ROMANCE OF TRAVEL

Hokitika Guardian, 22 October 1929, Page 7

ROMANCE OF TRAVEL

YOUNG NEW ZEALANDERS. (Auckland Star.) With memories to last them a Kfe Mine and diaries which tell of romantic travel in many parts of the world, two young New Zealanders have returned home after nearly two years of instructive and pbma.nitic adventure. They travelled 55,000 miles- on a, capital of little more than £IOO each, supplemented by money earned along the way. arid as a grand finale enjoyed a 1500-mile cycle tour through Europe,, this latter at an. inclusive cost of not more than five shillings a day. One of the adventurers is Mr Ray Adair, now 1 the guest in Auckland of his brother, Air G. W. Adair, Boys Work Director of the Y.M.C.A., and the other Mr J. A. Dagger, M.S.C., of Wellington. The former, a warehouse salesman, aged 24, “and the latter a science master at Scots College, aged 23, sailed from Wellington in the Aorangi in December, 1926. They took only sufficient money for their single fares to England. While ashore at Honolulu the young travellers saw an advertisement for cane men in a distant island of the Hawaiian Group, so they cashed in on their tickets to Vancouver, and m the ensuing month earned 85 dollars and their keep by Riding early and late through undulating cane fields, superitending gangs of natives. Arrived at Vancouver, they took advantage of a cheap return excursion to Banff for the winter carnival in the Canadian Rockies, and, proceeding southward to Seattle, purchased a six-cylinder Oakland .Sedan car for £25, a vehicle which canned them down the Pacific Coast and on to Colorado, where, in the city - of Denver, it was sold at the greatly reduced price of £5.

‘ARE YOU NEW ZEALANDERS?”

One night on the Pacific Coast, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the pair drew up at a petrol station at Atascadero. “Are you toys New Zealanders or Australians?” asked the proprietor. That was their first unexpected meeting with a compatriot, a Air Mansfield, of Palmerston North, .who served with the N.Z.E.F. in the Great War, and 'is now a successful / chicken fanner in California, “The boys” addressed the Chamber of Commerce, parked their car, and for a month earned five dollars a day building structures which are known as chicken units.

A drive of 750 miles. through -the ma/eskc redwoods of ./the Ypsemite Valley, ill the silence and desertion of the autumn, was a memorable experience. One frosty night while the tourists were frying their rasher of bacon under some tfees they were surprised by the appearance of a great brown bear, but as the animal was even more startled than they the incident ended without disaster. For three months in Chicago the New Zealanders worked in the general sales’ branch of Alarshall Field’s, the largest departmental store in the world, having a -pay roll of 15,000 employees. On to New York in time for Tom Heeney’s fight with Gene Tunney, the patriots endeavoured to have themselves appointed ushers rind -thereby provided the publicity agents with ecpv for one of the New York papers. However, they had to pay their way, and as the prices of seats varied from five to forty dollars they took advantage of the more moderate figure. Although he lost the battle for the world title, they were proud to own Tom Heeney as a New Zealander, for he was as game as any man could bet. In Boston the travellers, while working, were the guests for three months of Air Robin Adair, formal lj of Dunedin, who has taken his Master of Arts degree at Boston University and is now studying for his doctor’s degree in religious education at Yjale. Hd and his wife intend returning to New Zealand, in 1931, probably to specialise in church social work.'

When the Canadian harvest was about to be gathered the adventurers read lof a call for 44.0C0 harvesters, and away out frem Winnipeg tney earned £1 a day and their keep. The harvest was shorter than expected nnd men who had come from as far ahold as England for the work were left in financial difficulties.

OFF TO .SOUTH AMERICA. Desiring to explore South America the New haunted the waterfront in New- York, but found difficulty tin signing on; as seamen. They just missed a call to the' British steamer Vestris, but a ferv days later got on to the freighter Socrates, of the same line., and before sailing read of the disaster to the Vestris, in which 112 lives were lost. Those three months of working their way around the principal port" of “Tile Purple Land” would fill a volume of colourful impressions and thrilling adventures. The # dl'eam city of Rio de Janeiro and the mountains and rivers of Brazil, Uruguay and the Argentina are all in the vivid mental picture. When refused a day off without pay in Santos the pair took French leave, and mi the course of a train journey v.s:some of the ancient 'Spanish villages in the mountains.

In the crew of 4.5 there were 40 na.tir<in,lilies, and during Christmas and New' Year in Buenos Ayres the complication of excessive drinking made conditions even worse than at other times. Olt one occasion Mr Dagger was the subject of a maniacal

attack with a knife, hut by means of a hasty retreat to the fo’c'sle, and the aid of Ms companion tragedy was averted. Although their varied adventures were dearly paid for, the travellers agree that the South American expedition was well worth while.

In London it was not so easy to find employment, but while Air Adair put in three, months as a salesman with an electrical company, Air Dagger worked in the office of the “Nautical Almanac” of the Royal Naval College, in which work he was associated with his brother-in-law, Dr L. J. Oomrie, a New Zealalnder, who lost a leg in th:a war. Dr Connie is doing .well in London, being, recognised as a very clever mathematician and astronomer.

CYCLING THROUGH EUROPE. Buying two second-hand bicycles in London, the pair had a 503-mile ride through England, and from Newcastle crossed to Oslo, capital of Norway. A young Norwegian, whom they had met in the Buenos Ayres Y.A1.0.A., greeted them in the Oslo- branch of that institution and in his , sailing boat gave them some delightful outings on the fiords. In Oslo it is broad daylight at H p.m. and one can actually r<jad r(ll night. The visitors conceived a great liking for the Norwegians, and the country re-, fflinded them / more than any other of New Zealand.

Sweden, Denmark, Germany, . Belgium and France were visited, the travellers carrying their food and fjleeping by the fcvayside. Kim]ru| s met them everywhere, and in Germanjv (they c/Is covered a spirit of friendliness toward the British. One night outside The Hague they slept, under different shelters and on rising next morning each thought the other had gone on. They were lost to each other for nine days, hut met again pit. Cook’s office in Paris. A tour of. the battlefields followed and a visit was paid to the grave of Air Adair’s brother, near Mai list, on the Somme. They were greatly impressed with the way in which the war graves are being cared for and also by the way in which Nature, aided by human industry, has removed the stains of the war. In July the bright red poppies made a spectacle of loveliness in the fields of golden grain. A cycle tour through the Riviera and across Italy to Venice and Trieste was followed by a 16-days’ steamer journey around ports of the Adriatic and " Afeditorraneain, after which came a tour through Palestine, At Port Said Mr Adair sold for £1 the b'cycle which in London had cost him 37s fid, while Mr Dagger got less- for the superior machine which had brought the higher price in London. One was larger than the other and that counts in Port Said. A passage on the Osterlev to Sydney and the final ran to AVellington completed the memorable adventure. There are at least two young New Zealanders who have an enlarged understanding of wihat Tennyson meant when he wrote:

Through the shadow of the globe we sweep into the younger day; Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.