CHANGES IN PALESTINE.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13489, 8 June 1914, Page 8

CHANGES IN PALESTINE.

Very shortly the streets of the Holy City will hum with ;the noisfe of electric cars and its more important thoroughfares Avill be illuminated at night by electricity. Its old picturesu© walls and massive towers are, says the "Manchester Guardian," to be removed, and the city given an adequate water' supply. . The rapidity with which Jerusalem is extending, through the return of the Jews'in,such large numbers to the city, has rendered these improvements necessary. To the north and west of the old city there has sprung up,-•within the last decade, large Jewish colonies, populous residential sections,. as well as convents, hospices, schools, and other biuldings, with the resulf~that to-day there is a greater Jerusalem without the walls than within.

Of late years Jerusalem'has suffered q;reatly from want of fresh water. With the exception of a small quantity brought into the city from the ancient pools of Solomon, near Bethlehem, by means of a pipe which runs along the old aqueduct, the Holy City is entirely dependent for its water upon the rainfall. Now reservoirs^ are to be built in the upper part of the valley of the Brook Cherith at the springs of Am Fariah and Am Fouwar, where the water will be stored and brought into th ecity as required. A year ago the Holy City was equipped with an efficient telephone service, and now its police are to have bicycles. All over the country modern methods are being brought into vogue. On the rich plains of Sharon, lying between Jaffa and Jerusalem, one may detect modern harvesting and .reaping machines driven by steam, as well as threshing machines operated by motors. This is a.vast improvement on the old-fashioned methods of reaping by hand and threshing out corn on the primitive threshing floors by oxen. The extensive orange groves around Jaffa are now being irrigated by water raised by motor-driven pumps. At Jaffa the French are to build' a harbour, which is certainly badly needed. On the Dead Sea a motor-boat has been placed, and similar craft are now to bo run upon the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee, carrying both passengers and freight. Upon the shores of the Sea of Galilee a fish-curing and sardine factory is to be established.

A few months ago the Government began the construction of a railway from Aeuleh, on the plain of Esdraelon, near Nazareth, to Jerusalem, passing through Jenin and Nablous. The rails have already been laid across the plain Jenin. This line will join up the Holy City and Damascus. Then the French have been granted a concession to build "a line from Ryak, in the north, to Ramleh, a station on the Jaffa and Jerusalem railway, from which point it is expected to be continued later southward into Egypt.