The Two Worlds

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 11, 24 December 1925, Page 3

The Two Worlds

A Streamlined Trip DR. H. T. J. THACKER RETURNS TALKS OF MANY THINGS. After nine months wandering in the wonder places of the earth. Dr. H. T. J. BhackPi told a Christchurch ‘‘Sun.” reporter on Tuesday, on his return, that he had come to the conclusion that there were two worlds. But the doctor had not dabbled in astronomy while ho was overseas. “There are two worlds, the big and the small,” ho said, after saying that be felt grand “We had a streamlined trip on the Tahiti; there were one or two bumps; and when I looked at Wellington from the boat yesterday there was a cutting-doWn of the iris diaphram after wliat one left behind at San Francisco. And this small world is the pick of tho two. It’s the close-up, and I like to come back here.”

After that little excursion into terrestrial analysis, the doctor descended to such commonplace things as butter. He passed right over seismology and the Einstein theory. He said that there was no necessity for the fall in the price of butter, because there was a keen demand for it, and everywhere in England people sought the Dominion product. It was a movement on the part of big men at Home which influenced the price. There was not sufficient cool storage in England, and cheese, butter and meat should be landed at Plymouth, Torquay Southampton and Brighton, m addition to London and Hull. A FERRY “MESS.”

Then Dr Thacker complained that ho wirelessed from Papette to the Union Steam Ship Cd., Ltd., in Wellington, on December 10. for ferry reservations, and no notice was taken of the message. “There were about 900 people on the Wahine last night,” he said. “It was a mess, and it was deplorable to see the way the railway people handled things at Lyttelton. Express trains should go right through on to the wharf, and people for Christchurch should be able, like those for further south, to go into their own carriages. People rushed the train, and then tore through the carriages, jostling and slamming doors. It was like mustering sheep on a Texas ranch, at the Christchurch station, whej-e everyone, gear and all, was turned out again. There should be a platform at Moorhouse Avenue, where Christchurch passengers could leave their train. In London we put our luggage on the train, and when we reach the boat the luggage is aboard. There is no proper connection between boat and rail here.” Mrs. Thacker had thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and never tired oi boosting New Zealand and telling of Christchurch. She would tell her friends overseas that after she had seen the Old World there was still New Zealand to return to. “Even yet our office in London is not known, though it is in a good position. Ask a taximan to drive to the New Zealand Offices, and you are taken to Australia House. The New Zealand Office is not distinctive; the place ought to be painted in white, with a kiwi or a fern about, and the name for all to see. The brass plate is in a doorway. One man stands sentinel in a vast vestibule, a waste of space, that •should be used as an information bureau or lor the sale of New Zealand papers.” COLOURED ALL BLACKS. He said that people at Home thought, and still think, the All Blacks were coloured. The New Zealand pavilion at Wembley was excellent, except for a panorama of Rotorua which looked like sunset on the Sahara New Zealand did not get the advertisement it should from its meat in England because it was being sold by the British and Argentine Meat Co Ho refused to accept Canterbury lamb until he saw the label. “People think Canterbury lamb is from Kent. Our meat is called foreign, imported, but never New Zealand meat.” Whether newspapers “were buried, burned or thrown overboard,” he did not know; but they all did not reach him, and never in sequence. In England there was a wonderful improvement; in the last 10 days before he left 47,000 persons went into employment. It was vounjr people who were getting the dole, some as much as £3 a week. They do housework while their parents go to work. New York was shoddy-looking after London, which has been resurrected, so to speak through improvements to well-known thoroughfares of London by widening, rebuilding and repaving them.

Of radio and the women who throng the launges of London hotels, smoking, drinking and displaying ample stocking and jewelled garters, Dr. Thacker has something to say. THE CAMEL ON THE FLASK. And “booze” is as easy to get as any other commodity in the United States of America, where millions of gallons of spirits are being made from denatured alcohol, which is 90 per cent poison. Tho young people drink more than any other class of the community, and they are doing it out of pure devilment, because it is prohibited. He saw “sort of stupid citizens, whether from alcohol or dope like heroin and aspirin,” he could not say. The rigid prescription from a doctor for th e “real McKay” was like a Treasury note. Then ho told of the well-stocked liquor vaults in private homes, under which burglars burrowed for the liquor. Spirits of 190(1 vintage and cocktails of all kinds could ho obtained in Boston. Over the Mexican border patent whisky was readily obtainable. In the restaurants an American calls for mineral waters, and the nproduces his flask. “They were silver flasks with a camel set on a black background, and your American would say that he, like the camel, had the hump.” Dr. Thacker was sure that if there were a referendum tho use of light wines and beer would be carried; at any rate, there would be a drastic modification of the Volstead Act. Hs complained of the slow cable service, the fact that letters took 35 to 45 days to reach London and he delivered, and he stressed the point that New Zealanders should make use of the air mail service between San Francisco and New York. This could be done by a bag specially marked. It would save four days. There was a proposal to build a port in Ireland at Black Sod Bay. thus eliminating on e day from Atlantic travel between New York and England. Those are a few thoughts from the doctor, who has briskened bv his world tour, and is glad to be back in Christchurch, which really did give him the slows before he left.