EMPIRE TRAVELS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 255, 25 September 1940, Page 11

EMPIRE TRAVELS.

I MUSIC EXAMINER’S A/VIFE. Airs C. Edgar Ford, wife of the wellJ known composer and musician who. is in New Zealand at present as an examiner for the Trinity College of .uusic, London, has had a wide and varied experience of travel in the Empire. Although Dr. Ford’s headquarters are, of course, in London, t'he only settled home the visitors have just now is at Capetown. This is by no means their first visit to New Zealand, ?? Gr. I'ord has been a visiting examiner for a number of years, but the later visits have been confined to the north Island. Both Dr. and Airs Ford prefer the milder climate of the north, ill's Ford told a “Alanawatu Standard” representative, although the seenery in the south was very lovely, and s'he particularly recalled an enjoyable visit to the Franz Josef Glacier pine years ago. The whole country Airs Ford considers very beautiful, and travelling has been made easy by the excellent roads. She finds the people charming and has made many friends in the various examination centres. Ihe examination secretaries, she said. | always make a point of introducing examiners to congenial people on their first visit, and on subsequent occasions it is easy to renew these friendships. Airs Ford has made her friends particularly among golfers, being very tond of the game, but lately has devoted most of her spare time to knitting. She shares her husband’s musical intere’ts and is herself a pianist, though she never plays in public, as she believes that a very high standard would be necessary if she were not to detract from her husband’s work. JOURNEYS IN AFRICA.

Dr. and Mrs Ford have travelled extensively in Africa, visiting Northern and Southern Rhodesia and w'nat was formerly German AVest Airica. Here, Mrs lord noted, the natives had adopted a style of dress different from that anywhere else in Airica, and I obviously derived from the early mis- ! sionaries. They wore frocks with high necks, long sleeves, and voluminous skirts over yards and yards of petticoats. The easiest way to please them was to give them material for more petticoats. The capital, AVindhoek, was very pretty and the Germans had built quaint homes on t'he hills or kopjes; which were reminiscent of the castles on the Rhine. There were many British j settlers in the former German colony. | On the East Coast Airs Ford had i travelled from Lourenco Alarques, a popular watering place with a thriving casino, through Zanzibar to Alombasa and then to Kenva, close to the Abyssinian border. She had stayed in the hinterland of Kenya, right on the • Equator, but it was quite a cool place as it was 9000 ft above sea level. Kenya was particularly interesting on account of the lions and other wild animals which frequently could be seen from the train. The lakes often looked pink in the distance, but on drawing nearer j it could be seen that this was due I to flocks of flamingoes resting on them | The most interesting country she had j visited was India, Airs Ford said. Here; the Trinity .College examinations were the official Indian Government examinations; the Government made all the necessary arrangements and its representatives met the examiners at every centre. Dr. Ford was the guest of the late Maharajah of Alysore and kept up a correspondence with his son. Airs Ford had visited the North-AVest Frontier and Kashmir, and had seen. Alt. Everest and the Khyber Pass. Canada and Australia are known to Dr. and Airs Ford, but they prefer Auckland to Sydney as a summer home and hope to spend Christmas there. They have visited Rotorua. AVaitomo. Tongariro National Park and North Auckland, where Airs Ford admired the bavs and beaches. They came to New Zealand for one year and have stayed for two, with a visit to South Africa in between, and they still enjoy New Zealand immensely