MOTOR TOURISTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1686, 22 June 1904, Page 72 (Supplement)

MOTOR TOURISTS.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, April 29. About the time the present year is far enough spent to warrant one making good, resolutions for 1905 you may expect a visit from a happy couple wha may be justly termed the champion automobile tourists of the world. They are Mr and Mrs Charles J. Glidden, of Boston, Mass., who, for the last three years have been motoring all over Europe, and have already logged some" 14,000 miles, with so much pleasure to themselves that they have mapped out the itinerary of a further two years touring which will necessitate journeys afloat and ashore, of some 20,000 miles, and will extend to five continents. Mr and Mrs Glidden will commence their tour from Boston in July next, and, after crossing America by way of St. Louis, will ship from San Francisco to the Hawaiian Islands, and go thence to New Zealand and Australia, whence they will repair to the Philippines, China and Japan, returning to Europe by way of India, Egypt, Palestine, Tunis and Algeria. Of the two years over which this tour is to be spread, five hundred days or thereabouts, will be spent in their automobile, which is an Englishbuilt 24 k.p. Napier. This car, for touring purposes, has proved splendidly reliable. Last year, Mr GJidden drove it over 6600 miles without any mishap soiions enough to cause more than half an hour's detention, and only six punctures were recorded. In tlieir coming jaunt the tourists will be accompanied by an expert engineer, and they will carry all essential extra parts for repairing their ca„r. As they will visit many places where tyres, petrol, and other necessaries cannot be obtained, they are arranging for such supplies co be sent to convenient points to await their arrival.

Save in Norway, Mr and Mrs Glidden have not so far met with any difficulties in their travels. In the land of tha midnight sun, however, the regulations practically bar motoring. One is that tourists must send a man ahead on 'horseback to say that they are coming; another requires notification to the sheriff <of each place of the time iho car will pass through and the route of any proposed journey has to be advertised several weeks in advance. These are but samples of the restrictions placed on motoring in Norway, and it is not surprising to hear that Mr and Mrs Glidden forsook that country for Sweden at the earliest opportunity. On August 16th, last year, the Bostonians crossed the Arctic circle, being the first people to do so in a motor car. According to Mr Glidden the Finns and Lapps regarded his "Napier” as a thing possessed of a devil. He says: —"When it approached they expressed the utmost fear, and I have often seen them run away into the woods yelling with fright to avoid passing it. Once wo were passing a. vehicle ’filled with Finns, when the driver threw down hia leins, and, _ accompanied by the passengers, bolted to what he thought a safe distance. Perhaps their dread of the machine was inspired by the deadly Paris-to-Madrid me tor race, for 1 found that news of it had reached far beyond the Arctic circle. Some of the more venturesome Fiuns, indeed, would point with trembling finger at my car and asfc me whether it was the one that had done all the killing.”