ADVENTUROUS TRIP

Hokitika Guardian, 5 November 1932, Page 6

ADVENTUROUS TRIP

N. AND S. AMERICA, AND

EUROPE. >

YOUNG NEW ZEALANDER

.RETURNS,

CHRISTCHURCH, November 3

Following an adventurous tour of North and South America and Europe, Mr E. B. E. Taylor has returned to Christchurch after an absence of nearly two and a half years' and the story .of his travels, by sea and' land is a|l;asci-

nating -one. Mr '-vlor le

t. New Zealand in May

4‘r.jftiy- jxT. /.eaiiim* , j. 1380; and travelled to Vancouver, aboard tile Niagara. He spent a in Vancouver and liked the place. Mijn 1, ,vith clave others he set offon a motorcar, which . they had bought for 80 dollars, over the Canadian Rockies going up the Fraser Valley and through the Fraser Canyon, which is the regular route from, Vancouver to Banff and take: Lpuise, the principal tourist !>:resorts on the Canadian;Pacific Railway. The p .rty followed the, railroad to Salmon Arms, and the motor-car broke, down, so they left, it there, and went on by freight train to Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Toronto. Four weeks, were spent in Ontario, and at Hamilton, the party saw most of the Empire Games, going on to Montreal aboard a freight train. . ..

. “.This riding free on freight trains, is a practice that is ,not- altogether legal; bqt ip. is followed ~ by a ; great many ,people,” said Mr Taylor. “Hoboes and cadgers are one’s principal company orj such journeys, and there .were no fewer than, 150 of them on one train by. which .we were trav£ lipg up in the* Rockies. These people who go about the downs begging for fodd, .do only 80, 100, or 150; miles at a stretch, and. then, get off the,.train for the; night- They are pretty rougjiiooking chaps. One of them will , have a .razor which will be lent -round among.them allj for among, themselves they are very, free., and. p?.sy :with K £beir few possessions, 'll:,? railways authorities seeny to take no not.?? oft such illicit just sat on' the tops of the • i .cars on'the loads, and wandejspd along the top of the, train if we wanted a walk.” „■ • . , -

\Mr Taylor said that, in Montreal the French element was interesting.. Many of the peppl.e there ; spoke- ■■ Canadian French'; which was frequently in the streets. If one stopped to, ask; for, directions, one was often answered in French; and.searching and ask : ng ; for a - boprdinghokse,. for instance, was an amusing if 'Somewhat, difficult task. Leaving , Montreal, Mr Taylor and liis companions worked their way , to South,. Apieripa as. . ordinary seamen aboard 'jthe. freighter Ga.nad an .Skirmisher, calling at . pantos, Montevideo) Bpenos Aires*- and a little Argentine town called Villa, Gonstitpcion,..up-.the Parana,vlayer. : , : , ;. >•; “\Ye spent -some time in Buenos Aires;” said Mr Taylor,; “ and wq jvere very much;, impressed "with the . Continental.. Igy-ont and customs, of .{'he .place —plazas, fountains,,, parks, and drinking of coffee, under tpe trees; of,. .theavenues,,, . “Buenos Aires is the largest citysouth of ,the. .Line, anti 'it . possesses fii|© .Government buildings and other bqiklings: but the ..Rcpplo are They, never do to-clay \yl)at can be left till .to-morrow. -; It is manana all. the timo; it is a. country of manana. On the. wharves, the stevedores start wprk at 6 a.m.,, an 3 go;, on till 10 o’clock. From 10 till 2 o’clock they take their midday, siesta, and then work on till 6. p.nu They .Hop down just where they jit- to be .working at: 10 o’clock—on..' the deck, the batches, the cargo, or the wharf. However, I. saw evidences .of a, very fiery temper beneath all' this. languor, fer these people .of the Argentine are •of Spanish; blood, while those of. Brazil'are. Portugese. .. ... .<

“At Palermo, near Buenos Aires, there is a tremendous racecourse, where races are .held on Sundays.,., Unlike New : Zealanders, net many: women i go to those races, ..which, d 0,,, pot cpn-. stitute such, a social function as they, do in this country. The. men;, merely go out for the sake of ,'getting. . '•■“Gambling is a . "great .thing ‘n Buenos Aires. There are official State lotteries, and numerous shoos do nothing more than sell lottery -jckets. The women are very well *d. cased— Bpenos Aires has been describd as the Paris of America—but they do not go about a great deal, staying mest of the time in their homes.’ If a gentlcnna is .courting ft girl of one of the betterclass farpilies, they never go out in the evening, to a in eat re or the like, without .other company—always the gill’s mother or father goes with them., and sometimes both .parents and others of.the family go.” . * . Having, signed on the CanadianSkirmisher for a “round trip,” M'r Taylor and his companions went north, to Halifax and St.John,. New Brunswick, where they signed off, and went down to. the United States, Prom Boston they.sailed on an..ail-tanker to San Nicholas, the principal town of Aruba, an island in. thG . Uutch. West Indies, and then hack; to tljo,Panama 'Canal, eventually getting back,to.New York. i v’ .

.“Personally, I was-not greaUy attracted by .New York.” said Mi*. Taylor. “The .traffic, the skyscrapers, and th; night life -were the ..nu n things 0 f interest ,to mo. They s o, >.n to live, twenty-fom* hours , every, day there. Even at 2 o’clock, in the...rooming Broadway iV «*, blaze .of light. They have a Court that sits ..all through the night, to deal with minor oases,” ... •

Emn New York Mr Taylor went to Philadelphia and Washington, and right through the ..southern.,. States

down to New Orleans. He. was impressed by the ••. size of the coloured poutaxioa, whoso members like to be called negroes or coloured people, and strpngly , object •to beiiig . called, “niggers.” In the southern States, a distinct change cf\ speech was- noted —-the i southerners, .had adopted the ne,gro drawl, which 'ivfts- rather pleasant, hu ( t which; sometimes Avas 30 extreme that it ivas difficult* to understand, what Avas said. • NCav Orleans possessed some beautiful old homes* Air Taylor then AA r ent to Los, Angeles and he spent six, ynorjihs in California waiting for a chance to sign up on some boat sailing out of San Francisco, finally going overland to Chicago and back to New York.

‘T liked Chicago very much,” said Mr Taylor. “It is c-ne of the most attractive cities I have been in, and. it: has. a wonderful system of parks. I sew, no sign of gangsters, though, there were ten fatal casualties while t was there and though. I visited Cicero, one of, the gangsters’ subAirbs, where Al Capone’s .-headquarters-, used,to he. When I asked Chicago people av here the gangsters were . they laughed at me; and the only sign‘.of gpngsters. that I saw Avas in the newspapers.” .

Spending a., month in New York,, Mr Taylor sailed December 29th last for AntAvem and London. He says that is by farther most attractive ..city, that hc ;j yis%tl. ; ■He saw ft good, deal .of L ondon . and the 4 South of Englan'dv and'.was mn.ch impressed by tho. wonderful freedom* ..of rpfedv allowed iq , soapbox orators in Uyde Park. -On return journey to. New Zealand he visited „Paris, ; tbe Black ForestJn ~.G ermany, h j?eneva, Mjlan, ; Rame. p'r.d Naples, ~v . | f‘ln Italy the . Bla,ck Shirts Avere overyAvhere,” said Mr Tha'loi*. “What with Stftjto troops yind-Eapcist troops, tn G re is ,;r mass of .uniformed soldiers throughout Italy. Two Fascist soldiers accompany every . p{y v ty ...of foreign tourists, ascending Mount Vesuvius. A pretty, clos.a watch is kept,pn. all visitors to Italy, and it is a fact, that the.” whole country ,is overrun AV.itli soldiers.’,’ • v./' < I Mr Taylor also‘visited Malta on his | way home, to Now, Zealand, and .he | arriml. in t ,t 'iristchurch, . yesterday morning, having a p-mreogor from Sydney, to. Wellington aboard, the Alakura. •