HITCH-HIKING AS A PROFESSION

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 94, 15 January 1935, Page 10

HITCH-HIKING AS A PROFESSION

Woman’s Admissions HOW TO DISPENSE WITH TRAVEL COSTS That it is a common practice for pedestrians to ask rifts of passing ears is well known, but few motorists realise that to a certain number of New Zealanders “hitch-hiking” lias become a sure, regular, reliable and economic mode of travel. Yet that is what a professional hitch-hiker confessed to a motorist who gave her a lift last week. The motorist, a young Wellington business man spending his holiday touring in the South Island, was confronted by an eiglity-mile drive to Nelson all alone, so on being hailed by a girlish figure by the roadside staggering under a large pack, lie pulled up and asked her where she was going. All the way to Nelson, was the reply from the tramper, a freckled, athletic woman of about thirty. At his invitation, she deposited her pack in the back of the car and climbed into the front seat beside him. This woman confessed quite frankly that she habitually travelled all over the Dominion, from Auckland to Invercargill, by the courtesy of motorists. “I am aSmember of a woman’s movement concerned with anti-war and like propaganda,” she explained; “in the course of my work I have to go about the country a great deal, and the organisation cannot afford to pay railway fares. But this is an equally satisfactory way of getting about; ,it is slightly more adventurous, much more interesting, and although you might doubt it, equally certain. I can always time my arrival at any place in the country, even as far away as Auckland, to within twenty-four hours. “There is, of course, a definite technique that has been developed by regular travellers. One arrays oneself in tramping kit, and if one is a woman, one stuffs one’s pack to the maximum with anything light, so that the motorist will take pity. It is, of course, essential to be early afoot; one must be out-of-town and started on tlie road one wishes to travel before the commercial travellers take the road. They are usually the best folk to hail; although the first vehicles to pass, dairywagons, are always good for a ride, they travel slowly, and are likely to be going only fifteen or twenty odd miles. Nothing is more sickening than to be rattling along in a heavy lorry and to see the regular travellers hurry by; cne knows well that by the time the lorry has set one down only a step or two on the journey, the professional travellers will all have passed, and one will be lucky to get far that day. “The man who originally taught me how to hitch-hike, himself of course thoroughly expert at it, claimed that he could guarantee to reach Wellington frOm Auckland, or vice versa, in two days. That just shows what a reliable business it is. The tyro will, of course, have slightly more difficulty in covering the country than the expert, who can sum up the prospects of an approaching vehicle before it is within twenty yards. I can tell whether it is worth hailing a car before I can distinguish the driver’s features. And lam very seldom mistaken. One thing I would never waste my time by doing, is asking a woman for a lift —they never give them. And in the same way, men accompanied by women are unlikely to stop. Business men or commercial travellers bound on long journeys are the hitch-hiker’s mainstay; farmers are good for short lifts, and carriers and goods-transport drivers for long ones. Oh yes, I find it safe enough travelling albne; it is very rarely that one meets 'anyone discourteous. And I can look after myself.” Wellington motorists discussing the prevalence of hitch-hiking unanimously agreed that it was on the increase. Local lifts to and from the Hutt Valley, particularly at night after the bus service has ceased to operate, are in the greatest demand. But it is very seldom that a driver on any of the main highways completes a long motor journey without at some time or other being asked for a ride.