Customs Red-Tape Ties Up Explorer’s Car

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 392, 28 June 1928, Page 9

Customs RedTape Ties Up Explorer’s Car

Adventures in Jungle On Trip to Australia ELEPHANTS AND PANTHERS After having travelled 13,300 miles by car through many foreign countries, Francis Birtles has returned to his own country, only to have his car seized by the Customs the moment he arrives. Officialdom in other countries passed him by as an honoured traveller but the Darwin Customs authorities are demanding duty on his car, and say they won’t give it up until he pays, according to the Melbourne “Herald.” Birtles protests that the car is not subject to duty, as it is the same car that he took away -with him from Australia. In fact, it is the same Bean car in which he did the overland record from Darwin to Melbourne. He is awaiting word from the headquarters of the department. He says that this is the sort of thing which irritates newcomers to Australia. “I encountered a good deal of bitterness against Australia in other countries because of the policy of hampering migration,” he said. Lived On Monkey Meat Birtles looks lean, but healthy. “You know, I lived on nothing but boiled rice for a month, with no meat but an occasional monkey,” he explained. “But I would not recommend roast monkey to my friends. I felt quite like a cannibal.” Mr. P. Stollery, who is w'ith Birtles, is a young Canadian. He joined the expedition at Calcutta. “I just came along with Birtles, instead of coming any other way,” he explained. At the time they fell to eating monkeys, Birtles and Stollery were hewing through dense jungle in Upper

I India. So narrow was one precipitous track tliat they liad to chop away some of the rocky mountain wall for the car to pass. They took 38 days to go 30 miles. “I went through Turkey with only a tomahawk as protection, firearms being prohibited,” said Birtles, ‘‘but passed through without molestation, simply because I had no firearms. Turkey is full of brigands, and they will murder anyone to get a gun. Wolves’ All-Night Vigil “The wolves in Persia were a source of danger. The country was covered with snow, and the wolves, perishing with hunger, came down in numbers from the higher country. “One night, in a camp well off the caravan route, two wolves came within 15 yards. One lay down on watch and the other prowled around the camp. “The only thing we could do was to cover up the car "with a tarpaulin, and camp outside. The cold was intense and we were compelled to burn small alcohol wood blocks to prevent freezing to death. The country was devoid of timber for firewood, and the wolves howled close around all night, making sleep impossible. “Some nights we travelled all night to avoid freezing. “Then we came into the Burmah jungles, and the other extreme in temperature was felt. It rained gently all the time, and was steaming hot. Mosquitoes, centipedes, and cobra snakes were everywhere. “We had to suffocate under mosquito nets, and keep lamps burning to scare away the wild animals, the most dangerous of which was the wild elephant, a fearless, inquisitive brute, which bumped around the car all night, tossing trunks on the ground, and making a noise very like the hopping of a large kangaroo. “The strong electric light kept them off, but the light -was not too strong for some of the panthers, which jumped right into the camp at night. Ancient Civilisation “Striking south through Burmah, a remarkable sight was the presence of 13,000 pagodas spread over the country —an ancient civilisation, but so different from ours that we would call them savages. “Thousands of these pagodas were electrically lighted! “Most of the natives had never be- ; fore seen a motor-car, and they looked

on the self-propelling vehicle with superstitious awe.” Birtles added that at Singapore he heard of a move to establish free freezing works. It was understood that Vesteys and Sir Sidney Kidman (the South Australian “Cattle King”) were connected with the venture. Though both men were attacked by fever, their health, in the main, was good. An idea of the extremes of climate experienced can be gained from the fact that at times they were 500 feet below sea-level, and at others 5,000 feet above.