BOY'S LONG JOURNEY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21110, 18 February 1932, Page 6

BOY'S LONG JOURNEY.

WELLINGTON AND BACK. USEFUL JOBS- ON THE WAY. MAKING MONEY FOR EDUCATION. Admittedly times are hard, but at least one young Aucklander has shown a fine determination not to sit down complacently tinder adverse circumstances. In pursuance of his desire to obtain a secondary education ho has just returned to Auckland from a somewhat trip to Wellington and back with his "swag." He is Jim Edwards, aged 13, of 18, Manning Street, Newton, a tall, hefty lad for his age, looking bronzed and fit after spending so much timo in the open air. Jim left the Newton Central School at the end of last year and, having set his heart on going to a secondary school, he decided to make his way to Wellington, earning as much as he could on the way. All that he can save he is putting by for his own education. With his kit packed in a sugar-bag and slung "with binder twine over one shoulder, Jim set, out on January 2 on his long trek. As he had been over the road in somewhat similar fashion once before, he was not afraid of losing his way. As might be expected in the circumstances, lifts were frequent, and at the end of the first day Jim found himself at Te Kuiti, where he has friends, who put him up for the night. -r.-The next day he reached Awakino and the third night he rested at Waitara. From New Plymouth he followed the main road to Wellington, doing the last stage from Wanganui to Wellington in one day. All the way along Jim was on the lookout to earn an honest shilling and, according to his own account, he is quite pleased with the net results. He would get a lift in a lorry and then help to unload it; or he would chop wood at a farmhouse or clean out the cowshed. Apparently his original venture appealed to most people and at hotels he would be allowed a "special rate" for a bed and given a good meal to cheer him on his way. He returned by the same route, reaching Auckland late yesterday afternoon.

Jim is the eldest of a family of eight and his father, Mr. J» H. Edwards, travels for a line of his own manufacture. Jim candidly confesses that arithmetic causes him trouble, bjit he is very fond of English, and it is on that account that he is anxious to gain more education. Yesterday he named Dickens and Dumas as among his favourites a.nd said he had read a few of Shakespeare's plays, but he preferred them in simpler form. Asked about his future plans, he said he was going to earn as much as he could to take him to a secondary school. He hopes if possible to get work in Auckland, but if not, he will go out on the road again, as before. "If I can only get enough for one year I'll only go for one year, but if I can get more, so much the better," he said cheerily. He left his interviewer with the feeling that here was one boy, at any rate, who was not going to be defeated by the depression and who would probably be heard of again.