IN MANY LANDS.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 335, 16 January 1937, Page 4

IN MANY LANDS.

EX-RESIDENT’S TRAVELS.

Reminiscences Of Boyhood In

Stratford.

Forty years ago Mr. Herbert Browne left Stratford with his parents for Samoa. At the age of 18 he was in America, and throughout an active life he has visited many lands. But he is still able to recall happy memories of his boyhood spent in the town, and in an interview with the "Central Press” this morning he gave some interesting reminiscences. Mr. Browne holds an appointment as Government Telephone Engineer at Fiji, and has just returned from a tour of England and the Continent He arrived at Stratford yesterday, and before his departure for Auckland at noon to-day he was able to renctv friendships made in his youth. Five years ago he passed through Stratford by train, but it is many years since he was in the town, and he was naturally very much impressed , with the progress made. Broadway a Quagmire. His father, Frederick Browne, was a builder and contractor, and also ran a general store on a site opposite the Club Hotel. Broadway was then merely a cutting with clay hanks either side, and to permit traffic < , er the mud fascines had to be laid. A store was conducted by Curtis Bros, and the only buildings of any size were the Stratford Hotel and the Club Hotel, the latter having been built by Mr. Brownes’ father. On the north side of the railway station, In the vicinity of the present water tanks, a railway bridge spanned a swamp which was eventually drained and Victoria lake was formed. There Mr. Browne spent many pleasant hours on Sundays sailing or racing boats. Mr. Browne senior and his family removed to Samoa, where he was engaged in the hotel business. It was then a Germany colony, and an enduring friendship was formed with the Governor, Dr. Solf, whose death occurred in Berlin recently. Fiji Prospering. From Samoa, at the age of 18, young Browne went to America and spent sonic years in 'Honolulu, in New South Wales, Australia, in tlie employ ofi American electrical firms, before he eventually drifted to Fiji. At present, conditions there were prosperous, said Mr. Browne. At the close of the last quarter the revenue was £63,000 in excess of the estimates. The Colonial Sugar Company was extending its activities in the direction of pineapple canning. In the gold-mines close on 1000 natives were employed under European overseers. Life was ideal in this tropical island, and during his sojourn Mr. Browne had never had any sickness. Horrors in Spain. When the Spanish war broke out Mr. Browne was in Barcelona, and he saw thousand of regugees in British warships being removed to Marseilles. In Gibraltar, barb-wire entanglements had been erected. Tangiers was a busy site, about 15 warships of various Powers lying in the harbour. The populace in the various towns altered their allegiance according to circumstances. When ’planes approached, flags were put up to suit the occasion. Mr. Browne had met people who, in order to get out of the country, had allied themselves with both sides. He had received a card from a Spanish friend in California, who had left his chicken ranch to go to Spain to find out what had become of his parents and family. He was unsuccessful and had a very difficult time getting out of the country. Hiding by day, walking by night, he eventually got a passage on a British coal-boat and reached England.

In London Mr. Browne met his Spanish friend and heard accounts of the horrors of the rebellion. Brother was fighting brother, and conditions were awful. The general feeling was that the working man was on ’.he Government side, and that General Franco's supporters were mainly outsiders.