LUXURY TRAIN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 876, 21 January 1930, Page 11

LUXURY TRAIN

RAILWAY COMPANY WHICH BUILDS HOSPITALS The company which controls the South Manchurian Railway must be one of the most progressive in the world. In addition to possessing the most luxurious travelling accommodation the company: Builds and staffs hospitals. Builds and staffs schools, Controls a large experimental farm. These interesting details were given this morning by Mr. L. Hogwood, a master at the Kowliai Junior High School, who returned by the Ulimaroa. He was one of the New Zealand delegates to the conference .of the Institute of Pacific Relations at Kyoto, Japan, and afterward toured Korea and Manchuria to study conditions there. Mr. Hogwood says that the Japanese have made tremendous developments in Manchuria. The South Manchurian Railway, which is controlled partly by the Japanese Government and partly by private individuals, is most efficient and an organisation of which its owners should be very proud. He travelled on the railway as far as Kungchuling, where the company has its experimental farm. The trains are most luxurious. There are elaborately fitted parlour and sleeping cars and every compartment has hot and cold water. Mr. Hogwood travelled during the winter. On the trip through Korea, from Fusan, he was impressed by the pieturesqiue white dress of the Koreans and their bird-cage hats and long pipes. In Manchuria there was little growth during the winter and the railway ran through great plains. These, apparently, are all suitable for development. Huge stacks of sayo beans were to be seen along the railway line. Most of them were exported to Japan. Rice and wheat were being grown in increasing quantity and the railway company was experimenting with the production of tobacco on its farm. The country, although it has a severe winter, becomes very warm in summer and is suitable for the cultivation of tobacco. In Manchuria, Mr. Hogwood saw numbers of “White Russians” who have had a pitiable time. They were refugees and endured all kinds of abuse in the hands of the Chinese. It is estimated that there are 100,000 of them in Manchuria. Mr. Hogwood stated that he had been asked to see what he could do for them in New Zealand—to make investigations regarding any possible openings if any emigrated to the Dominion. The Russians in Manchuria are having a terribly hard time. Although he saw no actual evidence of the reported cholera epidemic in China, Mr. Hogwood says that the poorclass Chinese are living very close to the bread line. They have nothing to spare and a severe winter means a good deal of distress. When he left Shanghai heavy snow was falling and as the steamer on which he travelled passed down the river the whole countryside was white. A cold winter such as the Chinese were apparently experiencing would curtail food supplies. While travelling through Manchuria Mr. Hogwood met an ex-Aucklander, Mr. Lindsay Upfill, on the train. He is the travelling representative of the New Zealand Insurance Company, . with headquarters at Shanghai,