ELEVEN YEARS' WALK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18173, 19 August 1922, Page 10

ELEVEN YEARS' WALK.

ROUND THE WORLD TOUR. That he £as undertaken to walk around the world on foot for'a prize of £7000 offered by a Canadian newspaper -fr the claim of Maurice Vancom, who describes r himself as the " King of Tramps," and who recently arrived s&\ Sale in Victoria. ■. Vancom states that he left Vancouver in. 1911 in a paper suit and with no money, in aßCordance with the conditions of the cdntriict. Other stipulations ware that.he/shquld not work, beg, -[bono*,: lor steal, bufc should get his expenses through the sale of cards at whatever price was offered. Prior to reachiflK Sale he had visited 69,0.10 towns and vil- : lages and has more than 100 books bearing the seal of each municipality and the postmark of each place visited. Although Vancom had to pass throngh the area where the Balkan war was being waged in 1912, traversed Mexico in 1913 during the rebellion, and faced hardships in Siberia and China, he says that one of his worst walks was through the Au> .: ',; tralian desert when he was often without' water for long periods. He has now been touring Australia for over two'years, omhas to cover only another 400 miles before he can claim the prized He has already worn out 96 pairs of boots. His wife and children have coma out to Australia to meet him ~~