CRUISE OF THE SAOIRSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19503, 6 December 1926, Page 13

CRUISE OF THE SAOIRSE.

yOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. BOOK BY 'CONOR O'BRIEN. COMMENTS ON NEW ZEALAND. AUCKLAND'S ARCHITECTURE. A very readable book upon his circumnavigation of the globe in the yacht Saoirse lias been written by Mr. Conor O'Brien, who visited Auckland in 1924. The volume is titled, " Across Three Oceans" and is published by Edward Arnold and Company, London. The author, who is a master mariner, has paid considerable attention to tho technical aspect of navigating so small a craft down the Atlantic and round the southern oceans and has much to say upon types of hulls and rigging, which will be of great ve.luo to others who seek adventure in this manner, but without laying any stress upon the dangers and monotonies inseparable from such a cruise, ho makes himself most entertaining to "the landsman. tie writes brightly and proves himself a keener observer. Why We Build in Wood. Perhaps some of his passages are not intended to be taken too seriously, however. Considering that he had 110 opportunity of going inland into New Zealand he is more imaginative than exact in some of his remarks. " Most of the North Island,", he writes, "is volcanic and therefore liable to any sort of transposition of tho solider features; the Tarawera eruption changed lakes into mountains, r:dges into valleys, destroyed the famous pink and white terraces which used to draw sightseers from all over the world. (It is proposed to reproduce them in concrete, but that, will not guarantee their permanence.) The rest is mud and visited by torrential rains; it is therefore not uncommon to meet rows of hguses sliding down the streets of a town. Hence the houses are built of wood, so that they will fioai 011 the mud and may easily be salved. At Rotorua there are both volcanoes and mud; it is so typical that they send tourists there to look at it,." Intense Nationalism. He explains that he hardly saw more than the townspeople in New Zealand and " the soul of no country dwells in its cities." " Apart from the considerable section of the commercial classes which is badly Americanised," he mentions a little later, "one gets the, impression of an intense nationalism —in soma cases of nationalism run mad, which accounts for a good (leal of jealousy of strangers and intolerence of foreign ideas sometimes shown—and of the nation becoming less and less the Dominion of New Zealand and more and more Maoriland. There is the spectacle, perhaps unique, of two races lmng on equal terms, but still apart; and of the colonists carefully guarding; the language and traditions of the natives. The average New Zealander's knowledge of his country would put to shame tie average Irishman. If he could isolate his country till the rawness had worn off he would develop a culture singular and possibly very fine; unfortunately the seeds of corruption come in every week from Sydney, Vancouver or San Francisco." Tribulations of Napier. Possibly Mr. O'Brien his impression of the " shakiness " of New Zealand during a stay during a storm at Napier, where he saw " three houses falling down the hill-side iuto the main street," and where,a few days later, " the harbour fell out into the bay. And, he adds, on the authority of tho harbour engineer, " they were lucky to salve the lighthouse, which floated." "Of course I had to see the local volcano (evidently White Island) as I passed, but it was a poor thing, a little rubbish-B.eap of an island with a wisp of steam upon one side of it." The author is enthusiastic about the beauties of the Hauraki Gulf, but forgets them to •with a little grievance about Auckland. Pe blames a reporter. Question ol a Flag. " On 'the third day, the fog having cleared und my boat being mended, I found the harbourmaster and got a berth alongside the quays, and then discovered, I think, the reason why I was getting rather a cool reception. Either that reporter was phenomenally stupid, or some other intelligent person had seen the Harp in the fly of my ensign, but failed to see tho crown or the union; anyhow the report wis put about (it should ba interposed that the report was cabled from Britain when the Saoirse sailed) that I was flying the flag of the Irish Republic. The New Zealanders are very strong at waving Union ; Jacks (as they pall any kind of Hag), but are rather weak at distinguishing them." He mentions later that the morn serious misunderstandings were socn cleared up and the people of the port hastened to make handsomo amends. Auckland's Architecture. Mr. O'Brien always has a note about the architecture of the towns at which he touched. " Auckland, because it has more natural advantages," lie says, " has thrown away more architectural opportunities than any other city that I know. There are some fine buildings in it, but they are always spoiled somehow, as the new shed on the Princes Wharf, the best thing 0:; its kind, is spoiled by an ugly little weighbridge house stuck down opposite the principal facade." Of the new university buildings he remarks that the styl'3 " becomes positively flamboyant, a daring if not quite successful experimeut. .At any rate," he adds, "it shows that the Auckland architects are not, mere copyists; they are evolving a treatment of ferro-concrete construction, based on timber design, which is both gfiod history (for the Stone Age hardly existed here) and good art." He is severe, however, over tha lack of town-planning, and ends his criticism with the extravagance: " Fortunately New Zealand is liable to earthquakes." The voyager had. trouble with his crew in almost every port,. One, he understands, " married a wife who will make a much better hand of him than I did" ; another, he hopes, went to the devil in his own way, a third became a bricklayer's labourer, and he wonders if the bricklayer got any more work out of him than ho did. " But K. swore he would go to the end of the world with me, and yery ncbly did so."