OVER 1000 MILES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21391, 16 January 1933, Page 6

OVER 1000 MILES

GREAT WALKING FEAT THREE WEARISOME WEEKS [WOMAN'S QUEST FOR WORK (YOUNG DAUGHTER AS COMPANY To have trekked over 1000 miles in tjiree j ;weeks in search pi work; to have been offered work—in a Chinese market garden • —and refused it; to have been without a penny piece in tho world; to have been too tired to" eat, and to have had to refuse lifts on tho road; to have been unable to sleep because of blistered feet and aching muscles. These things were among the experiences of a woman of 45 and daughter of 12 when they trekked from Sydney to Orange, New South (Wales, and then to Brisbane, in quest of employment. . The woman is Mrs. It. J. Scott, a yQueenslandeiy who is tho solo support of her daughter, Joan. Mrs. Scott is an hotel chef with years of experience, but like so many other people she has been brought low bv the depression, but not so low as to be content to live on charity while her legs will carry 'her about Australia in quest of work. Mrs. Scott and Joan took the train to Parramatta and started their actual trek amid green fields with the grandeur of the .distant Blue'/Mountains calling them on. It was not until they had toiled up the ever-rising Western road and had passed Ivatoomba/ that the fhst Good Samaritan appeared in his car and gave them a lift to Lithgow. Incidentally he also gave them k letter to a friend at Bathurst asking Jiim to see whether the , Mayor of that city could do anything for ' the pathetic trekkers. " Declined with Thanks" Then came spalls of hard walking and (occasional lifts, until the trampers came upon a woman camped on the roadside between Kelso and Bathurst who told "them that she and her husband had .walked from Sydney 18 months earlier. •"Have you managed to get any work ?" Mrs. Scott asked. "Only with the Chin- ' amen," replied/the woman, nodding her head toward a green patch where Chinese market gardeners were stooped emong their vegetables. The woman abided that she and her /husband received £3 a week between them out of which they had- to feed and "house" themselve?. The work consisted of tending the crops and pulling onions and cabbages, and assisting the Chinese to bag and for the market. Down the river, she said, a number of white men and /heir families were also working for Chinese gardeners. She offered to put in a word with her employers for Mrs.. Scott and Joan, but the I mother declined'with • thanks. "There is little work I would refuse to do," she told a representative of the Brisbane Telegraph, "but it does not seem right < for a white woman and a girl to work for Chinese, although in our case £3 a >veet would have been a godsend." Starting For Queensland * So, Bathurst / was visited unavailingly and the pair went to Orange, only to arrive too late for the cherry-picking. To /go further west, they were told, was madness, as there was absolutely no prospect of work. Accordingly they retraced their footsteps and decided that Queensland, their home State, might offer better prospects. ' Queensland was well over 800 miles distant, but mother and daughter had now been long enough on the road to know its terrors. Grit would pull them through; that they knew only too well. Once again it wps footslog and waving to /passing vehicular traffic—cars, lorries, or sulkies—in the hope of getting a lift for a few miles.

Shortly afterwards Mrs. Scott and Joan spent their first night in the bush. "In ether circumstances it would have been a pleasant and/ healthful experience," smiled the mother. "But it was our first .night, and were were too afraid to sleep." • Later Mrs. Scott and Joan got a lift from a man who also gave them a pound note. The landscape immediately took on softer tints, the birds sang more richly and ■ the flies and ants were forgotten. One pound sterling "was riches! It meant t food. and a bed to sleep in—and a bath! And so, by way of foot and vehicle, the pair got - back tp Parramatta and then headed north to Queensland. Another Good Samaritan . Mrs. Scott and Joan were given a lift a man" whd was going as far as Wyong. As the car sped along experiences were talked of and the Good Samaritan on /this occasion drove the pair right into Newcastle rather than put them out at / Wyong to walk the rest of the way on blistered feet. As the days went on the marches became shorter. The girl was sticking it out like a Spartan, but Mrs. Scott's feet were red raw. She had started the trek in kid slippers and now was hobbling along in nurses' shoes—strapped affairs with rubber heels. Next Mrs. Scott and Joan secured a lift y\vhich took them to John's River and met another man, who gave them £1 to help them on their way. Nambucca Heads >was reached on Christmas Eve. It looked like being a wretched Christmas for Joan, but Santa Claus / did not forget her. He knew a doll or a pretty ribbon, or even s : a book, would be of little use to her, so he directed the footsteps of mother and daughter to a roadside camp, where they •were advised to ask for a meal at a near by house. Not only a meal, but a bed and Christmas dinner, were provided by the kindly housewife. 7 Lifts and Presents Moving on the weary wayfarers saw a man and his wife camped near the road, and learned that they had got work chipping weeds on a- banana plantation for which they were paid £2 a week and keep themselves. Soon after a party of Germans or Swedes gave them a lift and passed round the hat to raise 10s to help them on their way. At Harwood, however, the last 2s had to be expended on a bed for the nip;ht, and it was with ■very low spirits mother and daughter moved on in the morning. Good fortune this time appeared in the broadcloth of a priest, who took' them to Coraki and gave them 12s. Then came a lift (as uncomfortable as it was welcome) on a timber-hauling lorry, . On New Year's Eve Mrs. Scott and Joan walked into Burleigh, which waa en gala. They could find no place to rest away from the eyes of the holiday-mak-ing crowd until for 2s they were allowed to sleep in a tiny tent at" the back of a garage. On Sunday the final stage to Brisbane was begtin and soon the pair fell in_ with a man who brought them light into the city and gave them 4s. 3 his provided a bed (2s and two meals at Is each). .The mother and daughter, on reaching Jtasbane, had a few shillings left.