QUEST FOR WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1932, Page 10

QUEST FOR WORK.

TO WELLINGTON AND BACK. BOY'S 1000 MII*E TREK. "ADVENTURE," BUT FRUITLESS. The scenery in some of the country was marvellous, particularly when the sun rose and set on Egmont. In the early morning, the sun would shine gold on the hills and leave the bush in the valleys in deep shadow. This was perhaps the major impression of a lad who has walked most of the way from Auckland to Wellington and back in search of a job. The illness and the hardship he had had to contend with seemed to him to be incidental, and he spoke of the covering of some 1000 miles mostly on foot as a "great adventure." It was not sheer necessity that made T. G. Lake, "of Auckland," as he put it, set out on March 20 to walk to Wellington, but he had been promised a job on an Australian station, and he thought his chances of getting a paseage in Wellington were brighter. They were not. He could not get work on tH ship or anywhere else.

He left Auckland on a Saturday night, and he got as far as Te Pa papa, where he slept. His first job was at Te Kauwhata, where he was given 10/ a week by «n orehardist. But that did not last long, because there was no market for fruit. So on he went, and his journey to Rotorua was made up of walking interspersed with lift* of a few miles at a time. "Motorists seemed afraid of third party risk," he explained, "and were chary of giving you a ride. I would not have cared. Anything was better than footing it." He determined to go to Hastings, where he had friends, and it was while he was struggling over those hills south of Taupo, so well known to many motorists, that he was caught in the rain one night.

No Blankets, No Food and No Shelter.

"I had no blankets," he said, "and it was too wet to get a fire going. I had to walk round in my overcoat, but this was not in too good order, and the rain came through. At first I tried to shelter in the lee of a cutting, but I got too cold, so I just went on. I did not have anything to eat, and was fairly hungry. I was glad when it go u light, even though I was wet."

He spent several days at Hastings with his friends, and on a sheep farm nearby he got a job at 5/ a week. But even that wage only lasted for two weeks, as the farmer was unable to pay him. His journey to Wellington from there was largely a repetition of his experiences from Auckland to Hastings. He got lifts when he could, and soon overcame his dislike of asking for them. "It is often said by those in the towns," he said, "that work is easy to get in the country. I don't reckon it is. I used to go in and ask for work in payment for a meal even, and that was hard enough to get. There are too many swaggers on the road; the farmers can't keep them all. Then, again, some of those who ask for a bed and a meal repay the kindness by stealing anything they can put their hands on. It makes it hard for fellows like me. But the people in the country are kind. They are up against it themselves, and they know what it feels like to be hungry. Hide in Aeroplane.

"I had a ride in an aeroplane and free tickets to the pictures once when I was in Wellington," he recalled with pleasure. In fact, he said, that was the only amusement he did have all the two months he was away. He had had friends in Wellington some years ago, but they had drifted away somewhere, and it took him two days to find his relatives. "There is no work in Wellington for an Auckland boy," he said. "I don't blame them, but it did not make things any easier."

Seeing that things were hopeless there he decided to come back to Auckland, and his trip back was more pleasant than his trip down. Even the fact that he was ill for four days, with nowhere to go, could not for him alter the fact.

He said he had the "flu" when he set out. "I was carrying a 601b pack, with all my gear in, and I could not leave it behind. « I was fairly weak, and I used to walk for about half a mile and then reet until I could get on."

"But where did you sleep at night,' he wae asked. "Oh, I usually got a bed, and I was too tired and empty— I could not eat even if there had been food—to care much. But when I got better, I enjoyed the walk, or eome of it." He had a mouth-organ, on whicl he played his marching songs, his drinking songs and his lullabies. He valuee that mouth-organ. Taranaki Scenery—A Wind.

Then he thought that the scenery in Taranaki was wonderful, particularly in the very early morning—he had very many early mornings—and at eunset. The sun on the hills at both times, and the shadow, appealed to him. . "But the wind was cold.. It blew right through me, and I could not get ■ rid of a cold." When he reached New Plymouth things took a brighter turn. He got a lift in a service car to Tβ Kuiti, and then in private care as far as Hamilton. When he had walked 25 miles out of Hamilton, where he wae given a meal, he got a lift from a transport wagon right back to Auckland. And so the trip ended, but he could not get work.

"You know I can do anything," lie said, "anything from milking cows to driving a car or a horse or a nail, but work seems to miss me. I walked out a pair of hoots and one euit, but it did me no good. If you hear of anyone who wante work done, will you ... 2"