WALK FROM AUCKLAND

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 39, 9 November 1938, Page 8

WALK FROM AUCKLAND

Youth’s Search For Work

ADVENTURE ON THE ROAD

Edward Wilson, aged IS, wbo has had no fixed home since his parents died several years ago, reached Wellington on Monday morning after a two and a half weeks’ ti-ip, mostly on foot, from Auckland. He came to look for work, and on Monday night, when a representative of "The Dominion’ picked him up on the Hutt Road he was headed for. the Mastertoil district, where he will try to get work in a shearing shed. He had an interesting story to tell. His usual occupation is that of gardener. He finds it hard, because of his age, to get th:e jobs that are open to youths younger than himself; on the other hand lie cannot compete with those who have reached 21 and are entitled to the basic wage. He has also been unable to get himself apprenticed. His last job was as a gardener in a town garden at Auckland; for this he said he received a wage that left him 2/6 a week after paying board. The owner of the garden went to Australia and he was left, not. for the first time, unemployed. He decided on the trip to 'Wellington and the Wairarapa. His hope is first for shearing shed work and then harvesting. After that be will seek employment as seasonal farm worker. The trip down was not without adventure. He saw five accidents and a big house fire. His best "break" was when a traffic inspector took him 60 miles and gave him 4/- and 98 cigarettes. He fixed the number of cigarettes exactly because the inspector opened a packet of 100, they had one each, and he was given the remainder. These lasted him a fortnight and the money bought him the food he had been without for several days. On Monday night he had had nothing to eat for 36 hours. He had other lifts, he said. The distance he covered on foot depended on what he had had to eat. When he was hungry 10 miles daily was his best; iu good spirits he covered 40 miles a day. He slept in the daytime and walked at night. To get a lift and the price of a few meals was like having a winning ticket in a Sweepstake, he said last night, when these aids, not freely met with on his long journey, were given him. He was an only child, he said, giving bis earlier history. When his parents died lie sold .the 'furniture and went to Auckland to try his luck. He equipped himself witli a good wardrobe and got a position at 22/6 a week. This left him 1/6 a week after paying board. His best job was one at (£2/8/6. Out of his last position and his weekly margin of 2/6, 'he managed to buy himself a suit. He had not seen a picture (for ill months, having_ learned from experience that “first tilings,” in his case, food and shelter, “come first.” He wlas left at a Lower Hutt cafe on Monday night, more pleased than he had been for some days, and confident that the trip to the Wairarapu and the securing of work there were not the obstacles they had previously appeared to a footsore and hungry youth.