IN SOUTH AMERICA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 258, 24 October 1908, Page 3

IN SOUTH AMERICA

A PIUEST-IiIDDEN TOWN. South America is the least known of any of the continents, but Colombia, in the north-western corner, with an area six times as large as New Zealand, is not unimportant, in the world's commerce. and is fairly thickly populated. In a letter received from Air. Gore Adams, formerly the director of the T.iames School of Mine.-, some interesting particulars of the country are furnished. Mr. Adams has been engaged in mining near Medeilin, which lies! several hundred miles inland, and oniy recently left Colombia for England. j "Medeilin.'' he writes, "is a city of, W v 'H)o inhabitants, and is situated in a great valley s<JOOft, above the sca,i the surrounding lulls rising to a height, of :ioUoft. above the town. It is a clean city—the only clean city to be found 1 in any Spanish country in the world, 1 am told, in the centre is the plaza, or, square, which characterises all Spanish towns, and the streets are very narrow. The footpaths are wide enough for one person only. There arc lots of churches, and many of them are ill various stages of building. hi fact, I have never yet seen a completed Spanish church. If by any chance a church should be finished, it is at once pulled down and a larger one started. VJy few of the churches have any seats—, everyone brings his or her camp stool and removes it after the service. The 1 bells never stop jangling, and it is a, strange thing that all their bells are unpleasaut. They clang insistvntly and' annoyingly. Colombia is very priest-; ridden. In Medeilin there are 500 priests and hundreds of nuns. 1 "Not long ago," continues Mr. Adam:;,

"an epidemic broke out in Medeilin.j The Colombian* call it "peste,'' as they eall all epidemics. To cure this peste ,there were three processions on three dilVeient days of hundreds of priesfs. This was certainly quite as ell'ectivc a cure as the visit "f Colombian doctor. The illness was caused by a bad water supply, but no Colombian would ever dream of altering it. It is much easier . to prav, and also cheaper." Medeilin is very inaccessible, and describing the journey to the port, fi'X) miles away, Mr. Adams says the road is such that it would cause a New Zea--1 land back-blocks settler to faint on seeing it. It leads up mountains and down vaileys knee deep iu mud," he says "and this is the entrance to the second largest city in Colombia." 1 Writing of Kingston, the capital city of Jamaica, Mr. Adams states that IS months after the earthquake the city was still for the most part in ruins. " There is, apparently, no money to rebuild, as the insurance companies did not pay up. It is, indeed, a mournful sight," he adds.