COLOMBO,

Otago Witness, Issue 2664, 5 April 1905, Page 80

COLOMBO,

an important port and busy town. The chief productions throughout Ceylon are spices, cocoanuts, mangoes, bananas, ink-fruit, plantains, areca nut, rice, and tea. Tea is getting a big export; lO^OO.OOOIb were shipped in December, 1904, at an average • price of 6.61 d per lb. There is a big agitation going on to cultivate more cotton and to largely extend the cultivation or the indiarubber plant. The last return of sales of Ceylon-grown rubber gave an average of 6s Id per lb — a splendid price. They are sowing Para rubber seed. Each plant is allowed 20 square feet. It takes seve-n years from the date of sowing to mature for tapping. When this time comes the flow is continuous. Coffee, which in the years gone by was one of the principal productions of Ceylon, has entirely disappeared, all the planters being ruined through the blight in the coffee plant. I left Colombo for Tuticorin, one of the southern ports of India, at 6 Ji.m^ a.nd^ reached- Tuticorin at about 8 aVm. laexF day. From this port I first went to>

MADURA. All the land between Tuticorin, Tinnerelly, and Madura is of -splendid quality, with good crops of rice, gram, and cattle fodder all the way. On arrival at Madura I first visited the large temple Meeuatachi, of nine towers, one of the noblest in India. The chief structure is a vast building of granite, but the multitudinous external figures are mostly stucco ; still there are a number oarved in granlbe, and so fine is the- work that one would think it scarcely possible that granite could be so delicately and perfectly chiselled. In connection with these temples you will always find what is called a tank, or artificial lake. The Tappa Tank at Madura is a very fine sheet of enclosed water, in the centre of which is a small island planted with shrubs and flowers, with a pagoda in the centre. Once annually, at the full moon in the month of January, the god and goddess are removed from th© temple in a procession car to a floating palace specially prepared for their reception on the lake. The car is drawn 12 times arouud it, all the approaches being illuminated by thousands" of oil-lamps- During the street procession of god and goddess, Juggernaut cars, etc., the faithful ones fall in, laden with gifts and offerings on behalf of the temple. This is continued till midnight, when the god and goddess are again drawn back and placed on their respective thrones in the temple. Before presenting their offerings the faithful ones bathe in the sacred waters of the tank. The figures on the tank temple represent a great number of female figures beseeching special favours for the offerings made-^the barren ones that they may be blessed with offspring; others, if they -have too many of the one sex, that the conditions may be changed, etc. From the number of applicants, the god to whom, appeal is made must have a lot to attend to. Madura is well set in a fertile plain, surrounded by ranges of variable Heights as a border. It is intensely hot just now — almost unbearable.

IN TRICHINOPOLY.

From Madeira I went to ' Trichinopoly, another important South Indian town. The streets are well made, and all planted with shade trees, mostly tamarinds. I was told that the revenues from the sale of the taramind fruit was sufficient to keep the roadlines in order. The crops of corn, cocoanuts, tobacco, vegetables, and green feed between these two cities also look very well. The native men. women, and children all along the line and stations look uncommonly well, and show unmistakeable evidence of abundance in this part of India. There are no foreign shopkeepers in Triehinopoly. All the business is done by the natives in their bazaars. These shoDS, or bazaars as they call them, are of about the same dimensions as elsewhere — from 6ft to 12ft .square, with a door in the middle of the back wall as entrance to the living apartments behind, which is on the same contracted lines. They evidently like to huddle together, notwithstanding the heat. In Trichinopoly you find temples and tanks, as elsewhere. It appeal's to me after sighting so many of these temples that they are all of similar design : it is merely a question of size. In every temple, no matter how high, wherever there is a doorway in any storey or section, you will find in a, niche on each side of the doorway a watchman, carved in granite chiefly, but sometimes in stucco. This depends on the surroundings. The Temple City is separate from that of Trichinopolv proper, and is manaeed independently. The population of Temple City is 21.000. No stranger is pe--mitted to pass through the inner gate, which the Brahmins only enter, and hold strictly sacred. At the chief gateway of this temple the corner stones arc 80ft high, flic weight or each beincr 60 tons of solid granite. There are a great number of banyan trees about. These trees grow with great ranidity, sending down roots to the ground _from the branches, which soon become trunks, and go on spreading. I saw one banyan tree with 105 trunks, covering 70ft in circumference, the ground shaded by this iree being 180 ft in diameter.