DEAD CITY.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3598, 2 April 1924, Page 5

DEAD CITY.

DISCOVERIES IN MAYA LAND RUINS FOUND OVER VAST AREA ruins miles in extent. [By Electric Cable —Copyright.] [Auat. and N.Z. Cable Association.] LONDON, March 31. 'The "Daily Mail” publishes an interesting story of Mr Hedges, regarding his discovery of an ancient city in British Honduras. Starting from Punta Gorda on an arduous ride through dense bush, the party often ‘had to hack their way with machetes. The horses were frequently bogged. Finally they arrived at the Maya Indian village of San Pedro. The people were found to be extremely primitive. The women do not wear clothes above the waist. With four Indian guides they cut their way through the bush, arrived at a river, which they crossed in dugouts, and cut through jungle for two miles. Then they arrived unexpectedly at a high mound. The Indians felled the surrounding trees, and disclosed a vast truncated mound, 300 feet high, faced with solid blocks of limestone and sandstone. Clearing away other bushes they found a series of-terraces in ladderlike tiers, all standing upon a stupendous terrace measuring at least a square mile, with six pyramids upon it. Subsequently they discovered an imposing stone stairway, 65 feet broad, leading to a stonefaced structure, 132 feet by 36 feet. The Indians declare that the ruins extend for miles in every direction. Mr Hedges is returning to England to confer with the British Museum authorities. The ruins are so vast that they will entail years of exploration. LURE OP LOTTERIES ANCESTORS OF THE SWEEPSTAKE.

Many narrators have told the story of the old-time lotteries, the disreputable ancestors of the sweepstake that 's so popular nowadays. It scorns (says John o’ London’s Weekly) that Queen Elizabeth set the lottery ball ball rolling in 1567 by proclaiming

“a very rich lottery-general of money, P'ate, and certain sorts of merchandise,” the object-being to find cash for public works—so it was proclaimed. She stopped at nothing to "pro. voko the people” to the novel adventure, by Royal proclamaton, striving to lay low "any scruple, suspicion, doubt,fault or mislikeing ’’Though the first prize was £SOOO the people were overinclined to “suspicion.” So the Queen sent out fretful mandates to Mayors and justices, and appointed a sort of advertising agent to beat up investors, "so, that there shall not one parish escape”; a pretty bit of Royal dagooning for a gamble. Kings James and Charles each sanctioned lotteries, one to benefit the colony of Virginia, another to pay for London’s water supply. There were lotteries of all sortp—for plate, armour jewels, and books; there was even one for the deer df Sion Park. In 1699, £IOOO was offered as a lottery prize, the snares being only a penny each. In 171 S, £1,500,000 were subscribed in an attractive gamble. Henry Fielding ridiculed the public madness in a farce at Drury Hall in 1731. with scenes laid Im a lottery office. Burlesque lottery advertisements began-to appear, like a prospectus for a lottery for ladies,” the chief prize being a husband, guaranteed of high grade. But satire had little effect on the craze. In 172 G an Act was passed for building Westminster bridge from a lottery’s proceeds. At the beginning l of the nineteenth century lotteries began to be advertised by handbills with rhyming effusions, some with humorous woodcuts by such masters as Cruickshank. One design for a Valentine’s Day lottery, shows Cupid fishing for hearts, each inscribed with their value, £21,000. The final abolition of State lotteries, in 1826, cost the Government some £300,. 000 a year.