PHILIPPINE ROADS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3599, 18 November 1905, Page 4

PHILIPPINE ROADS.

A Million Dollar, to B« Spout 1m (ta« Improvement of Honda M Md Near Manila. The Philippine commission has appropriated $1,000,000 for.the improv-e----s meat of the roads in the island of Lu- • zon. If this sum be wisely and ecoV. nominally expended in constructing .highways connecting important towns, ' no as to enable the inhabiUunts to have easy communication with each other, even during the rainy season, it will have a beneficial effect upon fihe people of the "territory through which the roads pass probably greater than could have been secured by any other expend* iture. 1 ; The Spaniards did not seem to regard a road 1 as necessary or even desirable unless it would serve a military purpose. The railway from Manila to Dag- . upan gave them ample means of transporting troops, ammunition, and stores between those places, and beyond Dagupan they built a fine, broad inacad'am- ' ized boulevard as far as Vigan. There is a similar highway across the Island Jh ‘.near its southern extremity. Qcnerally speaking, however, Luzon,has no roads, except,, these two, that can be fe traveled by a vehicle in the rainy sea|*f son, and few of them are navigable, on |)|- L horseback. Naturally the Filipinos do &>iwt stray for from their home villages, news as well as merchandise does circulate, freely. Ii is* no uncomy" man thing to find a variety of dialects G‘. spoken by the natives in I rarerxing 30 £ tv or 40 miles, arid this diversify ,o'f lanhas br°u perpetuated by th-e dilliii||i dulities in"the way of travel.. Air tpiv a start has been ,made by lUnitedI United States officers in Manila, lore the streets have been greatly proved, and t-histVat-uro of American Jgresshas been one of Hie most poipir of any introduced by our people, ere seems to be a noticeable comiecn between the means of conimuniion of a country and its progresstord civilization. Bodily motion apirs to stimulate movememt ine.nitally 1 spiritually. If. therefore, the sl,i.OOO just appropriated for good road's Bn Luzon is devoted" to'-the making of Ratisfamorv highways and is not partly .diverted into’ the'pockets of shiftless liSr-’flli shortest eon-tractors who give no •equivalent therefor, it isprobable that. *whfl.tHrr may, be the ultimate fate of isltihl future generations.of FilijAnos will applaud the first legislative ( *jst.of the American commission as one Mjllife'wisest steps it- could have taken. l-wOWcago Record.

'j Philippine Forcuf Preoerres. I <’,PP OTI i - «i>mnwtldati<in‘of thew»r department the- agricultural dcpartprepariiig*' air- ordteT •setting as forest, reserves the Island of , I'Sombion;'which Is*.north-of the-island' also the' h-kind' of Tamtam, •; ,whlch is'one of the extreme group of ;Tl]thp, Jolp island^ 1 of the Philippine ‘ f)dicers of the.ntmy who hams '■[' bejen investigating the islands have' that these are the richest lands world ,fpr rubber trees, and it is i£ .tf , 4 e ' fwtentioifi of the Washington authorities to have the trees preserved