MODERNISING JERUSALEM.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143787, 10 May 1912, Page 3

MODERNISING JERUSALEM.

Few realise tho rapidity with which Jerusalem is extending. Until a generation ago there were no buildings outside its walls, which have a circuit of about three miles, enclosing about 209 acres, thirty-five of which arc devoted to the temple area. At sundown, as also at noon, during the Mohammedan prayers on Friday, the gates were all closed, and it was almost all a man’s life was worth to arrive after they were shut.

Then, when the Jews began to return in large numbers, and the city could not hold thorn, they ventured to live and build outside, at first with a good deal of apprehension and considerable danger, which gradually passed away as tho government became more stable and extending. Curiously enough, this lino of improvement has followed closely the descriptions of the re-building of Jerusalem given in Jeremiah. Thou one of the gates was left open all night, then a second, and a third, until all are never closed —in fact, two of the entrances have no gates at all,

The recent arrival of a large American motor road-roller in Jerusalem, and the decision to equip the Holy City with an efficient tramway service, calls attention to wlmt is being done in the modernisation of the Holy Land. Indeed, ever since the triumph of the Young Turkish party over Abdul Hamid, some throe and a-half years ago, Western ideas and modern method have been gradually introduced. Those improvements, moreover, have been effected so quietly and with so little advertisement that the rest of the world scarcely realises the progress that lias taken place.—Millgate Monthly.