A Railway in Palestine.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 33, 14 August 1902, Page 18

A Railway in Palestine.

Palestine is usually associated with religious events of long ago, and the thought of a railway through it seems more than a trifle incongruous. Yet for ten years a train has been regularly running from Jaffa to Jerusalem, a distance of 86^ kilometres, or, in British figures, something under 54 miles. The shriek of the railway whistle wakes the stillness of the plains of Sharon. But the sacred gloom of the Holy City itself is subjected to no such indignity, for the Ottoman Government decreed that the terminus of the railway should be fixed at a point a mile or bo from the walls. But to the tourist this is no disadvantage, for the approach to the town from the station is one of the grandest sights in Pales, tine. Says a recent writer: 'The station is built on the east side of the Mountain of Evil Council. You cross this hill, and suddenly lies before you the (Valley of Hinom, with ithe gardens and pool of Gihon, and on the other eide of the valley Mount Zion, with its citadel.' It is not, however, our present purpose to deacaut upon the scenic beauties and the associations of Palestine. These have been more eloquently desoribed elsewhere. It is aa a monument of patience and perseverance against Ottoman stolidity that the railway is distinguished, and it may be regarded as typical Of the tardiness with whioh the Eastern mind recognises the benefits of Western civilisation. The first project for connecting Jeru. salem with its seaport originated about fifty years ago, when only camel paths existed between the two towns, and the wild parts between Jerusalem and the plains of Sharon were comparatively little kDOWu. The honor of being the first to thoroughly investigate and study the question belongs to a German-American named Zimpel. * But like others of similar disposition he received no return for his zeal and labors, and died almost with a broken mind, while others reaped the benefit of his exertions. In 1874-1875 a company of French engineers took up the project and selected another route further north, on part of the old Roman road from Jerusalem to C&tarea, down which St. Paul was escorted. But nothing came of the project. After twelve years more another Frenoh syndicate took the matter up and with infinite difficulty obtained a concession from the Ottoman Government. But there are important conditions attached to it. The line must fall to the State after ninety-nine years, and only Turkish subjects are to be employed, with the exoeption of the engineers, this last concession beinfe probably made because there are no Turks versed in the handling of engine?. And so the train has run daily ever since 1892. doing the journey in three hours and fifty minutes. It haa begun to return a profit to its owners, although there is goods traffic only one way, namely, towards Jerusalem, but of course at certain seasons of the year the tourist traffic is very large. To the advocates of such railways as the Main Trunk line in the north and the Otago Central in the south, we may commend a study of the difficulties attending

the inoeption of the Jaffa-Jerusalem line. It may teaoh them that there are obstacles still more difficult to surmount than the parei- _ mony of governments and the cabals of parliaments. I