WATER STREET IN BANGKOK. CAPITAL OF SIAM, THE LAND OF MANY RIVERS WHERE EVERYBODY PADDLES HIS OWN CANOE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 3, 17 January 1912, Page 21

WATER STREET IN BANGKOK. CAPITAL OF SIAM, THE LAND OF MANY RIVERS WHERE EVERYBODY PADDLES HIS OWN CANOE.

A few we.-ks ago the young King of Shun, who received a very thorough English edma tlon, wits crowned, and there is every promise th.it he will continue the enlightened policy of the late Sovereign Chulalongkorn, under whose reign the kingdom took second pin. to no .ouniiv but Japan in the progress of the Ettst on western lines of civilisation. To the traveller the most t’lisclniitlng feature of Shtin Is the river life, Slum rejoices In 11 miignllleenl system of waterways, oxer whose surface puss and repass hundred* nay, thousands of boats bearing cheaply mid expeditiously the commerce of the kingdom, and which serve also, In part of their courses, to bear down the rich teak which has been felled In I’pper Slam. To realise to what extent her rivet . aid in the development of Slam, it is sufficient to say that, while nowhere in Europe | H |) H . number of boats passing a given point greater, on an average, than 200 dally, yet a check of the boats passing through the I’ase Clmrocn Canal disclosed for seven days the enormous number of 'J.MSI,