WHAKATANE MAN HEADS FOR PERU: LEAVES TOMORROW

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 40, 12 January 1949, Page 5

WHAKATANE MAN HEADS FOR PERU: LEAVES TOMORROW

School Teacher And Hitch-Hiker Tomorrow a Whakatane resident, Mr W. Dreghorn, will be setting out on the first stage of a journey to Peru, a journey he hopes will take him through the wilds of that cpuntry, through the ancient Inca ruins. His objects? A geographical tour combined with the opportunity to sketch and paint the ruins. Formerly a teacher at the Whakatane District High School, Mr Dreghorn has decided to leave New Zealand and return to England via South America, because he considers there are more opportunities in his profession in the British schools. Mr Dreghorn said yesterday that his desire to go to Peru was because South' America was one of the very few countries of the world he has never visited. He expects $0 leave Auckland by the Wairangi on January 20. Hitch-Hiking Tour Hitch-hiking will be the main method of' Mr Dreghorn’s travelling. He has no idea what to expect in Peru, and does not know any people although he has letters of introduction to a number of people who have relations in New Zealand. Mr Dreghorn is a specialist in geography, and all that he has learned on his travels to different parts of the world, together with his many sketches, has made him a veritable encyclopoedia on the subject. Mr Dreghorn said he thought people should travel and learn more about peoples and the lands in which they live. He himself, started travelling around the European countries in 1929. Since then he has travelled to every continent in the world except South America. In 1936 he went to Australia on a scholarship, passing through the United States and New Zealand, where he taught for a short while. He then went to China and Japan. Prudent Politics

He says it is prudent when one is in a foreign country, to agree and outwardly support its Government. When he was in Japan before the war he was approached by a Japanese who asked him which was the better country, China or Japan. Mr Dreghorn said Japan. To get into Japan Mr Dreghorn had to answer this question, put to him by the Japanese Consul: Who will win the war? The answer obviously was: Japan. Why? '' Because Japan leads the world. They Want To Know- —- 1 You are asked such questions in whatever country \ you go to, Mr; Dreghorn said, before you are issued with a permit to enter that country. They want to know your family history, your political beliefs, what books you read, why you are leaving New Zealand, what you intend to do and a hundred and one other silly little queries before the permit is : in your hands. To escape the Japanese-Chinese war (he was in Pekin a / t the time) he had to travel across Manchuria, Soviet Mongolia and Russia, keeping himself by selling his sketches and giving English lessons. He arrived in England at the outbreak of war and he immediately joined the Royal Air Force. Shackles Cut Off Mr Dreghorn was born in London. Most-people have a desire to cast away the shackles binding them. to the humdrum of very day life. He is one who has done so and has seen more places and people than most men ever dream about. He says himself that his life has been an adventure and he would not have had it any other way. Although he will return to England eventually from Peru, where his wife and family will rejoin him later in the year, Mr Dreghorn says his future plans are at present indefinite. He has however, been talking about visiting Tibet and Greenland. If he does finally go to these countries there will be few in the world he has not visited.