned to New Zealand fresh with vivid impressions of California in general, and of Los Angeles in particular.

"A few statistics,” lie said, when interviewed by a N.Z. Times representative, “indicate California’s extraordinary prosperity, and the amazing progress that it is effecting. The building permits in Los Angeles alone for 1 H 23 involved expenditure of C0t),():!.'!.2-13 —a staggering stun. X’o less than four thirteen-story buildings were in the course of construction. Again, Los Angeles is estimated to produce manufactured (omniodi’ei-e.s valued at 2230,-lot ,<!23 annually, and of this sum the motion picture industry, which employs 20,(100 actors and actresses working before the camera, is computed to he responsible lor L'37,(100,(1110. The motion picture studios —over 20,') companies are working them—are man'jnoth affairs, and the weekly pay-roll of the industry aggregates 2200,000.” ini - : r.NiYFit.sal Arm

Automobiles, went on Ail Laseelles, played a large part in the tile ol the eommunity. Printically every family —or one in every four individuals owned a ear, and in Los Angelos alone aver 23.00.') ears were registered in 1023. while the -Californian Automobile Association, had it membership of 70,1100, mill supplied ilil enormous and varied amount of indispensable information to tourists mid visitors, the country roads and junctions being plaiity marked by signposts nnd mile pegs. Many of the streets were practically lined with cars at every hour <d the day. and the morning and evening processions of cars to and friim the city was three or lour abreast. Casualties from motor accident.-, accounted fur fnrly deaths pel' month, hut the city auto traliic was regulated cllieientiv hv it remarkable system hv which *‘siK'iit policemen" throughout the city changed their directions simultaneously, the directions being distributed and operated I rum a central station upon w hich inloimat ion as to trallle conditions in the various streets was concentrated.

KXTIt AOli DINA It Y PROSPERITY. Further enlightening statistics affording tangible ptool el tin' extraordinary wealth and prosperity <d l.ns Angeles were the city’s general business statistics. Yearly, for instance, •TO!),(Jill) tourists visited it. It had (!,!l hotels .with Hl,(loti rooms) and 20(1,0(111 telephones, besides 2.A0 eh it rclies. AY tiler for a thirsty populace was hriNight from the Sierra Nevada mountains, 2-70 miles, and .school buildings ill Los Angeles alone aggregated SO;), with close 00 (11)11 teachers to educate the young idea. THE YOSKAIITE YALLEY.

"One of the most wonderful spots, I visited,” said .Mr Laseelles, •’was the Yoseirjle Valley, ISS miles from San Francisco. It is a great cleft in a mountain plateau, and was discovered by accident, in 1 |, In- a patrol of soldiers pursuing an outlaw. I lie first sight id the Yo>cmitc is a panorama of sheer hulls, blue-shad-owed, ami streaked here and llierwilli silver on linnets that feed a tin■ ■ 111 1 :• iit 1 ream in 11 -- - valey. Sheer dills overhang the pi - a-ant valley. One pniminciil l-lull is called I'd t'apitn 11 . It rises vertically to a height of toon feet above the valley Hour, and is only rivalled for sheer breathless magnilii eoce by Glacier I’oint, almost as high, whit It ai t nail,' overhangs the 1 alle' below . "l to t Ii- wa\ to ) 1 not--. v. Inre I" i> ■ -nip it. 1 -11 11-- m- 1 -labotal- -rah- lor iiiimeii-c mimbi-rs of tourists, von pass groups of great, pine trees, the 'big trees’ of California, which are leagnilii-eiil in their size, and which, it is lalculated, were lusty saplings idnoil the time tile lleloe.vs left Egypt. ! THE GRAND CANYON, | With his parly, Mr Laseelles Infer went to visit the (■'rand Canyon of the .Colorado river, a great gash in the earth. At First sight of it. lie said. (Ole was completely spellbound by its ti "1 11 1 immensity, and the material considerations of the everyday existence' failed into insj- uilioaiiee beside its

magnificent- immensity. The chasm was ip places over a mile deep, and it extended, with the turbulent Colorado surging in its depth, fur over 211(1 miles t .rough the core of arid mountain plateau. Temples, towers, pinnacles, or lolly leiaaiels all were there in the canyon’s weal lior-beatoil walls, (low'll wliiili the visitor descends oil winding precipitous tracks lor over I ODD f(vl to the brill!, ol tin - muddy ri vcr. THE DEVIL’3 ; ORKRCRKW. "The last part of the track,” said Air Laseelles, "they call the Devil’s Corkscrew, and it is all Ilia!. A'el almost In-side the ancient chasm is the up-to-date tourist hole! at El Tovar, with two luxuriously equipped trains arriving daily from Los Angeles. A’oll get everything then in California. Sunlight, fresh air and mountain scenery. There are. great cities teeming with industrial life, and busy seaports whose freighters tap the markets of the world. There are oil fields and orchards, moving picture studios and giant poultry yards, and more than anything there is the amazing wealth of the eommunity, and the abundance (if nearly all the pleasures life can oll'er. And yet, at the end of it all. it 1 is a wonderfully agreeable sensation to | hi hack in New Zealand."