Many Uses For Empty Cans In South Korea

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29791, 6 April 1962, Page 2

Many Uses For Empty Cans In South Korea

Koreans never waste anything—not even empty beer cans, which they solder for downpipes, halve and join up for spouting and flatten to make roofs for their houses, said Miss Joan Mahar, in an address on Korea at a meeting last evening of the Christchurch area group of the Pan Pacific and South-east Asia Women's Association.

They make their own bodies for jeeps from old metal, persevere with great patience to mend a truck when it breaks down and always carry a spare axle, she said. ‘•While we were in Seoul the first warrant of fitness regulation was brought in,” she said. “But it seemed to me the authorities do not look inside a vehicle to see if the engine goes, but will refuse a warrant if the car’s paint has a few scratches on it.” Miss Mahar spent three months late last year travelling through South-east Asia, and considered Korea the most picturesque country she saw on the tour. “The Land Between”

The name Korea meant “the land between” —between China and Japan. Through the centuries it had suffered from the expanding ideas of both countries.

Korea had very few assets, but always looked attractive to China and Japan. It had

become a productive country through sheer diligence, she said.

The golden era of Korea came in about the fifteenth century, when an alphabet of 26 letters was devised and type was made. At that time Koreans made the first “man-of-war,” which looked Like a turtle, and which was used to defeat the Japanese. The standard of Korean ceramics also reached its high standard in the country 's golden age. Food Shortage

“Today 30 million people try to live off the production of 12J million acres Refugees from North Korea coming into the south aggravate the problem and the country has no foreign trade,” she said. The United States had been trying to mcrease food production to meet the increasing population. Seoul, for instance, had doubled its population in a year, Miss Mahar said. Miss Mahar showed slides of Korea.