“LOST ATLANTIS.”

Gisborne Times, Volume LIX, Issue 9575, 28 July 1923, Page 7

“LOST ATLANTIS.”

LECTURE BY MR McCABE. Perhaps the most interesting ot the series of lectures given by Mr Joseph McCabe at' Christchurch was that which dealt with the wonderful discoveries that have been made during tlie last twenty years in the island of Crete, contrasting the present-day condition of the people with the conditions that obtained 4000 years ago. To-day Crete iias no sanitary service worthy of the name. In the olden days the palaces, at least, were more perfectly drained, than those of any city iri Europe until the middle of the nineteenth century.

Exquisite gold cups, fascinating :■ rescues, and beautiful vases gave vivid pictures of the ancient kingdom, a kingdom, said Mr McCabe, where people lived in freedom and happiness. Though men wore corsets and women took part in hull-baiting, it was a civilisation of the very highest order. There were architects, engineers, artists, and sculptors in Crete four thousand years ago who could hold their own with the best in Greece and Rome. Describing bis visit last year to the great Labyrinth of Crete, Mr McCabe said that it hold marvels which astonished the archaeologists of America and Europe. Discoveries had been made which threw light <!ii the human story, and revolutionised our whole conception of the early civilisation. Towns had been unearthed in which artisans of all kinds’ had good stone houses of six to eight rooms, and roads had been found beside, which the famous Roman roads were second-rate affairs.