GENERAL NEWS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9833, 26 June 1914, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS.

<l l'he Siamese arc the French of tho East," remarked Mr J. Kcddie, a visitor lrom Bangkok, who is staving in iydney, last week, lie said tfiat the Siamese had strict ideas of etiquette, uici that lheir ceremonies among tliemovlves were full ot jxtlito expr»vsions and punctilious obt>ervances. There vere .nany beautiful paiaces in Bangkok, and ihe Buddhist tempies that were among .iie most magnificent in the world, home jf the principal streets were as line rs «ny oi the boulevards of Paris. Every wealthy Siamese owned a motor-car. tnd horse-racing was a patsion with ihem, the principal event being the iving'e Cup. Bangkok was an up-to-iate city, quite Continental in character. Ihe Siamese army was a fine >ody, and they had an aviation corps and five aeroplanes which frequently manoeuvred over tne capital. The cost ot living in Colombo is high. ''European clerks in the large commercial houses arc paid £4OO a year, writes a correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald. "Expenses are so high that the usual practice is lor four or five men to club together, and live in a bungalow. The bungalow is generally a fair-sized homestead; the living rooms are large and lolt.v, the bedrooms airy, each with its own bathroom, and the whole is usually surrounded by a deep verandah and a garden full of shady trees. There are also servants' quarters. Each man has a personal servant or valet, and in addition a couple of house boys, two or three boys in the kitchen, two in the garden, two wash- i erraen, and a couple more coolies for j the most menial tasks will be deemed I necessary. The man, who are clubbing together, will each probably have his own rickshaw boy. The wages of these J servants will amount to about £'lßo a i year; the rent of the house will be £2OO, and food, except for local products, is by no means cheap, so that when all is said and done, £4OO a year is about the least upon which a single man can livo comfortably." The fact that some Englishmen cannot adapt themselves straight away to the gyrations of the Australian buck- j jumper, should not by any means bo advanced as an argument that they! | cannot ride at all, says the Sydney I Daily Telegraph. In 'fact, according to Mr E. P. Walker, of the Sydney Stock Exchange, who has just returned to Australia after a hunting season in England, the Englishman and also the Englishwoman who follow hounds have reached an equestrian standard that is particularly high. "I wa 5 hunting in Wiltshire," said Mr Walker, "and what I saw there made mo regret that I had ever thought disparagingly of the Englishman as a horseman. I have seen men come down the greatest croppers, and yet calmly mount again and ride on. I have scon them rise at anything in the shape of an obstacle, and I have 6et?n an enthusiast following tho hounds on horseback with his fractured arm in a sling. An example of pluck was shown me by a lady rider who fell in a ditch with her horse encumbering her. Yet she got up as though nothing had happened." In the hunting field, Mr Walker declared, the Englishman stands by himself.