LONDON LETTER SHIPS TO DOMINION ARE FULLY BOOKED

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27625, 4 April 1955, Page 10

LONDON LETTER SHIPS TO DOMINION ARE FULLY BOOKED

(From KEITH EUN SON, London Correspondent of “The Press”]

London, March 25.—Young New Zealanders have an insatiable desire to travel; and they are flocking to this country in their thousands. The high earnings available in the Dominion at a comparatively early age them the independence to visit Britain and the Continent almost at will ana, drawn by family ties and the desire to see the world from outside tne rather narrow confines of New Zealand, they are using to the full their advantages. It is the same with Australians and, to a lesser degree, Canadians and South Africans. Owing to the extensive immigration schemes being run by New Zealand and Australia, the amount of shipping accommodation available has been limited since the end of the war. Tourist class passages, the type most eagerly sought by the younger traveller with limited means, are .at a premium and shipping companies serving the Dominions report waiting lists of 18 months to two years. Firstclass accommodation, at fares ranging from £lBO upwards, is available at “slack periods” within three or four months, but during the main travelling season all accommodation is booked. ~ . The main exodus from Britain usually begins in August, when most persons want to avoid through another English winter. Even the introduction of the new tourist class liner, Southern Cross, with accommodation for more than 1100 persons, has done little to ease the situation. This ship has been fully booked for 1955 and applications already received for passages next year will probably fill bookings as soon as they open. One shipping company director said there were many tourist class cancellations; and travellers willing to make their journey with little notification could secure passages. Many New Zealanders, particularly young women, were inclined to get fed up with living in London after six months, especially if they had arrived during the winter, and wished to put themselves on a list for a passage home. By the time their turn for a berth came around, many of them had managed to overcome the first pangs of homesickness and did not then want to travel.

Shipping people can see little easement in the situation in the near future. More New Zealanders seem to be travelling each year, and there has been no sign of the traffic diminishing. If immigration figures are maintained, one shipping man said, he could foresee little improvement in the number of berths available to the private traveller. But for those willing to gravel by first-class ships or passenger-freighters, the situation was much less difficult. Most young persons, however, did not want to pay more than £l5O for a berth. Canterbury Sheepfarming

“Sheepfarming on the Plains of Canterbury” was the title of a playette recently written and recorded’ for the British Broadcasting Corporation by Mr Tony Curnow, press officer at New Zealand House. A former Christchurch journalist, Mr Curnow has developed his office at New Zealand House into a most important information centre on the Dominion and its affairs and, besides using the 8.8. C., he has frequently given addresses to clubs and other organisations on New Zealand. His recent playette was broadcast as one of a series of travel talks called “Round the Commonwealth.” Two New Zealand players were used, Brigid Lenihan (Christchurch) and Ewen Solon (Wellington). Mr Curnow has had previous radiowriting experience in New Zealand. Another New Zealand subject will be dealt with in this Home Service series by Miss Gabrielle Rikihana, a Maori schoolteacher, who is writing a script called “Life in a Maori Village.” She will introduce the programme with experiences of her own village and then take listeners up to Rotorua. Miss Rikihana will soon be returning to New Zealand.

Sterling Sub-machine Guns New Zealand Government negotiations to buy 2000 of the latest-type Sterling sub-machine gun at a cost of about £5O, (XX) have broken down and it is unlikely that these weapons will now be bought. The British services have recently adopted these weapons complementary to the Belgian F .N. 30 rifle. The new sub-machine guns are extremely light and have passed the most rigid British tests. During testing, the weapons were used by troops in Korea, Malaya and Kenya under active conditions; and several recommendations made during these trials were incorporated in the final production model. It was generally expected that New Zealand would j ? se the Sterling when it decided to send troops to Malaya, but this is apparently not now the case, when the Prime Minister visited London recently I spoke to him about the Sterling and tried to arrange for

him to visit the Dagenham factory ana see the weapon tested. An attack of i®, fiuenza disrupted his programme and the visit was not possible. Telephone Kiosks British telephone kiosks are red, ai in New Zealand, but it is doubtful if there are as many a head of popular tion here as we have in the Dominion! The General Post Office said this week that 65,000 public call boxes are scattered throughout the country. They cost about £250 for the building, tele, phone equipment and lines, and the annual maintenance costs are nearly £5O. The post office official also said that the installation of a public call box telephone involved 15 times ai much labour jas installing an instru* ment in a private house. Behind the erection of each kiosk is the story of scientific tests for the most durable materials to withstand the vagaries of the British climate and the stupidity of its larrikins, and the close study of the area concerned to site the tele, phone in the position which makes it available to the greatest number of people for the least amount of trouble for the majority. New Zealand Accent Though New Zealanders away from home are as pugnaciously nationalism as any other Commonwealth people! and considerably more so in somj cases, the first thing many of them find here is the need for a new ac» cent. This is particularly so in theatrical circles, where the vated English accent” is universal. A friend at the British Broadcasting Corporation recently told me that few New Zealand actors and actresses on its books would admit to being from New Zealand because of tbj chance of becoming “typed” as New Zealander. In a country like this, where accents are so frequenttyi regarded as the basis for a caste system, the New Zealander and Soum African fares considerably better than the Australian; but it is noticeably among certain sections of New Zea. landers here that their native accent is the first thing they discard. Who Reads Charlotte Bronte? | The centenary of Charlotte Brontey. death will be celebrated on March fflf Those who consider her work somti thing to be read by previous gen. erations do not appreciate the London situation. An eminent London book* seller said this week that the Bronte sisters, taken as one author, are, after Dickens, the most popular writers <; the Victorian age and have, after ths Dickens Fellowship, the most active literary society here. “Jane Eyre” is by far the most popular book Char, lottfe Bronte wrote, with “Shirley* next, but Emily Bronte’s “Wutherlng Heights” remains the greatest seller of them all. New Zealand and Dickens The Dickens House in Doughty 8 street, the headquarters of the Dickens Fellowship, has been spring-cleaner in readiness for the summer visitors who turn up at the rate of 40 or 30 . a day. This year a rew item from New Zealand will be proudly on display. It is a copy of “David Copper, field”—a special copy. It is in a tattered brown paper cover and the pages are heavily thumb-marked with grease. This is seal blubber used in a tin with rope yarn as a wick to make the lamp used to read this remarkable book. It was carried with . Captain Scottis > expedition to the Antarctic in 1910-13 and belonged to Lieutenant. Campbell, who led the northern party, which was lost for a consdierable time. He gave it to a New Zealand seam-’n, a member of the expedition, and after passing through many hands, it was , presented to the Auckland branch of the Dickens Fellowship. From Auck<;', land the book eventually found its way back to the home of Dickens. , Artistic Fun and Games The young artist must be uninhibited, tq do his best work; and to be untohibited, he must act like a retardoK school child. That, at least, is the im* . pression one could not help forming. after looking in on the annual of the Slade School of Fine Arts this week. It was held in Bloomsbury,^ t One artist sat at dinner with a hugs red setter dog tied to the leg of ms chair; dress was “informal,” but formalised. Diners wore corduroys and sweaters or jeans and sandals. Little attention was paid to the speeches . Twenty members of the school staff and nearly 300 students were there. Half-way through the third course some of the diners set fire to their menus with the table 1 candles; then a table upset, shattering glassware and crockery, and the diners landed on their backs; paper darts flew about the room; a student leapt on to a table and began an impromptu speech. During the set speeches, the professor’s voice was drowned by roars of frenzied cheering. As someone commented: “These affairs are getting madder and madder every year.” He could be right