ROUND THE WORLD.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1054, 17 February 1911, Page 6

ROUND THE WORLD.

A TWO YEAR'S MOTOR TOUR. -, At 5.10 o'clock last evening a travel-stain-ed motor-car dashed into Wellington and pulled up at tho Grand Hotel. After the. dust had settled it was mado out to be tho Hupmobile touring car, which had left Wanganui.'at 11.20 a.m. yesterday. There nro times when 6omo pcoplo make bold enough to, say that our express trains are all they should be, but this performance rather "shakes tho stick" nt tho iron horse which cavorts between this city and Wanganui. But after all this is but a incro incident in the career of •this particular car. Its occupants, Messrs. T. >1. Hanlon, chief mechanical expert of tho Hupmobilo Company, of Detroit, Michigan, and Mr. T. 0. Jones, publicity agent, tell n talo of big distances , and bioramic progress. The Iliipmobilo.'people, it appears have confined themselves in the past to flio manufacture of runabouts and "small goods" in tho motor world, but quite recently it extended its. operations so as to cnibraco tho building of touring cars. and to demonstrate in tho most convincing manner that they nro able to turn out a car that will "-oat tho earth," they liavo sent this sample on a two years' cruise round'the world, on tho off-clianco that the world'docs not kiww so much as Detroit,.Mich. Sitting behind a 20 'h.p. ongino tho party-left Detroit on November 3 last, and avoiding the snow lino (it was winter) skimmed ithrough Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, lowa, Nebraska,' Wyoming; Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California to 'Frisco town, whero they arrived; in good order aud condition on December 10. Ihis trip was made• over -indifferent roads and through Shearman Pass, Wyoming (10,000 feet high,), over rocky country, spinifex land, and roads, vet they had Detroit airin their tubes when they sighted'tho Golden Gate. From San Francisco they travelled -by tho Manchuria to Honolulu.' and then picked up the Moana for Sydney. After n week . there they left for Auckland. , Since Saturday last the party liavo been sight-seeing between Auckland and Wellington, and the hum of the Hupmobile has been heard amidst tho coughing of the geysers at Rotorua.and Wairakei. Tho trip to Rotorua occupied eight hours. At noon on Sunday a start was made for Wairakei, left Wairakei on Monday at 3 p.m., slept at a half-way house, and. arrived in Napier, at 2 p.m: on Tuesday. I'hc "Hup." sued across the island to Wanganui on Wednesday, and to-dav it hustled Oil to Wellington. Lp to Wanganui, Mr. .Tones iigtired that they had been running for 28 hours only, and with the additional five and a half hours it took to cover tho distance between Wanganui and Wellington, the_ running time between Auckland and Wellington totals' less than 35 hours, which seems incredible, though' actual fact. Just as the Hupmobile turned into'tho Hutt Road from the Ngahnuran'ga Gorge the cyclometer registered jGOOO miles—and all's well. ,1: From here tho party goes south to Lyttelton (leaving to-night), will'motor on to the Bluff, and nrocced then to; Tasmania, scud through Victoria and New South Wales, and then, take ship to :Manila, motor through the Phillipines, and then jump up to Japan ahd China. India,, Ceylon, and South Africa follow, then north again to Egypt and Europe, and finally tlio British Isles. They figure to return to America about tho end of next year. Mr. Jones gives tlio, roads of tho North 'Island a lino name. "They aro just splendid," ho said, "much better than wo can claim in tho States, and then tho scenerv is tlio real shiny thing. llow beautiful that gorgo is near, Palinerston, and that stretch of road on this side of Wanganui is just tlio kind wo like. This is a great country all right, but there'ro no noonlo in it. Wo camo through hundreds of miles of good-looking land, hut nover a mon to pivo it a human touch. I never met a Hunmobilo all tho way. Strange!"

"lIoV do you pronounco the s word llupmobilc—is tho *h* silent?" , 'Xo, sir, hit tho 'h' hard—it's tho car that's silent, Come and seo her whizz quietly to-morrow. It's beautiful I"