SEEING THE WORLD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22139, 19 June 1935, Page 15

SEEING THE WORLD

THREE MONTHS' " HUSTLE " NEARLY 50,000 MILES SPEEDY GLOBE-TROTTER [from our own correspondent"] SYDNEY, June JO The world's speediest globe-trotter has been to and seen Australia within the space of a week. On Tuesday afternoon of last week he arrived at Darwin hv the Empire mail aeroplane. On Tuesday morning this week he left Brisbane by air for Singapore. In the week he has flown to Adelaide and Melbourne and back to Canberra and Sydney by hired aeroplane before flying to Brisbane by the air mail. This fast traveller is Mr. F. L. Emerson, a New York shoe manufacturer. "I make women's shoes, but I prefer seven league boots," was the way he introduced himself to Australia, through a reporter at Darwin .

Mr. Emerson is the first man to buy a round-ticket covering all the air passenger services in the world, so that he could make a tour of nearly 50,000 miles in three months. He left New York on April 20, and promised that ho would play a foursome on his private golf course on July 17. "I'll do it easily," he said, "as everything so far has worked to schedule. I am due to play on the afternoon of July 17, and I will get home that morning." About £IOOO lor Tickets When Mr. Emerson booked his round-the-world trip he told the travel agency that he wanted to use every aeroplane service available. The ticket cost about £IOOO, which included the steamer journey across the Atlantic to London. He saw England and the Continent in three days, visiting London, Copenhagen, Denmark, Belfast and Glasgow. Then lie flew to Capetown, and from the farthest southern city in South Africa on May 13 he reached Melbourne in 18 days by the ordinary aeroplane services. "I gave myself a few days under three months for a holiday," he said, "and I decided to see as much as 1 could. There is no thrill in flying, but you can see a tremendous lot of places. It has been fascinating. I don't get much sleep, but the trip has been so interesting that I have not needed it." Up to his arrival in Sydney, Mr. Emerson had covered 34,000 miles, of which 30,000 were by air, in 43 d#ys. The longest walk he has had in his trip was in Sydney. He walked oyer the Harbour Bridge and back, taking photographs, because he said he was "so durned fascinated." Rush Across Sydney Harbour

Svdney Harbour from the bridge looked so wonderful that Mr. Emerson hired a speed-boat and rushed 40 miles an hour to the Heads, up the Middle Harbour stretches, then back, under the bridge, up the Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers, seeing, as he put it, "all those wonderful bays and inlets." Next he hired a fast car to see Kuringgai Chase, the koala bear farm, and the scenery around the coast and of the Hawkeslniry River. "The beauty of Sydney and its environs surprised me," he said. By the time this is read, Mr. Emerson will be somewhere near Hongkong, having planned to go there by steamer from Singapore. After flying round China he will take a train from Pekin to Mukden. There he will pick up the Japanese air service to Tokio and Yokohama to catch the steamer to Vancouver, and from Vancouver he will finish his journey home by aeroplane. Of the 50,000 miles he will then have covered, about 40,000 miles will have been in the air.