THE EMPIRE.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 July 1925, Page 4

THE EMPIRE.

MV SEARCH FOR IT. ( ]J V |,. Lintott Taylor, of Aiazabuka, A. Rhodesia, in the Sydney ‘'Herald.”) .. j ca u't”—leaves you where you began. • • i’ll try’’—takes you miles. ■■l’ll do it”—gets you there. That may be original or I may have heard it. read it, or dreamt it, I cannot say which: any way I have lived U|> to it. As a child I always spoke ol ’■ when,” not il. Igo to India, though for many years nothing could have been a more remote possibility. When eventually 1 did take a header into the stream of life I quickly realised that to eliminate the word “ it ” as a prefix to one's actions was to take the first big stride on the highway towards the goal of one s ambition. In this ease the ambition was to see the Kmilire- not a lightning tour, a “doing ” of each Dominion and a passing over except when ships happened l) call, of dependencies, but a li'.etime leisurely wandering, with an eye like a cinematograph, and a mind like a dry sponge. A journeying that would allow one to live in each of the many countries long enough to earn the right to change '‘they,” “your.” and “ iav ” into ‘ we ” and “ our.”

HKICIXU Iff [SELIKVINCL M v obiect was lo know the Intpir; in order to he iihlu to teach Enipir. history and geography from direct ex ]loricate, and so make them mor ••alive.” .subjects to the children, am eventually to secure, for three or loti veins, a post—al. present non-existen —as lecturer on Umpire general know lodge at. various secondary schools i London, when vacations might h spent in Kuropean countries. No tin ver.-ity olfered the course that »» needed. Only in the school of expel ye nee might the jnecessary ijualific; tions Ire pained. Australia alone cold I each no more than Kngland lor "h: d,» thev know ol the- Umpire, who old Australia know But in order to tr; vel money was needed, and I was penn less and self-dependent. Also, I wan ed to learn something of my own mu try hefore setting out for other land When, bv means of teaching, I la: worked my way from Rockhampton Rerih, and so had pained a lirst-hai knowledpo ol' tile " Iriiipe ” of Australia. I set about iimlinp ways and means of peltinp to India. II 1 aimed at Icarninp the Kmpire I knew I must begin with lOnghtud, and to what she, or rather Britain, really is, I felt I must po to India. A letter —a random shot- addressed to an imaginary principal ol' an im.iginarv scliool in Calcutta fell into the hands of a Church of England sisterhood. and hefore I puite realised what was happening I was sotting out, with all inv worldly wealth in my pocket—flu—to a post in S.AV. India. INTRODUCTION TO INDIA. A week in ( blomobn and Kandy formed my introduction to the Last, and then I went (o (Jotacamund, hiplt 111 > in tlio Nilpri Hills, in South-wesl-ern India. (Ilf the I.eaten track and perfectly delightful. it is the summer headquarters of the .Madras Oovcrnmeiit. and rjuecu of all Indian hill .stations. "Doty " enters lor almost every taste. The poller may poll’ on some of the most beautifully situated links in the world, the hunter may ride with the famous •“Only” hounds over the homelike downs ; the motorist may motor along roads that call the walker out ol doors, roads dec-p pink, pale [link, and ifieam that look as l houph limy were frequentl y swept. I he botanist v. ill find mm h to rev. aid his sea reh in the woods and "sholas of the many hills, and the photoprapher will litul studies iimitmerahle for his camera. The Australian will wonder why he had not realised hist ho"' beautiful our pumtree.s are till he saw them on t];e slopes of h.lk Hill, and why in Australia we do not have wattle hedpos when he sci's the roads bordered by litem in place ol unsightly lences. Other hedpos the re are in Only, hetipes eight ltd am| ten I. at liiph. and all of liclioi rop •. Tli.-y arc lo u as carefully t rimmed a. new and pri\ -1 hedge', and the sweet-smelling (lowers are nilhlessly Inppcd dll' "hell they prow too far out of the perpendicular or horizontal. There arc math; bordered by such hedpos. aril the ditches beside them arc lined with wild t inlets an 1 Xilpiri daises. There are dells in the woods that look as I houph they had; sc! out to lie hikes, and had forpot ten. I dells sunoundf',l lie ptims ami Mack-1 woods rubbing shoulders with lira and bamboos, in which the laities must surely ihuic e on moonlit niphts. They are never to he seen, because at the approach of mortals they hide, away in the hills of the foxgloves, ! which., alonp with wild violets, prow in such profusion under the trees at the edge of the dell. Ontaoamnml is mote than an Indian hill .station with a wonderful climate; it is a pocket edition of three countries. There are the unlive quarters and bazaar, where siphtx, sounds, and smells pire evidence of your Jiavinp wandered into India. There are lanes bordered by hedpos, pivinp peeps of cottages with weatherred or mushroom pink nr brown roofs nestling amongst trees and gardens, whieli look ax though they had slipped out. of an English landscape. Thcro are gums and golden wattles, the very sight and scene of which transport one

land. Australia - -three in one. Oofy. dear, deli;.j;litt'ul Ooly, lint lies only twelve days' journey from our western shores. The Xilgiri Hills, the “hlue” mountains of South-western India, are the home of what is perhaps the aboriginal rare of India, the 'Codas. Re- 1 dueed in numhers to some seven hundred, they live in small villages, or c-olleotions of huts called “munds”. They are pnstoralists, owning herds of large-horned blue-grey buffalo, from the milk of .which they make quantities of cheese. The men are of fine physique. with Mowing black hair and clear-cut. features. The women are noted for their beautiful silky I lack hair, which they spend much time arranging in lingleis, Tolyandry is practised’, the woman usually being the wife of several brothers. As a chnraeteristie form of salutation, the husband. pit returning home, places his foot on the head of his kneeling wife.

DABJEELTXG. _My second year in India was spent at Darjeeling. whither I went after two months in Burma. linrma. Sliwe rayon (Shwu- Dagoan), Mandalay. Tiraivaddv. how the rhythmic- cadence of the words stir the senses, while tlie imagination, wandering at will, paints pictures of a country in which romance and reality are closely interwoven. But all that is another story, Darjeeling, the summer headquarters of the Bengal Government, is one of the world's “show’’ places. Mist-enshroud-led. for the better part of seven or j eight months of the year (March to Go- i toher), it is a most tantalising place j to live in. for there, just lx\vond that j blanket of mist, is a view that is one j of nature's masterpieces. Between ! the spur on which Darjeeling is built j and the forty-tn-fifty mile distant i ' ‘snows’ - are eight distinct ranges, j rising towards, and culminating in. Kinohinjunam. second hut one (Godwin Austen), to Everest. Bv meansyof powerful field glasses one may see the whole range of vegetation from tropical to arctic regions Turn the glasses to the river valleys and bamboos and otjier low-altitude plants are to he seen giving place, as the glasses are raised.

to deciduous and coniferous trees, which, in turn, are replaced by stunted shrubs, mosses and lichens, where the rocks are not snow covered. Darjeeling, v.-herc I arrived after my holiday in Burma, with just- 10s and a penny half-penny in my pocket, is reached by means of the DarjeelingHimalayan Railway, commonly called the “Toy” railway. Though I had hoard and read of this railway I was not prepared for such a tiny affair. The gauge is only two feet, and the carriages and trucks are the most absurd little arrangements. Tliq sides of ibc trucks overhang, nearly touching the ground, and the tiny wheels just peep out from underneath, the whole effect being that of a little old lady, modestly trying to bide her ankles. The tiny engines have small saddle tanks, which give them the appearance of conceited pouter pigeons. AVhen one of those little pulling billies starts off through the jungle of the Tcrni, along a level track, from Siliguri, one is apt to be critical of the fuss it is making, but, v.lien. with a final snort, after (limbing over 8000 feet, ii lands one. several boms later, at Darjeeling criticism is swallowed up in admiration for what has been accomplished. The line winds and twists about in an amazing manner. For part of the way it keeps to the main road-—the Cartroad. so named because, when it reaches Darjeeling, it is the only road level enough to be ol use for largo carts and motors—from side to side of which it doges, apparently, iust at its own sweet will. It is not treated with (be respect usually paid to railways, and is given no special lenced-in track of its own. but wanders about on the road wav like an undisciplined tramline. An American is reported to have said. , after travelling on the I.ashio line in Burma: “Well. I’ve seen your railway, and 1 call it sheer impertinence.” The same might well bo said of the Daijeoling “Toy” railway. lo dare climb into the highest, mountains in the world j ),y moans of a railway that you feel you would like: to take home and play with on your dining-room table, is impertinence, if you like. No wonder every now and then a landslip or an earthquake shock carries away part of the line, ft is as though the huge mountains were trying to shake off I such an irritating little insult as an elephant would shake off a mosquito.