Nelson Evening Mail FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1926 QUEEN-CITIES OF THE PACIFIC

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 18 June 1926, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1926 QUEEN-CITIES OF THE PACIFIC

THE lesson to be learnt from the origin and growth of the great cities which stand on the shores of the vast Pacific Ocean, is one which proves beyond all doubt the immense enterprise and widely reaching civilization of the White Race. Eliminate tho Queen-Cities founded by the White Race on the littoral of the Pacific, and there remain but one or two Asiatic ports which may be considered as of first importance, and then only because they have adopted the methods and civilisation of the White Race. The greatest of such cities is Tokio, the capital of Japan. Originally it was Yedo—"the Estuary Gate"—and was founded by the Tokugawa Shoguns in 1590, but in 1868 tho Japanese Emperors made it their capital, and re-named it Tokyo—: :tho Eastern Capital"—and it has been the chief city of Jepan ever since. In 1890 it had a population of nearly 1£- million people: in 1913 its population was 2£ millions. A few years ago it was destroyed by earthquake'and fire: what its population is to-day is not clear, but doubtless it is very great. The other great Mongolian ports are Osaka and Canton with populations of 1£ millions and li millions respectively. The latter was modernised by the late Sun-Yat-Sen, President of the South China Republic, who made it his capital. Hongkong (with possibly the greatest trade cf any port in the world—4o million tons of shipping, including incoming and outgoing vessels, per annum), Singapore, and Shanghai, are great Oriental cities-because the White Race has made them so. They are destined to me much greater, and it will be the energy and enterprise of the white man which'will make them greater. But the most civilised and moat beautiful cities of the Pacific lie on its eastern and southern shores. Consider Sydney's incomparable situation on Port Jackskon. 'Founded in 1788 and named after the first Viscount Sydney, in 1863 it contained nearly 100,000 peo : pie, in 1890 it contained half-a-million, to-day its population has reached, if it has not exceeded one million. Millions of tons of shipping enter and leave it annually. Its Litest evidence of progress—the immense viaduct and bridge .which will join the northern and southern sides ■of Port Jackson—is proof enough of Sydney's determination to retain, its position as a Queen City. Melbourne, founded in 1835 and named, ;'n 1837, after Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister, contained in 1851 (when gold was discovered in Victoria) but 25,000 people: in 1891 it contained half-a-million. To--day jt emulates Sydney in size and importance.

On the Pacific Slope stands San Francisco: Founded in 1849, its population reached 20,000 by the end of that year. Its prosperity was phenomenal. In 1900 it contained a population of 342,000 people. In 1907 it was totally destroyed by earthquake and fire. But it arose like the Phoenix from the ashes, and to-day its population is well over half-a-million. But an example of even more rapid growth is Los Angeles, the "miracle city" of .southern California, Fifty-four years ago this extraordinary city had a population of 6000 people, to-day its population is 1.150,000. lis present rate of increase is 150,000 people per annum. It needed a water-supply, so it tapped 'the Owens River, 289 miles away, and brought it into its environment, at a cost of five million pounds sterling—enou'gh water to supply two million people. It needed a. harbour, so at a cost of £4,600,000 it excavated "the second greatest harbour in tonnage cargo in America—greater than New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; liO per cent greater than Boston, and second only lo the Port of New York, while in intercoastal commerce it surpassed even that great • world-metropo-lis -and centre of the nation's commercial life." Such fads prove, how tight' a grasp the White Race, has on the Pacific, how its interests pervade; that mighty ocean, and how greatly it has advanced the cause of civilisation across its broad waters. Less than a hundred years ago the Pacific was an ocean whose shores wove, dotted with a few unimportant Tndo-Spanish towns on the, one side, and with hermit cities of semi-barbarous Mongolian people on the other side. To-day, in California, in Vancouver, in Australia, in Now Zealand, and in the three great Oriental ports—Hongkong, Shanghai, Singapore —and in the modernised seaport cities uf Japan, the Pacific possesses sufficient evidence of civilisation. The change has been effected by the, White Pace, whose influence, in the Far East has transformed the Japanese from a- her-mit-nation into the most prosperous and powerful Asiatic people. That inlluence may yet save China from her--•elf. and preserve her from her enemies. II is i],e influence of the Queen Cities el Ihe Pacific, disseminating by means id their far-reaching commerce* and their übiquitous mercantile marine the < ivilisntion of the White Race.