EMPIRE RESOURCES

Hokitika Guardian, 28 May 1931, Page 2

EMPIRE RESOURCES

MANY WONDERS OF CREATION. Thepj are hundreds of interesting facts concerning the Empire—hundreds of things about which the average man knows nothing at all. In a little pamphlet' just published, the 'Rev. Alexander Sharpe, of -St. Barnabas, Plymouth, England, marshals thesp details in a manner easily assimilated, There are some interesting eompnrions. Canada js larger than , the United States with all its possessions. Australia is ns largo as Brazil or the United States proper. British South Africa js larger than Argentina, India is a s large as »)j Europe, excluding Russia, HUGE POPULATION,

The aj'ea of thp Empire is ab°Ut 14,030,000 square miles, qr a quarter of the earth’s land surface, About B,COO,OCQ square miles are nrnv countries and 4,000,000 square miles have been added in the last sixty years, Its population of' 43,000,000 people represents about one-quarter of mankind.

New Zealand contains some of the wonders of the Empire, Rotorua is one of the greatest natural phenomena in the world. Thp Dominion j s described as the most ideal home of the Anglo-Saxon pace, It is the scenic wonderland of the world, and it is the centre of the water hemisphere, while Great Britain is tho centre of the land hemisphere. The Franz Josef Glacier, in Westland, is said to be the most marvellous in the world, while the big game fishing found in the north is also the best in the world. It has/the most southern university in The world, Otago. There seoms to be only one of the Dominion’s “world’s greatest” facts misled, and that is that the Sutherland Falls, Otago, are the highest in the world. The pamphlet gives Kaieteur, British Guinea, as the highest great waterfall in the world. HISTORICAL CITIES. Within the boundaries of the British Empire are parts of the ancient empires of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, of Alexander, of Home and of the Great Mogul. Such historic rivers as the Euphrates, Tigris, Jordan, Kishon, .Tabbock and Arnon are under its mandate or protection. The Dead Sea is completely within the Empire, while the Sea of Galilee is partly within it. The first land discovered by Columbus in the New World, San Salvador, one of the Bahamas Group, is ' now British. The city of Baghdad, the famous home of Haroim a] Roschid, is under the protection of the Empire, The old Parthian capital, Ctsesiphon, is likewise protected by the Empire;"while the famous town s of the Bible—Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethelehem, Beersheba, Nazareth and Capernaum —are in a similar position.

The Empire abounds in raw materials of all kinds. It has the greatest coal resources of the world, the greatest known natural gas field (in Alberta), the greatest potential oil field (again in Alberta), the largest silver smelting works (in South Australia), the best mahogany (British Honduras), the greatest diamond field (in South Africa) and the greatest cohalt and nickel fields. These are only a few of the items, specified, there being hardly

a natural product of any kind which is not found in huge quantities in B onie part of the Empire. There is one other outstanding fact, the British Empire gave birth to the country which is next, to it in size in the world to-day, the United States of America,