ROMANCE OF TRAVEL

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 246, 17 October 1929, Page 14

ROMANCE OF TRAVEL

YOUNG NEW ZEALANDERS. LIFE IN MANY LANDS. INDUSTRY PLUS ADVENTURE. ; BEARS, KNIVES' AND CYCLES. With memories to- last, them a life time and diaries which' tell of romantic travel in many parts of the world,,two young New Zealanders have returned home after nearly two years of instructive and romantic adventure. They travelled 55.000; miles on a capital of little more than £100 each, supplemented by money earned along the way, and as a grand finale enjoyed a 1500-mile cycle tour through Europe, this latter at, an inclusive cost of not more than five shillings a day. One of the adventurers is Mr. Ray Ada ir, now the ■ truest in Auckland

of Ms brother, ■ Mr. G. W, Adair, Boys' Work Director of the Y.M.C.A., and the other Mr. J. R. Dagger, M.S.C., of Wellington. ■ The former, a warehouse -salesman, aged 2-L and ; the latter a science master at Scots College, aged 23, sailed from Wellington in the Aorangi in December. 192 G. They took only sufficient money for their single fares to England. While ashore at Honolulu the young travellers saw an advertisement for cane men in a distant island of the Hawaiian Group, so they cashed in on their tickets to Vancouver, and in the ensuing month earned So dollars and their keep., by riding early and late through undulating cane fields, superintending gangs of natives. Arrived at Vancouver, they took advantage of a cheap return excursion to Banff for the winter carnival in 'the Canadian Rockies, and, proceeding southward to Seattle, purchased a six-cylinder Oakland Sedan car for £25, a vehicle which ' carried them down the Pacific Coast and on to Colorado, where, in. the city of Denver, it was sold at the greatly reduced price of £5.

"Are You New Zealanders?"

One night on the Pacific Coast, halfway between San" Francisco and 'Los Angeles, the pair drew up at a petrol station at Atascadero. "Are you boys Xew Zealanders or Australians?" asked the proprietor. That was their first unexpected meeting with a compatriot, a Mr. Mansfield, of Palmerston Xorth, who served with the X.Z.E.F. in ■•.the Great War, and is now a successful chicken farmer in California. "The boys" addressed the Chamber of Commerce, parked their car, and for a month earn%J. five dollars a day building structures which are known as chicken units. A drive of 750 miles through the majestic redwoods of the Yosemite Valley, In the silence and desertion of the autunni, wa-sa"inemorable experience. One frosty night while the tourists were frying their rasher of bacon under some trees they were surprised by the appearance of a great brown bear, but as the animal was even more startled than they the incident ended without disaster. For three months in Chicago the Xew Zealanders worked in the general gales branch of Marshall Field's, the largest departmental store in 'the world, having a pay roll of 15.000 employees. On to New York in time for Tom Honey's figit with Gene Tunney, the patriots endeavoured to have themselves appointed ushers and thereby provided the publicity agents with copy for one of the Xew York, papers.. However, they had to pay their way, asd the prices of seats varied from five to fortv dollars they took advantage of the more moderate figure. Although he lost the battle for the world title, they were proud to own Tom Heeney as a New Zealander, for he was as game as any man could be. In Boston the travellers, while work-

ing, were the guests for three months of Mr. Robin Adair, formerly of Dunedin, who has taken his Master of Arts degree at Boston University and is now studying for his doctor's degree in religious education at Yale. He and hie wife intend returning to Xew Zealand, in 1931, probably to specialise in church' social work. When the Canadian harvest was about to be gathered the adventurers read of a call for 44,000 harvesters, and away out from Winnipeg they earned £1 a day and their keep. The harvest was shorter than expected-and men who had come from as far afield as England for the work were left in financial difficulties. ,Off to Sooth America. Desiring to explore South America the Aew Zealanders haunted the waterfront in Xew York,, but found difficulty in signing on as seamen. They just missed a call to the British steamer Vestris, but a few days later got on to the freighter Socrates, of the same line, and before sailing read of the disaster to the Vestris, in which 112 lives were lost. Those three months of working their way around the principal ports of "The Purple Land" would."fill'a' volume of colourful impressions and thrilling adventures. The dream city of Eio de Janeiro and the mountains and rivers of Brazil, Uruguay and the Aigentine are all in the vivid mental picture. When refused a day off without pay in Santos the pair took French leave, "and in the course of a train journey visited some of the ancient Spanish villages in'the mountains.

In the crew of 45 there were 40 nationalities, and during Christmas and Xew Year in Buenos Ayres the complication of excessive drinking made conditions even worse than ■ at other times. On one occasion Mr. Dagger was the subject of a - maniacal attack with a knife, but by means of a hasty retreat to the fo'c'sle and the aid of his companion tragedy was averted.* Although their varied adventures,were dearly,paid for, the travellers agree that .the South American expedition was well worth while. ■ In London it was not so easy to employment, but while Mr. Adair put in three, months as a salesman with an electrical company, Mr. Dagger worked in the office of the "Xautieal Almanac? of the Royal Xaval College, in which work he was associated with his brother-in-law, Dr. L. J. Comrie, a New Zealander, who lost a leg in the war. Dγ; Comrie is doing well in London, being recognised as a very clever mathematician and astronomer. Cycling Through Europe. Buying two second-hand bicycles in' London, the pair had a 500-mile .ride through England, and from Newcastle crossed to Oslo, capital of Norway. A young Norwegian,-whom they Jiad met in the Buenos Ayres >;Y.M.C.A4 greeted tliem in. the Oslo -braack&of-sLat in-1

stitution and in his sailing boat gave them some delightful outings on the fiords. In Oslo it is broad daylight at 11 pjn. and one can actually read all j night. The visitors conceived a great liking for the Norwegians, and the country reminded them more than any other of New Zealand. Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and France were visited, the travellers carrying their food and sleeping by the wayside. Kindness met them everywhere, and in Germany they discovered a spirit of friendliness toward the British. One night outside The Hague they slept under different shelters and on rising next morning each thought the other had gone on. They were lost to each other for nine days, but met again at Cook's office in Paris. A tour of the battlefields followed and a visit was paid to the grave of Mr. Adairs brother, near Maiilet, on the Somrae. They were greatly impressed with the way in which the war graves are being cared for and also by the way in which Nature, aided by human industry, has removed the stains of the war. In July the bright red poppies made a spectacle of loveliness in the fields of golden grain. A cycle tour through the Riviera and across Italy to Venice and Trieste was followed by a 16-days' steamer journey around ports of the Adriatic and Mediterranean, after which came a tour through Palestine. At Port Said Mr. Adair sold for £1 the bicycle which in London had cost him 37/6, while Mr. Dagger got less for the superior machine which had brought the bigger price in London. One was larger than the other, and that counts in Port Said. A passage on the Osterley to Sydney and the final run to Wellington completed the memorable adventure. There are at least two young New Zealanders who have an enlarged understanding of what Tennyson meant when he wrote: Through the shadow of the globe we sweep into the younger day; Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.