A STRANGE COUNTRY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 13706, 22 September 1908, Page 2

A STRANGE COUNTRY.

TIMARUVIAX IN KOREA

In the course of a chat with Mr Granger, who is now on furlough from his employment, under an American gold-min-iuy company in Korea, a "Herald" . rejK>rter heard some interesting things about Korea, a queer ''country and a queer people, compared with our own. The country is largely mountainous, yet one of the staple foods of the people is rice, which must be grown on llat irrigated fields. The latitude of Korea is that of Italy, yet, the summers'are hot enough to ripen rice, cotton and bamboo, and the whitens cold enough to convert - the rivers into highways. Last winter at the mines the tliermometer ran down to 26 below zero (Fall), but this was exceptional. On one side of the countiy the tides rise two feet, and the other 32, and here the mudflats at low tide stretch out beyond the horizon. The rice faimer does not drain his land before ploughing, but drown* it under water, and with a broad shovel plough converts the soil into mud. The land is full of cattle; the bulls are beasts of burthen on the highways, the tows the draught b.a'Ms on the farm. There is no market for separator, churn -or pasteuriser there, for tlie cows are never milked. (Happy children, and happy calves !j Their horseo are horsts, not ponies, in make and style, but miiiiatuies. weighing 350 or 4UO lbs; yet they cairy nearly as much as bigger one*, and are easier to load ; but. aie ar» full of vices as the bulls are of placid docility and stolid indifference to ill-usage. Well-to-do jieople wear much white clothing; the masses wear a good deal of fcoil. The latter live in houses of " wattle-aiid-dab," with tile roots in towns, straw roofs iu the country: the chimney is at one end, the fire at the other, with flues beneath the floor of the common living room by uay. common sleeping room at night. There is a railway through the country ami electric trains in the capital, and the roads aie most ot tlitm unpayable half the time. The typical Korean bridge w made of poles, «ui» brushwood for plunking, ami the whole affair is taken up ami stacked ashoie each year beioie the spring floods come down irom the melting of the winter mio\u». Wiih lice, millet, beam*, beef and some garden stuff, some ten million people me and enjoy life after a fashion in a conn tiv of xijialJcr area than New Zealand, much of jt. mouutainotii) and other waste, where long-furred tiger*, leojxirdb. ami wolves may be hunted. The Koreans »r* nidubtrims, with some queer im-onMst-n cics. On the one hand the porters, with human pack «addki>, cany gieat weight;, with an that excite.* admiration for tlwirstrength and endurance; on the other the European cannot avoid a laugh at the .sight of five or seven men u*ing on* shovel. tOu« man stK-eis 'by'-a long handle, two or three im-n mi each side pull the shovel into the spoil and jerk up the shovelful by pulling on a pair of iopej>.; The Koreans as a people ate evidently cap able of development, for under ditection, a» at the American mines, they have proved (lieuuclvtn able to take their chare of the work of every department "I a highly organised industry, even to ihe highest technical branches. The million* huve however been kept down by a primilive system of government and a "'Mjner/.e" M*>:em of taxation. w> that ambition and initiative are practically dead in them. A well cultivated set of sU|>cl»ti(|oUS b-liefn in good and bad devil*, helps their urinal and moial depletion. Th*. condition »f liic i»-ople, who, .ii, a Maori might cay. had It-! th'-u 'iimlli" through misgovern i.teljt, -led lint to the t.'llillv- . ami IIOW to tin; J.ij>an»-e iu/..-r.inili. "I hey sceiim) to need someon,- to looL .-»£:«..- thein. poiiticailv and economically. Mi Granger .kiiine* to expi.so an opinion as to the it final f.m-,. ~, of th- Japan.sc control. I Ije Ki/reni) i.» not without h..t dihood ~: ohyMcal if niiin i-hiiy .voted. Itughy f.-olh.dl i* a v«n fame • iM.r! nith what has long heeti the 11.iionai bus i> nu-.v Ling clicked ->. t.-i Wii*:ef«J. 'ihi. r. the " stom -Sight.' in uhiih ir.,n.ir. ,u.ua!ly !)..iu |l< .gliliowting ami |»e!; f.uli other with tea! ,|«.i,.-, ;t, ;tJ. c.triirt.t. >-. h a iuir ot > hampi--|i* .Hilled With Udd'il'-a, who IHUnt face . Uilgclling .tfid I--ISHIK. '" *■'> m'thiiig "J language and iln- Korean ». .-~ud to havdrv lop-d tie- nm'! *xJen*ive vocabulary of i ito|K ration tnlx le.ird aiiy\rl>-re on earth Hi. r-.'Sit haulage of tile .N-hil eJe t -:j-..-tranni. up »«» * recent date, wa* the csniage of |xsopSe out "i town to u ;!n*-»* on*' «•' t),e V . , tore-lightj". tram», Mr Grang-r fuyr., are paying, 'J'hv people at.-

not wealthy, and=they have not much business to travel for, but they ride on the cartas, a diversion. Korea is founded to a large extent on granite, and the country is well supplied with minerals, including coal, but the Koreans .have not'done .much • in.- the ..way of exploiting these resources, except iu the-mining of gold, alluvial, and reefing, both by primitive methods. The' American company in whose service Mr Granger is engaged holds a large area under a mining " concession,'' and has at work three mills (220 stamps in all) and two cyannide plants. This is in the north east of Korea. Here some fifty or sixty Americans run the works with native workmen and foremen, and get on very well with them.