Observations

Northern Advocate, 28 January 1939, Page 11

Observations

by “The Man on the Look-Out”

began by being a nomad. He is still a wanderer in heart and shows no signs of willingness to depart from his inclinations. No longer, however, does he confine his activities to one country or one continent. Modern transport enables him to see in a month what took his horse-riding forebears, years; sometinfes for business, as did the early trading caravaners, sometimes for motives purely of entertainment and pleasure. ,

the first date in history the * tale of man’s progress has been a tale of wanderings. Like the seeds of plants blown by the wind into every corner of the earth, have men branched put from their original homes to make new nations and new. peoples abroad. Like seeds, also, they have grown up, varied in shape and appearance from their original kind, and have ultimately become recognised as different races, although of the same blood and kind.

passing years new light must be thrown up the nature of man’s wanderings. He has gone from one place to another, settled colonies here and there and left new provinces behind him. Result has been an accumulation throughout the world of a mass of small states, all self-governing, all claiming for themselves self-achieve-ment. 'Scattered throughout the world this wealth of human communities has grown to an uncountable number.

gOON, it apears, the older nomadic

order must give rise to a new phenomenon. Where nations have broken into sections and settled new areas, different speech and different customs have followed in the wake of such breaking away. Only four generations have gone by since the Pilgrim Fathers sailed into American waters. To-day there is an American language far removed from the familiar English dialects. In British colonies, too, is this evident, for does not a New Zea-

lander find a Londoner hard to understand? , gUCH changes have come about in the space of little more than a lifetime—the creation of new methods of expression, the development of new customs, new habits of life, new forms of social organisation and administration. The people of a nation, divided and scattered, have formed new peoples, new nations, as the differ ences of climate make change in the nature of wandering birds and animals, so that they ''are hardly reconcilable with original parentage.

JJUMAN history now changes as it

has not changed before. Into its ken has come a new feature —the feature of world travel for all, the feature of world knowledge for all. The barriers that have grown about the nations and about the. separated peoples of the same nation seem to be in a dwarfing stage before the onslaught of modern transport methods.

MACHINERY and scientific inven-

tion have come to show all men what lies beyond the limit of their vision or their hearing.

PjpRAVEL has become, for all people,

,part of modern life. A holiday is not considered such unless it is taken from accustomed surroundings. There is no greater enjoyment, despite its familiarity, than spending a half holiday or a week-end from the weekly residence. In a larger sphere, all people long for money and time and opportunity to travel. The roaring airliners, the majestic cruise ships, the streamlined motor car—all these have touched in human hearts that old chord—the chord which is the nomad’s joy, the wanderer’s explanation for his movements.

than satisfaction will lie behind this yearning for travel. It must, if it continues as at present, bring the nations of the world into closer contact. It must, by all human

laws, result in wider spread of know-

ledge, must create in all lands a more complete understanding of neighbouring and distant lands. And it must, in the course of time, result in the merging of small provinces ‘in, 'larger, of states in continents, of continents in empires and empires in world nationality. Such is the dream of those who see virtue in the development of travel. It is a dream that present events do not greatly substantiate.

can tell where modern nomadism may lead, for none can read the future. Even how signs have appeared that travel may ultimately tire the masses of the, people. Finely worded and finely illustrated magazines, newspapers and books are spread throughout the world daily, weekly cr monthly from every country, big or small, important or insignificant. Radio brings the sound of the world nearer, makes foreign voices familiar. Shortly television will bring the wonders of the world to the worker’s sitting room. Then he will be able to sit in his usual surroundings and see before him a panorama of the world. From him will have gone desire for travel, desire to see the world. 'To him the world will have come for. him to enjoy. ,

npiME may bring great changes. It' may see the quelling of the wanderlust, for soon the wanderlust may find satisfaction in what is brought to its doors.. But all the books, magazines, radios and illustrations, lack the fundamental element of reality and it is this which keeps alive the spirit of the wanderer. None can read and be satisfied; the mind learns facts about a country, the eye studies photographs, maps, illustrations; but the heart of 'man is ever in reality and his wanderlust will override his momentary satisfaction. He will hear and read and see ’ but he will always be ruled by an unconquerable desire to see other peoples and other countries for himself.