A LAND OF MYSTERY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 345, 15 March 1911, Page 7

A LAND OF MYSTERY.

Four hundred millions of people ; a distinct race which have lived in one for thousands of years with ; <n infusirn of foreign blood; •;;:i l; i. bin.->--the land of mystery. It. bu;- ntln-'ral wealth beyond the 'iroi'm.- - of avarice, but that wealth has ne\er been developed ; coal in plenty. which is scarcely touched, .xhile millions of acres liave been denuded of timber, only shrubs being left. For thousands of years before Europe discovered the art of printing fi o;n wood blocks, or the use of gunpowder, or the beginning of the scimce of asv.ronomy, the Chinese had knowledge of these things, but they have never applied them practically. They have been a people sufficient rnto themselves, seeking no intercourse witli the "foreign devil," and resenting all advances. For centuries their history has been, for the rest of the world, a sealed book. In the very beginnings of modern history, China was a civilised nation, but she has never made progress from then until now. Learning has even nourished up to a certain point, an i then stood still. The teaching of Confucius was exactly fitted to the Chinese temperament, and outside creeds have made but' little headway —trifling, almost, if compared to the vast population. Geographically, China is one huge plain, watered by T three river systems. These systems have beer, linked together by an elaborate network of canals, a considerable part of which hno been in use 1,700 years. The river life of China has developed to a greater extent than in any other co intry. A Chinaman can live with his family on a "sampan," on thousands of miles of water ; he pays no rent, and he lives on the iish he catches and the rice which is produced in such abundance on the banks of the streams. He will live and die in a harbour packed with houseboats, cargo-boats, rafts, sampans, and junks, wedged together in indescribable confusion.