JUST "HIKING" THROUGH

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 232, 1 October 1928, Page 10

JUST "HIKING" THROUGH

STUDY OF NATIVE LIFE.

AMERICAN WOMAN'S VENTURE

ARRIVAL FROM THE PACIFIC,

"I have just been cruising thiough the Hawaiian Islands and round about the Polynesian groups with the idea of endeavouring to trace some semblance of relationship between the islands and the North America Indians," said Miss Jsobel Larsen, of New York, who arrived in Auckland this afternoon by the Tofua from Suva.

Miss Larsen is a member of the American Indian Protection Association, and has spent a number of yedrs living amongst the Indians on the reservations in the south-western section. She is a tramper, and instead of using the modern methods of transport prefers to, as she describes it, "hike through the country." When Miss Larsen landed in Suva she made arrangements to study the natives in the Fiji Islands in a similar manner, and walked for considerable distances putting up at nigbt in various native villages.

Speaking of Polynesian folk lore, Miss Larsen said it was most difficult to get anything defihite, and this was in strange contrast to her work and success among the Indians, whom she thought the most charming people she had yet visited. "But," she added, "I have heard such a lot about the Maoris that. I feel sure that, after I have finished my two months' sojourn in New Zealand I shall go away well satisfied with the result of my labours. It is my intention to walk through the Uretferft country, and I hope to do much 'hiking* in the 'South Island. While in Honolulu, I was very interested to gather information concerning the migration of the Maoris to these southern parts, and it is my intention to gain as much first-hand knowledge as I can with the idea of continuing my lectures in New York."