ROUMANIA.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 26 January 1917, Page 5

ROUMANIA.

Now that all eyes are turned towards the heroic struggle of Roumania against the aggression of flic Central European Powers, it is amusing to recall that until the predecessor of the present King of Roumania was 'offered the throne of that country, he did not even know of its existence. it is almost identical in area with England and Wales. There are three thousand post offices in Roumania, five thousand miles of telegraph line, and savings banks are i" every town and village. In volume of trade it outdoes all the other Balkan States put together Its monarch is the most firmly seated in the Balkans—perhaps in all Eastern and Central Europe for that matter, its credit stands high; its diplomatic senvice is adroit. Then, again, Roumania has two universities, a. splendid faculty of medicine, and two hundred secondary schools. Fourteen daily papers are published in Bucharest; twenty or thirty magasdnes and reviews. And all this is the achievement of half a century. It appears, viccording to the write; of the article which we quote, that the ayis'oenacy of Roumania, v/hioh leads an existence severed from the rost of the people, finds its exemplar In Prance. Paris copied in every detail of its life.