“UP THE IRRAWADDI”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 115, 12 April 1933, Page 12

“UP THE IRRAWADDI”

ADDRESS TO CITIZENS’ LUNCH CLUB. Mr F. IV. Rhodes, M.A., of Rangoon University, gave an interesting account of Burma to the Palmerston North Citizens’ Lunch Club yesterday, in an address entitled “l)p the lrrawaddi.” Mr Rhodes is a son of Mrs M. Rhodes, principal of the Palmerston North Girls’ High School, and has spent some years in Rangoon. Like most of the great rivers of the world, the lrrawaddi was a muddy stream all the year round, said Mr Rhodes. On the western side of it was situated the city of Rangoon, some twenty miles from the river’s mouth. There were scattered villages in the vicinity, practically every one of which possessed a monastery, the only substantial buildings of tho neighbourhood. The Indians were not alike; a great number of them looked different, talked differently and dressed differently. There were in Rangoon alone some 150,000 Indians. The Chinese population totalled about 50,000. The streets of the city were not very clean and traffic was always congested. The coolies who pulled the rickshaws usually died after a period of five years spent at such work; exposure to all weathers resulting in pneumonia accounted for most ot the deaths.

The University of Rangoon was much better off than New Zealand Universities in the matter of libraries, the speaker added. The students were intellectually at least the equals of New Zealanders or Europeans; in outlook, however, they were about six hundred years behind Western countries.

If one wished to get on to the Irrnwaddi proper it was necessary to take the train to the head of the delta to the town of Pu, the capital of old Burma, a much older town than Rangoon. Early in the 18th century the people of this district in their ignorance and superstition thought that the only way to improve the rice crop was to have a rebellion. The rebellion eventuated with a resultant loss of some hundreds of lives and amongst the slaughtered was only one European. The journey up the river to Mandalay took about* four days. As one progressed, vegetation was seen to be more sparse, the country generally becoming drier.

Burman history he added, began roughly in 1070. The ruined city of Pagan was the centre of Burman civilisation. The famous Ivubla Khan razed it to the ground in the twelfth century. Mandmay itself was an extremely interesting town about the size of Wellington. There had been many rebellions in Burma and mostly they* had originated on account of some pretender to the throne. In one instance an old prophecy that the next ruler would have flames shooting fiom his shoulder was the cause of a political upheaval. A poor Indian labourer who was working one day in the fields happened to turn his head quickly :0 that the cheroot he was smoking knocked against his shoulder, emptying the contents on to the naked flesh so as to cause a burn. The people, seeing the wound, acclaimed him as their ruler and another revolution was promptly initiated. “Faith, plenty of faith, end you have splendid material for revolt, concluded Mr Rhodes On the motion of Mr J. .A. (. olquhoun, who congratulated Mr Rhodes on ms interesting address, remarking that the club had been particularly fortunate latelv in having the opportunity ot hearing "voting New Zealanders speak, who had made their name m other parts of the world, a hearty vote or thanks was accorded the lecturer. Messrs A. Pitt and 0. G. Priest, ot Wellington, were entertained at luncheon.