BY BABY CAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 13, 7 September 1931, Page 5

BY BABY CAR

MANY ADVfeNTURES WELCOMES, CGRDIAL AND OTHERWISE IN MANY COUNTRIES BRITISH FLAG RESPECTED What a f und of. a^ venture has been crowded into the liVes of the two New Zealander's, Messrs. Hector MaeQuarie and Richard B. Matthews, since they arrived in Sydney some years . ago almost penniless and in search of work: They had not b.een here long when they conceived the idea of travelling tct North Anstralia by car over an area which no Europeans had ever blazed the trail,- and it was to the writer they appealed When they were anxious to get into touch with a motor firm likely to be interested. It was not long before they became" possessed of a "baby" car, which became famous for the mahner in which it st ood. up to the tr'emenddUs' test to Which it was subjected. That car tbok, them t'o Cape York and back, and then they set o'ut on a world tour. It was their misfortune to be passengers oh the ill-fated Tahiti, and when tbat.vessel sank in the mid-Pacific they. lost their car, which had beeh christened Emily. They returned to New Zealand, and with the insuranCe money and the proCeeds of a; film of the sihking which was " taken' by Mr. Matthews, they were able' to buy anoth'er car, aiid fhen they Set out once again for America. It was then their world adventures began in earnest — adventures which ended iri their arrival in Sydney a- week- or two ago overland from Darwin. Emily II was as faithful to them as the original Emily. Emily took them over the Mexican border, to a towri whefe there are no prohibition laws, and where many AmericanS, in consequence, gather. They ventured a shilling on a gambling machine and won £4 each. Americarts "Scared Stiff."' From Florida they went to Washington. Washington, said Mr. ' MacQuarie, looked shabby and showed signs of the depression. "In fact," he said, "the depression in America is awful. It is much worse than it is here. There they are 'scared stiff." They went to Philadelphia. More signs of the depression. A womari they met was upset becanse her income had been reduced from £20,000 a year to £17,000. Emily took them to New York, and nosed her way through the traffie of Broadway, and then she was shipped to ' England, "where," said Mr. MacQnarie, "we found the best place in the world — 1 London. It was- cold, it was wet — 1 but it was glorious. England is having a bard time; but the people are keeping a stiff upper lip." They toured England for about six weeks, and then sailed for France and the battlefields, and thence to Paris, the Riviera, and Italy. They were warned not to say anything against Mussoliiii. "The warning was unnecessary," said Mr. MacQnarie. "It would be impossible to say anything against him, because we think he is the greatest ruler to-day — he is both loved and feared by everyone, and that speaks for itself. There is no unemployment in Italy." In Rome they went to a hotel, where the proprietor asked a high sum. They suggested half. He demurred, then compromised— he would take them if they would allow themselves to be photographed outside his huilding. They consented. Whereupon he rang up all the newspapefs and inf ormed them that here was a good story. They came, and next day a picture of his hotel duly appeared in all the important papers. One result of this was that wherever Emily went in Italy she ari'd her masters were recognised and treated with great hospitality. From Italy to Darwin. From Italy they went to Albania, where they found the gendarmerie being trained by twenty British officers. The result was a cordial welcome for the travellers on the door of whose car the British flag was painted. From Albania the route led to Jugo-Slavia and Bulgaria and Turkey. In Turkey they had their passports examined at every frontier and every village. Thirty miles from' Constantiriople they failed to nofice a gendarme iri a village, and they were fired at. The geridarme irisisted on acompanying them to Constantinople. He sat iri the back of the car, apparently oblivious of the fact that the muzzle of his loaded rifle was bumping into the backs of the two in front. Easter found them in Syria, and making for Jerusalem, where they saw differing sects celebrating the occasion by fighting and being separated by Bri- : tish Tommies. They went to Jericho. They bathed in the Dead Sea (in which they could not sink). They saw Damascus — and then they joined the convoy across the 600-mile of desert where the danger of Arab brigands is very real. They were told that the robber Arab no longer uses a fiery steed. . His mode of attack is to. charge in a f ast motor-car on which .is mounted a machine-gun. Bagdad, Babylon— then across to r Baluchistan in terrific heat. Quetta, with its English climate, then down .to the plains. On their way to Lora- : lai they were spoken to by an Englishman who insisted that they should be his guests at that town. He was the commander (they discovered • later) of the local detachment of Royal Engineers. His hospitality, said Mr. MacQuarie, was boundless. He gave them letters to the next officers' mess, and so they were '-handed on" from mess to mess right through India. "We saw no sign of civil disobedience or d'isorder in In- . dia," said Mr: MacQuarie. 'Everywhere the British flag on our car was treated wifh respect. Everywhere even where there were no white people; we were shown courtesy." The rest of the journey across land and water to Darwin. was uneventful, and though Mr. MacQuarie said that Darwin was probably the worst front door "of any country in the world, it gave them both a thrill to be back in Australia, and once again so near their own country.