MISS ELSIE K. MORTON TRAVELS NEW ROADS

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 36, 17 February 1939, Page 6

MISS ELSIE K. MORTON TRAVELS NEW ROADS

By

J. GIFFORD

MALE

‘FO those who have read her two books, "Along the Road" and "Joy of the Road," or who have followed the newspaper essays from which they were collated, Elsie K. Morton is a writer to be remembered affectionately. Ina quiet and unpretentious way she . _ made for herself a very special niche in New Zealand letters, partly through her ability as a@ literary craftswoman, partly through sheer hard work. Whether you’ve seen New Zealand first or not, you enjoy what Miss Morton has to sey about New Zealand. If you have, she‘ll paint a beauty spot so warmly and sympethetically you'll be overcome with nostalgic longing to return; if you heven’t, it’s stiff enjoyable to be taken by the hand along such pleasant highways and byways.

OR the past two years, though, Miss Morton has been abroad, and many and diversely paved have been the roads she has travelled. A true journalist, Miss Morton left New Zealand with quite definite ideas as to what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go. Her aim, in a nutshell, was European travel experience.

Australia and the United States she already knew. Europe she did not know, and it was the new, swiftly-chang-ing Europe as well as the Europe of countless ageless traditions that she went to see. Her headquarters she made in London, and like all New Zealanders she set out to see as much as possible ot the Old Country. She found much to

do, and here are a few of the things she did:Spent an afternoon at Dame Lloyd George’s home ‘in Wales. Spent an afternoon with Arthur Mee at his delightful home at Eynesford, Kent. Spent an afternoon with poet Wilfrid Gibson at HIS home. Helped dig up the remains of an old Roman city in Kent. A list of the European cities and towns she visited sounds like an elaborate guide-book. For most purposes she has reduced recollections of her Continental journeys to highlights and sidelights. San Michele S HE re-read Dr. Axel Munthe’s famous book, for instance, and made a special

trip to Capri and San Michele. She was relieved to find everything just as she had expected. it, and very beautiful. One spring she spent in the Austrian Tyrol, which is now the Italian Tyrol, but which, regardless of Europe’s changing frontiers, she thinks is’ the

loveliest place one could ever be in springtime. The Dolomites she had feared might be a little over-rated. But they’re not. New Zealand’s Aips may be magnificent, but nowhere are they as breath-taking as the sheer, eragey Dolomites. She did the Norwegian fiords, admired Oslo, made the trip to North Cape to sce the midnight sun and had beautiful weather all the way. She was at Nuremberg at the time of the recent Wazi Gongress and the visit to Germany of Hungary’s Admiral Horthy. She left two days before Hitler’s fateful speech, however. She spent a wonderful week in Rome, a city in which she found much to admire. It is not so long ago that the tourist who inadvertently drank from the city water supply was down with typhoid before you eould say Victor Emmanuel, but Miss Morton remembers Rome as a city of baths and ponds and bubble fountains. and not a bacillus to worry about. . The Riviera HE dallied on the French Riviera which she found very bright and sophisticated, and the climate well up to expectations. But she was less interested in wealthy pleasureseekers than in the fantastic villages she found near-by perched on the summits of incredible crags. . She joined one, of Sir Henry Lunn’s Hellenic eruises, and listened to distinguished. theologians and men of science argu-

ing imponderables while their ship threaded through the isles where Sappho sang many centuries ago. Dean Inge was a fellowpassenger, and he and leading churchmen of ali de. nominations very nearly removed all the obstacles to union of the churches during that leisurely cruise. Sir Leonard Woolley, the distinguished archaeologist, was also on board and told everybody how he excavated Ur of the Chaldees. Still another passenger was writer H. V. Morton. He told Miss Morton that Mr. Jordan had invited him to visit New Zealand. He won’t be able to come, however, as he is much too busy, and besides, has become too interested in the study of the Coptic religion. Bali N her way back to New Zealand she visited Java and Bali. She was impressed by the handeraft work done by the Balinese, but says there are some places which need ‘‘debunking.’’ And so, after two years, which she regards as having been very well spent, she has returned home. She has been along many new roads, and the impressions and observations she has stored away for future use are multitudinous. She is free-lancing at the present time, using some material in articles, some of it in radio talks, some of it in lectures. -A book is almost sure to eventuate. ‘‘Along the European Road’? would be a good titie. *