TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11507, 1 October 1915, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

COURLAND. ♦ Courland, the latest scene of conflict in the Eastern theatre of the war, is a country of pleasant prospect, with ranges of low hills, lakes, forests, and in some parts with very fertile soil, but also with bogs and unproductive sand dunes. CattiO-bree ling increases each year, and' game abounds, bears, elks, boara and wolves being met with in some parts. The landowners are mostly German, and the peasants of Lettish extraction, Russians only forming a small proportion of the population. Riga is, of course, the most important to.vn, being a fine commercial port. Courland has a chequered history. It was formerly an independent duchy—indeed, it consisted ot two duchies, Coorland and Semgallin—and belonged, along with Livonia, to the Teutonic Knights, who took it from the Danes in 11239. It was subjected 1 to Poland in 1561 and conquered by Charles XII. of Sweden in 1701. The country was long distracted by the contentions of the"Russians and the Poles, and after being for sone time in Russian hands it was formally annexed to Russia in March, 1795.