WOMAN’S TRAMPS

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 October 1928, Page 3

WOMAN’S TRAMPS

AMONG NATIVE RACES.

(Special to “Star.”)

AUCKLAND, October 2.

“I have just been cruising through the Hawaiian Islands, and round about the Polynesian Groups, with the idea of endeavouring to trace some semblance of relationship between the islanders and the North American Indians,” said Miss Isohel Larsen, of New York, who arrived in Auckland by the Tofua. Miss Larsen is a member of the American Indian Protection Association, and has spent a number of years living amongst Indians on reservations in the southwestern section. She is a traniper, and instead of using modern methods of transport, prefers to, as she describes it, “hike through the country.” When Miss Larsen landed in Suva, she made arrangements to study the Natives in Fiji Islands in a similar manner, and walked for considerable distances, putting up at night in various native villages.

Speaking of Polynesian folk lore, Miss Larsen said it was' most difficult Io get anything definite, and this was in strange contrast to her work and success among the charming people she had yet visited, but. she added, “I have heard' such a lot about the Maoris that I feel sure that, after 1 have finished my two months’ sojourn in New Zealand, I shall go away well satisfied with the result of my labours. It is my intention to walk through the Urewera country, and 1 hope to do much hiking in the South Island.”