QUEST OF ADVENTURE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 26 January 1927, Page 10

QUEST OF ADVENTURE.

MELBOURNE BOY’S TOUR. SAILOR, HOBO, TAXI-DRIVER. For variety, novelty of experience, and humour of incident, the two years’ wanderings of Kenneth J. Kva-ns, who returned to his home in Malvern last month, will appeal to most Australians, says the Melbourne- Herald. Young Evans, after a year spent in the services of the Victorian Railways and the Metropolitan Gas Company, took it into his head, at the age of 163 to see the world. Signing on in the Zealandia as deckboy, he went to Sydney, where he staved a time with relatives and worked in a suburban grocer’s shop, while he explored the harbour city in his spare time. His first real adventure was at Bondi, where the undertow carried liim out. Before ithe life-line could be sent out tlie ocean ■ tide carried -him -south along the beach into line of the shoreward rush of the breakers. A big one, such as is beloved by surf-shooters, caught him in its seething embrace and rushed him, heels over head, in a smother of foam and sand 150 yards i>o the beach, where he was dumped heavily and leit dizzy- and choking, but safe. OFF TO AMERICA.

Soon after Evans joined the Waiotapu at Newcastle, as under-ste w aid, and saiLed for San Francisco, where he arriv cd in March, 1925. He had £9, one suit of clothes, a small sea-bag with a little spare underclothing and some working overalls. His 17th birthday was still four months off. After two weeks’ search, Evams found a job as a machinist in a radio factory, where he worked two months at £3 15s a week. In spare time he sold lollies in a picture theatre, seven nights a week and Sunday afternoons, thus adding another pound a week to his insome. Going home from the theatre one night, Evans saw the strangest kind of duel. Two policemen, who had quarrelled because of the attentions or one to the other’s wife, had taken up strategic positions about 200 *yards apart in San Francisco’s main street (Market Street), which, when the revolver play began, was crowded with people going home from the shows. At the first shot the crowds melted into the side lanes and doorways, leaving the street clear for the two ‘ guardians of the law” to settle their private differences. Taking cover behind tramway 7 posts, pillar boxes, or in doorways, they stalked each other for 10 minutes constantly snipping with their revolvers, until one was shot dead. The other, wounded in many places, then collapsed and died in hospital a couple ot davs later. THE “HOBOES.” Finding, after two months, that he could not save money out of £4 15s a week in San Francisco, he decided to “be on his way” East. With a friend from the factory (a young Quaker), Evans left the city, and with the help of a lift from a friendly motorist, reached Sacramento the same day. Walking eight miles to Roseville, the “tourists” stowed away with a dozen “hoboes” on a freight train for Reno, Nevada, where they stayed a week, washing restaurant dishes for their food and sleeping in railway 7 waiting rooms ...

.Moved on by the police, the two stowed away on the back of a passenger train engine, and next morning were discovered at a siding in the desert, and thrown off the train. That night they boarded a freight train, and l-ode 30 miles belore being bundled out again. The next 40 miles they 7 walked. Then a fast freight took them 20 miles before dropping them again, 20 miles from anywhere. They walked to Ogden, Utah, and rode on a freighter to Salt Lake City, where they got work, washing dishes again for 6s a day and food, and stayed a week. The Quaker then wired to his people for Go dollars, and went home to Oskaloosa, lowa, leaving Evans, after giving him 10 dollars for emergencies. Working here and there at,,hriclgebuilding and other labour work, Mr. Evans reached Chicago (after spending a six weeks’ holiday with his friend the Quaker at Oskaloosa) in November, 1925, and worked for four months driving a Yellow Cab. Except for a few minor smashes, due to the activities of “road hogs” (one was a

boy of 12 years, driving a fast roadster), It© iiad no adventures as a Chicago taxi driver, although ho attributes this in some measure to the fact that all cabs in that city are fitted with wire glass between the driver and his passenger, to protect the drirer from possible assault with a jemmy or a bottle. DETAINED, THEN DEPORTED. Still travelling on freight trains, Mr. Evans visited and worked at Indianopolis, Terra Haute, Hammond (Indiana), Michigan, Jackson, Kalamagoo and Detroit. Attempting to enter Canada, he then came under the notice of the U.S. Immigration Department, and spent three months in various deportation detention homes, and was finally released at Philadelphia, where he shipped on a Spanish vessel for Ireland. The crew mutinied at Delaware, and Mr. Evans went by train to Newport News, where he finally cleared from America in an Italian vessel to Genoa, when the company paid his fare to London. He returned to Australia on the Aberdeen liner Mamilius.

It is felt by many people that Pukekura Park, and its terraced amphitheatre the sportsground, are not made such full use of as their great charms, and natural advantages warrant. With adequate illumination the sportsground could be made the scene of a great variety of night activities. Athletic sports, which are successfully conducted by electric light in other centres, form only one of a number of opportunities that could be exploited with advantage to the park authorities, and the other bodies interested. The Amateur Athletic Club, and the League Cycle Club, have recently been in conference with the sportsground committee on this question, with the result that a tentative scheme has been drawn up for the provision of an asphalt cycle track around the ground, and the installation a lighting system which would enable spectators to see clearlv what was going on. Some reconstruction of the eastern terraces would be involved. The sportsground committee would need considerable sum of money to carry out such a scheme, and will need the assistance of all sports bodies, and others interested, in raising it. With this in mind a meeting will be held next Thursday, when the scheme will he fully considered. —Taranaki Herald. The- party of ten Red Indians, who arrived in’Auckland last week after a tour of Australia in connection with the film the “Vanishing Race,” have returned to Auckland after visiting Rotorua. An unusual scene w,as witnessed when the Red Indians were received by their Maori hosts, with whom they smoked “the pipe of peace” as the seal of friendship. During their brief sojourn in Rotorua the Maoris entertained the visitors in regal native fashion. The sights of Ohinemutu and Whakarewarewa were enjoyed by the North American visitors, who found they had much in common with the Maoris. The two ancient races, probably the most picturesque in the world, fraternised freely, and the Red Indians were made to feel thoroughly at home.