Modernising China

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 216, 12 March 1914, Page 5

Modernising China

PACE OI.T OF A NEW 1500 K. SCIiPKISIXG STORY OF ?I«JCI{ESS TIIAMS. TELEPHONES, TELE(UIAPHS AXiD AEROPLANES. By Tclegraph—Prebs Association. Wellington, Lii.st Night. There arrived i n Wclington by thi Manuka to-day a visitor from China, who was able to give at first hand ii story of the evolution of tilings in that, troubled eastern land. lie is Mr. Win, E. Soutcr, who has represented tin -Valional Hible Society of Scotland at Chungking, West China, for the lasi five years, and who lias come out to the Dominion on a holiday. It will sur prise many people to learn, as Mr Soutcr assures us, that many of China's Inland towns are quite as up-to-date athe towns in New Zealand or Australia Indeed, he goes further, and says that ~onu- of' the cities in the interior of China are even more up-to-date than lowns upon which Xew Zcalandcrs sometimes look with pride. Mr. Soutei says there is now a good postal service throughout the whole ./ China, and last year 421 millions of letters and parcels were dealt with. ( o:ie missionary residing at Siningfu, on the westein border of Kansu, now has bis daily mail, whereas when he first went into the piovince there were only four deliveries a year. The telegraph service Inn now more than 87,000 miles of line, and inst before Mr. Souter left Lhnssa, the capital of Thibet, had been linked up with Pekin, and so with the rest of the world. At present China has 0000 miles in railways in constant use, with more than 2000 miles under construction. Telephone systems in the cities are common, und large numbers of the towns are electrically lit. In all coastal cities as far up as Tien Tsin there are tramway systems of modern construction. | Hut perhaps the most remarkable thing which Mr. Souter has to tell of new China is what may be termed the i personal Europeanising of Chinamen. All the students at the universities dress in English fashion, and the old style of wide-brimmed tapering crowned Chinese bat is rarely seen anywhere. Mr. Soutcr says a thing about the modernising of China which will toiL-h the quick of Australasians' pride. Four of five years ago, before the Hammonds and Hawkers and Scotlands were here, China was having her own aeroplane flights at Sheng Tn, the capital of western China. A Chinese constructed a machine himself and made a flight in it. That was four years ago, and there was a decided interest in aviation in the country which was growing as western developments in flying took place. DESTRUCTION 7 OP WALLS OF NANKING. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright Pekin, March 10. The Government has agreed to the demolition of the beautiful old walls of | Nanking.