GREAT CHIVALRY

Hokitika Guardian, 25 February 1933, Page 6

GREAT CHIVALRY

MISS JAMES PAYS TRIBUTE. COURTESY IN THE COLONIES. SYDNEY, February 18. I hope that New Zealanders have not yet lost sight of Esther James, the girl who ! w allied through the islands from North Cape to the Bluff, covering approximately IGOO miles in so doing. After licr pilgrimage over there was finished, she came to Australia and astonished the people here by covering the five or six hundred miles between Melbourne and Sydney in phenomenal, time. On one occasion earlier in the summer side reached Sydney while a big athletic meeting was in progress.

She has just been entertained here by the members of the Women’s Club, and she told her hostesses that during her long solitary walks, totalling mono than 3000 miles in New Zealand and Australia, she had never been molested or annoyed. In both countries she had passed large numbers of tramps and swaggers,. but beyond a friendly “Good day,” none had ever spoken to her. This complete immunity from any sort of discourtesy Miss James attributes partly to the innate chivalry of men and largely to the fact that she never wore hoy’s clothes. She walked from Sydney to Melbourne in a silk tennis dress and a blazer, ana as she put it, her feminine attire has always been sufficient protection.

Very few people seem to have realised what an immense amount ot' courage and self-control Miss Esther James has displayed in these amazing feats of endurance. She deserves to be regarded as one of ouj* national heroines, and one is glad to learn from her own words that her confidence in the inherent chivalry of the average “colonial” has not been misplaced, and that she, a solitary girl, has been treated everywhere in town and country alike with the respect and consideration that are her due..