TOUR OF INDIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 28 April 1937, Page 9

TOUR OF INDIA

5 ; 000 MILES BY RAIL PICTURESQUE SETTING (Conclusion.) Kandy is very beautifully situated, nestling amidst a setting of low, forestcovered hills. It is 72 miles from Colombo, and its altitude above sea level is 1680 feet. This is responsible for

a cooler temperature after sunset than that of the capital. It is very Warm during the day but there is no great difference in the night temperature. We had a beautiful drive over some wooded hills close to Kandy. These roadways are named after the wives of former governors of the districts. The wooded hills are Government reserves and if destroyed would spoil Kandy as the walks and drives through the natural forest land could not be excelled for variety and beauty. The Botanical Gardens was visited and the caretaker generously went round with us and gave quite a lot of information relative to the plants and trees native to Ceylon. I got a general mixture of all sorts and will bring them home if they will last.

We left Kandy at 9 a.m. the 25th February in our car for Nuwara-Eliya, which we are told will be very cold on account of the altitude, which is 6000 ft up in the Ramboda range. The car driver supplied by Cooks is a very good fellow, a Singhalese of course. He acts as a guide as well as driver. There was not much in the way of historic sightseeing in this part of Ceylon. Tea bushes are low growing and are kept dwarf by pruning, and do not grow much bigger than an ordinary gooseberry bush. They have small pointed leaves something like the native Koramiko, but much more compact. After full growth of 3 years they are pruned hard back, but will recover the first year. There are plenty of places to visit and 1 am sure we will find plenty to do and see. The day is beautifully fine and the driver was excellent. The first portion is comparatively level and through cultivated and wild areas of large trees and shrubs. The tea plantations came into evidence and continued so in a more or less degree as we proceeded. On the Ramboda hills some very extensive tea gardens are to be seen and at several places en route there are large up to date tea factories.

Nuwari Eliga is a well patronised I place. Its coolness attracts those from such as Colombo etc. The beautiful surroundings of hills, mountain streams of excellent water, and the perfect roads for motor cars make this place easy of access. The journey up the 12 miles of twisty road of the Ramboda hills was j certainly not an easy one to negotiate, j hut our driver was equal to the occasion and did the numerous corkscrew j bends without the slightest trouble. Ml. : Pedro is the highest point and is quite > close to Nuwara-Eliya. Its altitude is ; 8200 feet. This morning I made the | ascent of Pedro with a guide; the track up is a wide and comparatively easy one. Although Pedro is over 8000 feet trees grow on the top. This is on account of the tropical position of Ceylon In New Zaeland at half this height the trees disappear and the snowline comes into evidence. Native bush covers the

mountains and also all the adjacent hills. Splendid outlooks can be obtained from vantage points en route and also a comprehensive one from the top. All the surrounding country for many miles may be seen. . The labouring classes of the Ceylonese are in no way different from their neighbours, the Indian, in many respects. The women do the heavy toil; you see them working on the roads cracking and carrying road metal and other jobs that men alone would do in our country. It is astonishing the large bundles they carry with apparent ease on top of the head, in many cases more than a strong man could lift from the ground. They seem to be engaged in all manner of work. They sell goods in the market places, tend to all household and field work, tea picking and all classes of field work, and certainly

slave from morn to night. The Cingalese women dress in the usual gay colours like their Indian sisters. Boots

are rarely worn by either the natives of India or Ceylon. Outside they can travel over the roughest roads whilst carrying heavy loads on the top of their heads. Their movements in the house are silent and as servants in any capacity they are excellent. On 9th March started at 9 a.m. for a drive through more tea plantations and hilly country. We passed through Badulla, a small settlement surrounded with some of the largest tea estates. Many fine factories were to be seen. The female pickers were busy at work and a group of them near the roadway gave us a chance of seeing the dexterous way they plucked the buds from the low-growing bushes and their passing them over their shoulders to the baskets

suspended from the head and resting on the back. En route we called at the Ella rest house and had a look down the beautiful valley below. The rough high ranges with vegetation and here and there waterfalls pouring over steep rocky crags enhanced the beholder. It is a strange thing that fences are nowhere to be seen in either India or Ceylon. In the thousands of miles we have journeyed through all sorts of agricultural and pastoral land no dividing line could be seen. The only place where wire fencing was used throughout was on the railway tracks. Motored from Bandarawela, over the adjacent hills, passed through large tea plantations and saw their accompanying factories. Sir Thomas Lipton's plantation was seen en route. About 30 miles from the above place we came to the Diyaluma Falls, their height being 628 ft. From the roadway, they looked very beautiful, being sprayed out by the light opposing air and the bright sunlight playing upon them. The return next day to Colombo was by a different i route and we passed through luxuriant 'tropical vegetation for about 100 miles.

Ceylon in my opinion is an ideal country to spend a holiday, especially those places mentioned previously. The altitudes of five to seven thousand feet up definitely lowers the temperature and consequently makes it pleasant for white to live in. Statistics:—

India.—The population of India at the present time is 338,000.000. about onefifth of the inhabitants of the earth. The

two great religious sects are of the Hindu and Mahommedan faiths, the former numbering about 236.000.000 and the latter 77,000.000. The remainder are of mixed creeds.

Ceylon.—The population to-day is 5,500,000. The products of importance are as follows: Tea, 600,000 acres, six to seven hundred pounds per acre are yielded, and when gathered passes through a process of withering, rolling, fermenting and firing, before it is fit for use.

Rubber: The same acreage as above is also under cultivation and yields from ‘lib to 51b per tree. They grow 30 to 40ft high.

Coconuts:—About one million acres are cultivated, grown chiefly for the copra. Coir, string and rope are subsidiary industries. Cocoa. 3 000 acres. The beans when gathered go under a process of fermenting and curing in Ceylon before being exported.

The recommended time to see those countries is January. February and March, as this period of the year is winter time and free from the unbearable heat and monsoon rains. The 10 weeks we were there we expcrcnced beautiful weather the whole lime.