HYDERABAD, DECCAN, INDIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10132, 1 November 1910, Page 3

HYDERABAD, DECCAN, INDIA.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLACE TO WHICH MR AND MRS LANG PROCEED.

MR LANG'S VISIT TO THE MASTKRTON Y.M.C.A.

Tho Masterton Y.M.C.A. will be favoured to-night (Tuesday) with a visit from Mr Harry Lang, ,who, after visiting the Y.M.C.A's cf New Zealand and Australia, proceeds to take up Y.M.C.A. work among the students of Hyderabad, Decern), India. He visits Masterton as the first representative- of the Australasian Associations in the Foreign Field, and the responsibility of his upkeep in that important centre will rest upon the Australasian Associations. The members of the Masterton Association are giving bin) a farewell social in tho Gymnasium, and during the evening Mr Lang will speak on "India's Needs and Claims, and the Call of the Young Men of the East." The gathering will be open to tho public (both sexes), and all interested in Missionary work, whilst an effort will be made to organise, a "Foreign Work Club" amongst the members of the Association. The president will take the chair, and a full gathering of ladies and gentlemen is expected.

This article has been written by Colonel Flowcll Smith, of Queensland, to interest members in sending a Secretary from Australasia to plant an Association in this great city he so well describes.

"During my itinerary in India," J says the Colonel, "I was not-favour-, ably impressed with all 1 saw in the Nizanis territory. Hyderabad State is the largest independent state in India, and the run down from Bombay is enchanting to the new chum in India. At least, ft was to me. An excellent railway service, with every comfort, a not unpleasantly warm climate, and a quick run over some 400 miles of plainland, mostly irrigated, and nearly all cultivated. Past groves of fine toddy palms, every tree of which is leased for a small sum from the Nijar oiPrinco of Hyderabad, for the toddy the tree gives; past enormous stacks of cotton and grain. Cotton in India is carted to the mills on small donkeys, the material being enclosed in a net, not a sack, and on arrival at the mill is weighed and stacked in the open, as we stack hay. No roof, not even a tarpaulin put over it. Some of these stacks contain hundreds of tons. At every station one sees the heterogeneous crowd at all Indian stations. All good tempered and laughing, and always keen on getting a few pies (a pie is the twelfth part of a penny or anna). Hyderabad city is decidedly a fine place, including Secunderaliad and the Cantonments, it is some eight miles through, and in places simply charming. The quantities of palms, rich hibiscus, point nettia, coral tree, and a score of other brilliant flowered shrubs, together with the white buildings, many fine sheets of water, and on the whole well-kept streets leave an impression on one that is not easily erased. As thd sun sots the air becomes heavy with the scent of the flowers. This is the one place in India where I was favourable impressed with the smells. The streets of Secunderabad are rather wider and better kept than most Indian, towns, but just as crowded, while Hyderabad city proper is more like a disturbed ant bed than anything else I have seen. The Nizarus troops are as good as a circus to look at. All sorts and conditions of uniforms and arms with thtr exception of the Imperial Service Troops. These are kept ready to place at the disposal of'the Indian Government if required. They are well armed and trained and magnificently horsed, on the very pick of the Australian horses that go into the Bombay or Calcutta markets. Money is of no object to the Nijan, and this is his pet corps. This corps also has the finest polo team in India. There are some nice hotels, the most comfortable of which is Mrs Montgomery's, and an excellent club. There is a large British and British Indian Garrison kept at the Entrenchment and Balarum, on the outskirt of Sectinderland. A fine water supply, indeed water is everywhere; huge tanks and artificial lakes. There are many very interesting ruins about, by far the best of which are thb ruins of Golconda. It is quite a nice afternoon's run to leave Secunderabad about 2.30 p.m., and drive out some five or six miles. The first mile or so is through the town, then along the margin of a lake, which I should think would run over two miles long by three-quarters of a mile wide, and well supplied with wild duck, then on along a dusty road to the old ruined fort on the mill. Here you leave the gharrie behind, and take to your feet, and up, ever up, till your legs begin to crack under you ; over ruined and broken walls, little more than debris, up alleys between walls, and up a fine old flight of steps, then up a r arrow ', stairway, on to the top of the tower or ancient kelp. All sorts of old cannon, now useless and idle, but if

one of them could speak, what tales it would tell for many and many a bloody fight, and ghastly 'such' and massacre has this old battered spot been the theatre of, and many a gun mark is left on it that is a momento of hard hitting. On arrival at the top I was repaid for my climb. The view was simply'glorious. The sun, now setting low, lit up half a hundred sheets of water with as many colours. The margins of the lakes or tanks were fringed with graceful palms. The vast white town in the distance. The domes and minnarcts, some in the moonlight, and others shaded impressed me strongly with their beauty. They seemed like, the past ages and races telling me what an atom I was. Nearer, almost at my feet, were the domes of the massoleme of past kings. Great domed chambers, something after the style of the Taj Msihul, but without a scrap of beauty. There was quite a number of these tombs ; ghosts of the dead past, and these, too, were fast crumbling to ruin ; Palace Mosques and fort fast going to pieces, and yet within a mile or two of a vast and prosperous city. These tombs are those of kings, who reigned long before the Nizarus. I remained on the spot for an hour or more, there was so much to see. An amusing incident occurred, while I was up here. Just as the sun set, a native band struck up. They played about eight bars of "See Saw, Margery Daw," and over and over they played this wretched jingle. _ I timed them, and with never a variation they kept on for twenty minutes. All around were huge masses of granite, talcing every imaginable shape, some pillars of stone poing up 40 to o0 feet as if they had been hewn out and set up. The drive .back to town I shall never forget. We were tired with climbing, and it was lovely to rest in our gharrie, and bowl along homewards to our hotel. But the beauty of that lake, ■ the town beyond it was beautifully lit up with many coloured lights as we drove along the margin, it looked like liquid lire, while the running trees that grow along the fringe of the lake, and have round mop-like tops gave one a weird feeling, as if we were watched by ghosts. The air too, was heavily, almost too heavily laden with the scent of the frangipanni and was delightfully cool, witli a very little breeze, just enough to ripple the water and make it give off that soothing sound that makes one think there is music in the air. The Char Miliar is a very fine piece of work, and forms a gateway over the street with four fine angle towers. The Mecca Masgid and Jumma Masjid are well worth a visit. A couple of years ago several of the dams of these artificial lakf>s burst, letting an enormous flow of water into the river that flows through .the city. The result was that part of it was carried away, and many thousands lost their lives there. The natives here are of a much.darker hue than one finds in the Punjab. The women carry themselves like queens, and are much more uncovered. Tn the Northern and Central India, one rarely sees a woman with her face uncovered, but in Hyderabad one does. Hyderabad, too, is the India of our childhood.' The Indian we know in pictures, the palms, the temple, the baffaloes, and the running little cattle. Patient, longsuffering, hard-working, little cattle, with their upright hdrns and sleek bodies. These byl (cattle) do all the hauling, save where elephants are employed. Much of the waste land around Hyderabad is covered with a rank growth of custard apple, which grows to perfection, and the fruit is gathered, sold or eaten by the natives. There is also a profusion of Baal fruit, but this is of no use. Servants are easy to get, cheap and reliable. The forests arcswarming with panthers aud several varieties of buck, also a few tigers, and a fair number of wild Digs. Inshort sport is plentiful. There are many ruined cities within easy distance. The ruins of Doulatabad are very fine, though it is risky going through them on account of the fierce Indian bee. Round one tower at a | height of 40 feet, I counted 28 ! swarms, and they must' have been : down fully eight feet. On the least "provocation, such as smoking u li/'d talking, they attacked at once, and two days before I was there man was stung to deatli for the simple offence of shouting at a dog. Near this place are the ruins of Rosa, and the- caves of ftllora. At the latter there are temples carved out of the solid granite in the mountain side, while thousands of beautifully finished carvings of men and animals have been ruined by the Mohemmedan conquerors, who deface everything. Of the ruins of Rosa I can say but little. I was told they have authentic history of the place from B.C. 300, and even then it was spoken of as being in ruins some 20 centuries before. One lias hut to look at it to realise it. The climate of Hyderabad is very similar to Brisbane, though somewhat warmer in winter. On the whole I should sum Hyderabad up as delightful.