VIEWS ON NEW ZEALAND

Evening Star, Issue 18173, 13 January 1923, Page 3

VIEWS ON NEW ZEALAND

A FRENCH VISITOR,

GRANDSON OP GREAT CANAL BUILDER.

A visitor from France, who has nothing but good to say of New Zealand after a stay of a little over five weeks, is M. Gaston Micard, a Parisian, with tho legal degree of Docteur en Droit, and: the much higher distinction (as lie views it) of being ■an ex-student of the great licole Polytcchnique, which has produced some of the greatest of French, generals, including Foch and Joffre.

A Wellington ‘ Dominion ’ representative had a brief talk with M. Micard, and it was in tho course of conversation that tho visitor declined his admiration of the country. Ho was actually invited' to say the worst ho thought; he could find nothing more derogatory to slate 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. The people he had found charming. They showed themselves so kind and hospitable to a stranger. “In France,” said M. Micard, “ they are not so hospitable, 1 must confess. They will never bother with a stranger. Here they have invited mo to thc-ir homes, and l arranged little trips for mo. 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 Durcan, and found it thoroughly satisfactory. He 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 neighboring 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. “ Hero I found in the country districts,” ■lie 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 it 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 result of a sudden decision during a visit to Tahiti and the French islands of the Pacific. “I could not make a difference between the North and South Islands,” he said. “I could not make a difference, because the scenery is lovely everywhere. I am very sorry to leave.” M. Micard is to sail by the lonic this month on the return voyage to France via Southampton. The school to which M. Micard is so proud to have belonged was founded by Napoleon. “It is the great school of France,” said the visitor enthusiastically. “It has arrays had the highest destiny, the greatest glory. Its motto, inscribed upon its flag, is ‘ Pour les Sciences ; Pour la Gloire; 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 engineers and soldiers of France. M. Micard was a. pupil from 1900 to 1902. while the school was under the direction of General Debatisse.

Although M. Mioard has been trained ■at the Ecole Polytechnique end in law, ho does not practise a profession. He is a director of a French company possessing considerable interests in the West Indies. His principal hobby is travel. His entry at the Polytcchniquo was prompted chiefly by a sentimental motive—his grandfather had been a distinguished pupil there. Tin's grandfather was the principal collaborator of Do Lcesep® in the building of the Suez Canal. He was known in Egypt as Votsin; Bey, and in, his hands was the direction of the actual engineering work. Do Lesseps conducted the diplomatic negotiations connected with the project. Vbisin Bey died just three years too early to become a centenarian. During the fen years that the canal took to build. M. Micaid’s mother lived in Kgypt—“ 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 life!’ The interviewer was on the point of asking a question when the visitor suddenly adopted the (nolo of questioner. “ They had a. groat fight here for Prohibition. Do von think it good or not? In France they don’t dream of it. Do the 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 spoit might be safer. , “Sport has progressed enormously in France since the war,” said M. Micard. "Everybody goes in for football, mid it was hv no moans so before the war. The army,*l am told, now requires its officers to he leaders of sport. It’s sport for all now, even the girls—and don t think that’s quite so necessary.” _M._Mica.rn, leisured bachelor as he is, is . oI “ fashioned” in his ideas about gins, just a,s he is an avowed conservative in many other ways.