THE OPEN ROAD.

Evening Star, Issue 18834, 8 January 1925, Page 4

THE OPEN ROAD.

“ One does not see nearly so many push bicycles about as in past years, the advent of the motor having chiefly brought about the decline in their use.” These words, which appeared in a local in our last Issue, bring back memories of twenty or twentyfive years ago, when enthusiastic cyclists could be numbered by thousands. In the earlier days of the high bicycle the pastime was limited to a comparatively small band o£ athletic youths, who were not deterred by its obvious limitations, but with the invention of the safety bicycle the sport developed, though not as quickly as it might have done had some other word than “safety” been, used to describe the new type. This was an error in judgment on the part of the manufacturers, for “safety first” is not a phrase that appeals to the youth of British slock. The advantages of the new model were so overwhelming, 'however, that prejudices against its use soon passed away, and the day of the bicycle really arrived. On Saturdays and Sundays crowds of perspiring people of all ages and of both sexes pedalled along our roads, and the hostelries at Mosgiel, Outran, Henley, Waihola, and Milton (on the Main South, road), and at Waitati and Evansdale (on the North road) did a thriving business in supplying lunches and other welcome refreshment. The enthusiasm in the sport was to be noted in the after-lunch discussions, when the merits of the various makes of bicycles were keenly debated. Henley was probably the most popular objective, for though two formidable hills had to be surmounted the surface of the road after leaving the Coach and Horses made cycling a delight, and compensated

for the hard work in the preliminary stages. The bicycle tour was a common way of spending a holiday, and roads far afield were explored. This was in the days, too, before the invention of the free-wheel, when the long road downhill tested the endurance of the rider. Now the once-coveted bicycle is merely a “push bike,” and is chiefly in use as a , handy means of getting about the town. The joys of the open road are to-day experienced by the motorist and his friends in the high-powered car or by the youth in goggles who rides a spluttering motor cycle. Seaside cribs and motor boats have also had a share in lessening the athletic adventures of the youth of the day. The open road is the symbol of outdoor life, and it calls to the spirit of vagabondage that appeals to every robust man. George Borrow, Robert Louis Stevenson, Walt Whitman, Hilaire Belloc, and many others have sung, in prose or in verse, of the joys of adventures and strenuous endeavor out of doors. Geoffrey Chaucer, the “father of our language,” as ho lay at the Tabard Inn, in Southwark, and planned his immortal ‘ Canterbury Tales,’ epitomised the adventurous spirit of the British people, which has been maintained down the centuries. One does not wish to sec that spirit decay. It is in the athletic pastimes of the people that the power and will are developed that enable them to perform their part with credit when greater issues call. A revival in bicycling may come. The new roads of this dominion do not open up fields of romance as do the historic Roman roads and bypaths of the Mother Land and Continent of Europe, but they afford opportunities for indulging iu a manly and wholesome pastime from which pleasure and health may bo obtained.