A TRAVELLER'S EXPERIENCES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 8, 4 October 1907, Page 3

A TRAVELLER'S EXPERIENCES.

A lady who visited New Zealand two summers ago sends to the "Queen" a list of/the.clothes .she took with, her oh her tour round theworld,.and : notes which of them, she found to be.unnecessary.' -It is pleasant to fihd.that.no: special reference' is, made to Wellington ' winds, but the wholo Dominion. eomes;.under ! the statement' that .'.'a couple of yards of gauzo to match each of one's best 'hats' willbe found useful in New, Zealand, where rio hat: that ' carries much -. sail' will stay tidly 'on the head without some,such assistance. Ostrich.feathers are notVmucti good m .New Zealand,: or ■■.kidced ; . in "any land on account of, the wind and the rain.", As the. same thing applies -to; England'.it is possible that New. Zealand- will 'continue"to follow the fashions of the Homeland, where, during last summer, : ostrich' feathors were pf enormous size, :■ .. • 'The initials under which the lady writes are those, .of a lady , who ..is: known as a novelist and ; an .experienced traveller, and' her opinion ni the colonial shops is interesting.. The ■ prices of clothes m general, she; says, are not much , dearer '.in the ■ large colonial cities than' in . London,' silks and first-rate;cloth'perhaps excepted.. Personally, I think it a mistake to carry a vasfdeal.pt luggage.: I should never 'think of.paying extra: freight on board ship,.and,-though I had no. more than the ,clothes; above mentioned, my\boxes were full, arid'l had my ■ allowance. Mats and everything had to go inside the boxes.- In most . colonial: towns.and everywhere in the '• States it is .extremely costly, to haul luggage about, 'and it is often more economical in the end to.:keep tho money in one's pocket and ..to buy if • needs must'. . I really had. top many clothes rather than top few: Travelling round the; world nowadays one does not visit desert islands or. get beyond the wants of civilised mankind. There are always shops where one can buy, whatever the inhabitants use, and therefore-'all'that "-a.'visitor, is expected to have.. And if one didgo to'.a desert island it is certain that one would not want to buy more clothes. Wo so often start out wishing to ridq : two horse's at once; we burden''oiir',''carries much sail', wjH stay tidily on say that colonials dross so much, for? getting that, just because that is so, colonials'. also have shops in which they buy all: tho comforts with which they surround : themselves.'; Such things as boot and shoo laces, buttons, sowing cotton;and silk, veils, braids, ribbon to retrim: hats, are certainly cheaper in -.-'London than elsewhere;. but there is not so,much difference as we are apt'to think, and oiie does not always take'exactly wliat one wants, nor is it always m the box at hand. .