A FRENCH VISITOR

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 88, 10 January 1923, Page 7

A FRENCH VISITOR

GRANDSON OF GREAT CANAL BUILDER THINKS NEW ZEALAND DELIGHTFUL A visitor from France, who has nothing but good to say <f New Zealand alter a stay of a little over five weeks, is M. Gaston Micard, a Parisian, with the legal degree of Docteur en Droit, and the much higher distinction (as he views it) of being an exstudent of the great Ecole Polytechnique, which has produced some of the greatest of French generals, including Foch and Joffre. A Dominion representative had a brief talk with M. Micard yesterday morning, and it was in the course of conversation that the visitor declared his admiration of the country. He was actually invited ro say the worst ho thought: he could find nothing more derogatory to state than that occasionally boats and trains in various parts of New Zealand did not connect so readily as might have been convenient. That was all. Th© people he had found charming. They showed themselves so kind ana hospitable to a stranger. “In France.” said M. Micard, “they ard not so hospitable, I must confess. They will never bother with a stranger. Here they have invited me to their homes, and arranged little trips for me. You know, that is quite nice.’ - M. Micard, on arrival in New Zealand, made the arrangements for his tour with the aid of the Government Tourist Bureau, and found it thoroughly satisfactory. Ho has had a hasty look at the wonders of both islands. New Zealand he prefers to Australia, but he is guarded in his opinion of the neighbouring continent, because he saw only a little of it on a recent trip. Ho formed the impression, however, that outside the cities things looked more primitive in the Commonwealth than in New Zealand. This country reminded him of much older countries. Then the New Zealand scenery was better than the Australian. “Here I found in the country districts,” ha told the pressman, “little houses, cottages which were so nice. In Australia you come on houses in the country and they don’t look nearly so inviting. Here iti is all nice little gardens and flowers. It looks so homelike. But of course I’ve seen more here.” His trip to New Zealand was the 1 result of a sudden decision during a 1 visit to Tahiti and the- French islands 1 of the Pacific. “I could not make a ' difference between the North and j South Islands,” he said. “I could not 1 mako|/a difference because the scenery I is lovely everywhere. I am very sorry to leave.” M. Micard is to sail by the ' lonic this month on the return voyage I to France, via Southampton. 1 The school to which M. Micarcl is so * proud to have belonged was founded f py Napoleon. “It is the great school I or France,” said the visitor enthusi- ' astically. “It has always had the high- s ©st destiny, the greatest glory. Its f motto, inscribed upon its flag, is 'Pour * les Sciences; pour la Gloiro; pour la ‘ Patrie.’ ” Admission is by competitive examination. The course is a two years’ one, and the school trains some of the most notable public works en- s gineera and soldiers of France. M. £ Micard was a pupil from 1900 to 1902, p while the school was under the dircc- a tion of General Debatisse. 1.

Although M. Micard has been trained at the Ecole Polytechnique and in law, he does not practice a profession. He is a, director of a French company possessing considerably interests in the 'West Indies. His principal hobby is travel.. His entry at the Polytechnique was. prompted chiefly by a sentimental motive—his grandfather had been a distinguished pupil there. This grandfather was the principal collaborator of De Lesseps in the building of the Suez Canal. He was' known in Egypt as Voisin Bey, and in his hands was the direction of the actual engineering work. De Losseps conducted the diplomatio negotiations , connected with the project. Voisin Bey died just three-years too early to become p, centenarian. During the ten years that the canal took to build, M. Micard’s ipother lived in Egypt—“that wonderful Egypt of the early ’sixties,” as M. Micard put it. “It was quite romantic. They hunted the gazelle in the desert. My mother was a splendid horsewoman, and they rode the glorious Arab horses. A splendid Me!”

The interviewer was on the point of asking a question when the visitor suddenly adopted tho role of questioner. “They had a great fight here for prohibition. Do you think it good or not? In France they don’t dream of it. Do tho people here have a tendency to abuse alcohol? I didn’t meet any like that, you know.” The pressman explained that the subject was exceedingly debatable, and that perhaps a few words on the subject of sport might be safer. “Sport has progressed enormonslv 'in France since the war,” said M. Micard. “Everybody goes in for football, and it was by no means so before the war. Tho Army, lam told,

now requires its officers to be' leaders of sport. It’s sport for all now, even x the girls—and I don’t think that’s quite .so necessary.”- M. Mioard. leisured bachelor as he is, is “old-fashion-ed” in his ideas about girls, just as he is an avowed conservative in many other ways.