PICTURESQUE BURMAH.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 111, 12 May 1909, Page 8

PICTURESQUE BURMAH.

"ON THE EOAD TO MANDALAY." CHAT WITH AN INDIAN OFFICIAL. Mr. F. S. Williamson, of the Indian Civil Service, and Deputy-Commissioner in Burmah, was diffident regarding the interest value to New Zealand of any observations he might be able to make concerning • the land of pagodas and the country "'on the road to Mandalay," when seen by a, representative of the Evening Post to-day. He wa-s on a world's tour ; had been nine months away from home- and duty; and hn could not_ say what had happened at Rangoon, Mandalay, or Bhamo recently. But the never-to-be-daunted gold-hunters up the Irawadi — he had met them, knew something of their work, their dredging. Up at Myitkyina, on the Irawadi and a confluence or two, the dredgers are at work — huge broad-beamed boats, with their revolving buckets, taking toll of the river beds. New Zealanders and Australians form the greater part of the concern, and have big hopes of doing well for themselves and the company which is conducting operations. Burmah, as elsewhere, has its speculators, and the resident whites have shown their confidence in this dredging concern oy subscribing heavily for shares. The gold won, says Mr. Williamson, is of -i very good class — heavy and well-bodied. Formerly it was sent Home to London and Hamburg, but now the company has decided to do all its own work of assaying it. Last year the dredgers struck a bad patch of disaster. A big dredge went down the river before a roaring flood, while cholera, of all things, came into the settlement, and severely retarded its progress. Nevei theless, last April the secretary of the company, with Mr. Williamson accompanying, took down gold bars, £5000 worth, to Rangoon. "But tho insurance, freight, and escort rates are very hea-vy," comments the Deputy-Commis-sioner. He thinks that the dredging will become and remain a permanent industry. Steadily the gold-seekers and the dirty-looking boats are climbing up the river v>ut of civilisation and beyond the confluence with the Irawadi of the Mali Kah and Namai Kha — out beyond British administration, which extends only to the confluence. They are now working into desolate country, and the fiery untamed and impudent Kachin tribe is not prepared to hand over the waters to the white invaders without hitting back. The boat service on the Irawadi the Indian official considers a very fine one — "one of the finest in the world." The steamers are fast, clean, and more than comfortable, as is necessitated by the heavy tourist traffic that scatters minted gold up and down the river during the cold weather. From Rangoon to Mandalay the mail boats make the service ; beyond to Bhamo, high ap, at the bottom of the Defile, smaller steamers carry on the work. The cargoes are many and varied. Enormous arid weird caravans of mules from the Yunnan drift into Bhamo and unload their Chinese merchandise. A big trade is done in paddy, walnuts, and dried fruits'; one in par'tienlai:, the Leechees, a white gelatinous : .frnit, with a large stone. The ca-ravans also bring something else — a prohibited commodity not unknown in New Zea •land — but Mr. Williamson said nothing -of that. In the return trade up the river salt is a large item, with piece goods Dulking conspicuously. As for Buvmah itself, the people, the native industries, the pagodas and tem•plee, the rice fields, the coal fields that petered out "so unobtrusively" ; of the duties of- a British Deputy-Commissioner in the picturesque land of the Irawadi ; the Indian official refers one to the various oncyclopaediae, the illustrated geographies, and the cinematograph. But .it is a vastly interesting country, and carefully and faithfully administered.

James Wilson, a bushman from the King Country, was arrested on Saturday in Auckland, and bailed out on Sunday. When he left the wafcehhouse he had £14 in his. possession, and when apprehended again on Mlonday morning, asleep in a foundry, the amount had diminished by £6." Mr. Kettle, S.M., remarked : "Many of them do far better than that." A "fine of 20s was imposed, says the Star, and defendant was advised to make tracks for his native wilds with all dispatch. Details of free health talks to women are advertised. Mr. E. J. King, music seller and pianotuner, announces that new sixpenny songs, etc . are arriving daily. His 6trmg band is> available for engagements. "Manufacturers are doing their part; you do yours," is the keynote of an advertisement by Mr. H. F. Allen, secretary to the Industrial Association on the faubject of Industries Week. Meagre. V. Kennedy Macdonnldj Ltd.. advartiso propertied for private ewe, and > n new list of houses to let.