A GREAT TRAVELLER.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 221, 17 September 1919, Page 11

A GREAT TRAVELLER.

A TALK WITH MR. J. H. CURLE. THE "WORLD HIS HOBBY. Is it not Lord Dunsany, author, poet, | and noted litterateur, -who characterises i Mr. J. H. Curie's "The Shadow Show" as "the greatest travel book"? It is, indeed, hard to connect the unostentatious man, English of the English, who left by the Niagara on Saturday evening, with the object of such reverent treatment at the hands of so great a, critic. A representative of the "Star ,, with much difficulty persuaded Mr. Curie to talk a little before the boat left, and was deeply impressed by the reluctance to talk for publication displayed by this modern Marco Polo. CATCHING THE WANDERLUST, j "This is not my first visit to New Zealand," the traveller said. He is a tall man with an almost nervous manner, and devoid of anything approaching deliberate individuality in dress or appearance. Yet it is in this very quietness that one senses the profound knowledge of places and people that Mr. Curie possesses. "Many years ago —more than twenty years,- in fact—l visited the gold mines in New Zealand in a tour which 1 made of all the gold mines of the wotW, the results of which were embodied in my book, 'The Gold Mines of the World.' To do this I visited more than thirtyseven countries." At the close of thie tour, Mr. Curie apparently found that, like Ulyssee, "he could not rest from I travel," and he set himself to become more familiar with the world's surface than most people are with a hundred acres of it. THE EVERGREEN SUBJECT—NEW ZEALAND. "You New Zealand people don't realise how fortunate you are," he said. "Financially, you are better than any other country in the world is—or Is likely to be. Climatically, you are also very gifted, while your countrysides have a gentle beauty which is almost unsurpassable." He also commented favourably upon the general tone and demeanour of the young people of the Dominion. "Mind you, I won't say that they have the manners of the salons of Louis Quatorze, but, especially in comparison with the 'blataney of the young American, they may be proud of themselves."

A PARADISE NEXT DOOR. "But in some respects you are so unprogressive. Tell mc, Jiave you ever been to Norfolk Island?"

"I'm very much afraid that I haven't," replied the reporter.

"Xo; nor many of your compatriots. You don't seem to realise of what extraOrdinary beauty these South Pacific Islands are, or else your well-to-do community would be much more familiar with them. For my part, I think that Norfolk Island is one of the moat interesting places on the globe, while Rarotonga ranks for beauty with .pome of the gorgeous islands in the West Indies. Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Tahiti are a mine of strange people, customs and manners. The New Hebrides are like another world. "There are two things that I would like to say to the people of New Zealand," Mr. Curie went on. "Remember, materially, you are the most favoured people in the ivorld. Take care to live up to your advantages, and do not ever neglect the glamour of life. Then I hope that you won't forget that in Ernest Rutherford you have produced your most distinguished man. See that the people coming after him don't forget it."

OF JIAXY PLACES. Talking to a traveller such as Mr. Curie might well have inspired D. H. Lawrence's poem of wonderful names. For the names that he speaks so casually are of many enchanted places. He possesses a map of the world, with a network of lines drawn across its surface. They are his travels. One line goes a thousand miles up the Amazon, another through the White Sea to Archangel, while a network of lines crosses the Atlantic. "I go from here to New York," 'he said, "and then gradually to South Africa, to mc the best place of all. My headquarters are in London, where I was connected with the War Savings Department during the war. But it is to South Africa that my thoughts always turn with tie greatest affection." "Will there be another 'Shadow Show,'" asked the scribe ? "Yes; I am even now making arangements for a new publication. It will be on broader lines than the 'Shadow Show, , and I anticipate less difficulty in having it published. It will still be about my hobby—the world. I hope before I die to have seen more of it than any other man has done."