Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 30 May 1895, Page 3

Notes and Events.

Tha caJble n«ws incites to the Wudy of geography. It,,sounded Irtnnge to he»i?: <#: the, French being troubled with bandits on the frontiers of Brazil, for what were the French doing! there? It appeaxa that the French were quite at home, nothing Qf the tourist party, aa they termed *£**& °* troo .P3 w^° wean«k«jl *way in Africa and " accideakftily" got into the British gphere. France is the proud pogaaasor of a portion of the north of South America, having Brazil to the e*ai and south of her, and the Dutch to tl» West. The North Atlantic Ocean being their other boundary. yjtf area of country owned is 46,880 jwtfre..miles, and is known as French G.uiania. .

The map is well worth looking at. The British Guiana, the Dutch ■Gjuiapa and the French Guiana lie $ide Uy side just outside of the half IttooHjOf Ulands known as the West Indies, the naval battle-ground of Jhe laafc, century, and the homes of, 4)e pirates and other bad characters. It ia.. a. monument of the days of UltfSv wars, when the so called citiiiaed nations of the world were doing their best to depopulate it.

Looking up this French property leads one to notice Venezula, a Republic in South of America we sometimes read about. The adjoining country is also a Republic, now as Colombia, but at one time »i». New Granada. This is a " United States " consisting of nine statw and six territories. The language is Spanish and. the religion Roman Catholic. The next country itßtyftdor a Bepublio with a popula.

tion of a million. The language and religion is the same as Colombia.

The other portions of South America are divided between Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Paraguay, Argentine Republic, Uruguay, and Brazil. All these countries are Republican. Practically all these terri'ories and others on the isthmus str cching to the South of the United Stakes, were under thd control of the Spaniards in 1535.

Spain though so greatly fallen has yet a valuable colonial Empire of 167,230 square miles with a population of over eight millions. She has however a debt of over 228 millions and therefore some early day may witness her having a sale of her outlying freehold estate.