A GLANCE AT THE EAST

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 207, 10 December 1910, Page 8

A GLANCE AT THE EAST

PROSPEROUS HONGKONG. Sir Henry Wrixon, who has just returned. to Sydney from a trip to the East, was much struck with Hongkong's prosperity. "The harbor," he said, "is covered with steamers, and there are big hotels filled with people. There are big wharves, and fine European buildings, and there is every evidence of business activity. Hongkong is a great centre of distribution for China. They tell me that the Chinese are going to form a rival centre at another port. But the leading men at Hongkong have no fear. They say they'll make up any loss ky manufacturing. To show their quickness in business, I saw a suit of clothes delivered to a man 24 hours after he had ordered it." Mr. M. J. Wrixon, who accompanied his father on the trip, spoke of the narrow streets of Canton, where two sedan chairs have hardly room to pass one another. The streets were full of Chinese, shouting and pushing. The refuse is 'mostly left outside the doors of shops, and carried off by coolies to the ricefields. And the smells are pretty bad. Hardlv any sunlight gets to the streets, for the roofs overhang, and when a street is wider than usual they cover it with cloth. "The women," says Mr. Wrixon, "seem to do most of the work. They even row the sampans. I counted 43 sampans that came out to take off Chinese pasr sengers from the vessel we arrived in; they were all rowed by women. Hongkong is a modern city, with a Chinese quarter; Canton is a Chinese city, with' a European quarter. That's the difference. But in both cities there are no waggons; coolies carry the merchandise about, or it is put direct from the ships into the warehouses at the quay. A shilling a, day would' be a great deal for a coolie to earn, but they struck me as being very contented."