A NEW ZEALANDER EXPLORES "UNKNOWN ENGLAND"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22961, 12 February 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

A NEW ZEALANDER EXPLORES "UNKNOWN ENGLAND"

By J. C. GRAHAM

""[JNKNOWN England?" you say. "Why, that's absurd. Darkest Africa, if you like ; impenetrable Brazil; unexplored Tibet; but unknown England, no." Yet for the last few months I have been living among a people about whom, I found, I knew very little more than ] did concerning the inhabitants of the most out-of-the-way parts of the world. I had heard often enough of the Black Country, but my idea of what it was like was most vague. Writers do not dwell on it—they pass hurriedly by with head averted and most tourists do the same. The travel folders ignore it completely. The average "native born" New Zealander has hazy ideas about Britain's big manufacturing areas. They are, he thinks, tucked away conveniently in odd corners where they will not interfere with the beauty of the countryside. But it is not so. The greater part ol the population of England lives in these industrial districts Dozens of Towns

I had never quite known where the Black Country was, and an examination of the map of England is not illuminating. Wolverhampton is often the only town marked near Birmingham, and I, being used to thinking of a town as the centre for a surrounding fanning district, assumed that the area about Birmingham was more or less open country. Actually it consists of literally dozens of towns of from 20,000 to 100.000 people. Each town is densely settled and adjoins others at its boundaries. It is possible to travel almost endlessly through the busy streets of town after town without getting out into o(ieu country

What do you know of Bilston, Walsall. Willenhall Dudley, Tipton, Coselev, Wed lies bury, Kingswinford, Cannock. Old Hill. Cradley, Stourbridge, Kidderminster, Smethwick. Sedgley, West Brormvich, Oldswinford, Halesowen, Bowley Regis. Harbonrne. Edghaston. Sutton Coldlield, or OldburyP Every one of .them is bigger than Wanganui and several have more people than Dunedin, yet even if you know nothinu about them at all it is not surprising. If you drove through them you would not know where one ended and the other began These Black Country towns are the consummation of ugliness Apart from an occasional fine old church there is not a beautiful building in them They consist for the most, part of streets of three-storeyed brick houses, built flush with the footpath There is no front garden and usually none at the hack. There is no ornamentation to the brickwork. It is plain, unadorned and buried under half an inch of soot and grime.

Housing Schemes There are belter quarters than those J have been describing. Some towns have entered on fine housing schemes, though New Zealanders would object to hundreds of houses in one identical pattern. Foremen and clerks, chiefly, live in these suburbs. In most towns there is a small section of dwellings," occupied by the better-paid executives, and boasting, perhaps, quarter-acre allotments.

At intervals in this wilderness of towns are even more desolate wildernesses of factories —groups of lingo blackened monsters belching smoke from their "massive chimneys. A large number are iron, steel and engineering works. The ground round many of them

Friendly People of the Black Country

is pitted and scarred where it has been worked over lor iron ore.

But iron-working is only one of an astounding number of trades that go on in this area. Each town has its own speciality. Thus Stourbridge has for centuries been the centre of the glass and crystal industry and a large percentage of the crystal sold in New Zealand comes from one or other of the important glasshouses established here Kidderminster is the centre of the carpet trade. Wolverhampton makes motor tyres, artificial silk and aeroplanes.

The Jewellery Quarter Birmingham itself seems to make everything. In a ring round this huge city are factories of every conceivable kind, from steel rolling mills to a wonderful chocolate factory, set amid thu model suburb of Botirneville, by far the brightest spot in this grim stretch of country.

Near the centre of Birmingham i« the jewellery quarter, where much of the world's artificial jewellery, as well fls a large quantity of the genuine article, is made This is a curious district. The factories are nearly all converted houses, and for streets and streets every single building is connected with jewellery manufacture. And what of the [leoplu who live in the Black Country Y They are the verv reverse of the conventional idea of the Englishman Far from being reserved they are almost embarrassingly friendly. If you ask them the tva.v they will probably abandon what they are doing and come with vou.

Compared with New Zealand standards a large proportion of the workers receive a starvation rate of wages. Yet there is surprisingly little labour

trouble. One gets tlie impression th.it long ago a vast wave of industry swept over these people ;imi engulfed them. Their idea ot an ideal holiday is a visit to a crowded seaside resort, with a pier, a brass band, hundreds of automatic machines, shops selling peppermint rock ami postcards, a promenade, nnd last (and by a long way least) a beach. This latter is not really necessary at all. Few of those visiting the place want to swim—paddling is the height of their ambition.

Music Hall Enthusiasts For entertainment the Black Country iieople like to go to a music hall, where the most , popular "turns" arn dialect comedians telling brood and very obvious jokes. The other way of spending an evening is yarning and playing darts in a public house. Whole families go along and although this may seem a remarkable procedure to New Zealanders, it is not so bad as it sounds. Public houses are practically the only social centres in many of these towns. Very little beer is drunk as most people cannot afford much.

But the all-pervading enthusiasm in these parts is soccer football. On Friday and Saturday nobody talks of anything but the prospects "for the match and for the rest of the week everyone plays it over again and calls down curses on the referee's head. There' is a town of 140,000 people which regularly has gates of from 50,000 to 70,000 at football matches when the local team is engaged in a home match.

Not only do the people lind money for admission from some mysterious source. They also manage to raise sixpence a week to invest in football pools, which have become one of the country's biggest industries It is impossible to get near a post office on Fridav night beca use of the dense mass of peoplo buying sixpenny postal orders and filling in pool forms. But whatever may be the faults or virtues ol these Black Country people i should say the outstanding trait was a dogged determination to battle on and make the best of things even when life has not many plums to offer.