RIO DE JANEIRO

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23886, 14 August 1939, Page 4

RIO DE JANEIRO

A PICTURESQUE CITY EFFECTIVE PUBLIC LIGHTING/ YGUNG NEW ZEALANDER'S IMPRESSIONS ' The opportunities afforded New Zealanders who join the Royal Air Force of seeing various parts of the world are, disclosed in a letter from a Dunedin youth to his parents. The future pilot left by the Waimarama for England, and the chief attraction of the voyage Home was a stay in Rio de Janeiro, with which city*he was enthralled. His letter contains an intensely interesting description- of the citv itself, and the writer gives his own impressions of the South American metropolis, which has a population almost double that of New Zealand. "When we were still 25 miles away from Rio de Janeiro," he writes, "we could see a bright light on top of a high hill, and we were told that this was an illuminated statue of Christ; over 100 feet high, and built on top of a hill 2800 feet above Rio. It certainly makes a wonderful landmark, as we did not see the remainder of the town lights until we were about 15 miles nearer the shore. "The harbour at night simply beggars description. The entrance is very narrow, and a hill completely blocks the lights of the city itself until you are almost in the harbour, so that the first lights we , saw■> before going in weire those of the Praia Copacabara and other beaches along, the same line. They ail have magnificently illuminated waterfronts, and the buildings are absolutely marvellous. These waterfront lights go along the water's ; edge for nearly 15 miles, and as they have huge buildings of 15 to 20 storeys i behind them, and all brightly lit, you can imagine what a glorious sight they ' are. , -■' ..'• "The city itself was absolutely magnificent. All the important buildings are real skyscrapers, and when we got in, I think' ievery light in the town, shops, buildintfs. everywhere, was lit. The main buildings of the town.'a newspaper office, stood head and shoulders above the others, although it was only 22 storeys high. The name of the paper is Noite, and it looked a horrible rag to me when I saw a copy next day. Of course, it is printed in Portuguese. There were dozens of ships, yachts, and other boats in the harbour, and they were beautiful against the background of lights, Neon signs, and buildings: - !.•' '; 'The - BrailHan ' N»vy ■ . 4The next morning I was up.bright aria early...at 5 o'clock, and,-if I had thought Rio beautiful by night, it was doubly-, so by day. We struck a glorious ■'■' morning." and 'the. harbour seemed an absolutely endless stretch of blue waiter. v Thfr buildings seemed bigger and. mote majestic than the night before; while the shipping, which we 1 coulcl barely see by/bight, was a real surprise.- "We had anchored directly opposite the Brazilian Navy, and when wfe arrived on deck it: was almost the • first- thjtag.:that met our, eyes. They haovtwo wage battleships, four or,flve Hint; cruisers, submarine chasers, and , one-o£;th(e: very latest; American submarines,:, which was painted all black,, exce]pt J fop'tlie;numbe!f, 122, and was very liard to see at all. I was awakened' by\ a Junkers airliner taking off froman. aerodrome about a mile or less away, and flying low over the ship on its way north. .We could see the aerodrome from the ship, and. with ?:lass«. could make but two more huge hree-engifled Junkers and a PanI American Airways Clipper with four engines.; In .the'harbour were several smlH Islands,,with greatsthree and fotaf.<#torey.buildings oh them. They •If looked the very' essence of luxury, aniff?frfc<m#«nt-tjiatM,heyfflfm yacht'S cMtbil, Of courae, they all private swimming pools:, • The ferry steamers from one side of the harbour to the other are. j«i'tUfi»;.jpiidflleisjeamers. . Some 6f pletely put them in the shade, even as far as size. "A guide came on board hiring cars out for a whole day and night for 85s. Petrol in Rio costs Is 6d a gallon, and this offer was for six persons, so that you can see it was very cheap as cars go. However, we.decided to postpone seeing the town until the afternoon. We spent the whole morning trotting rotind the town, and about II a.m. we discovered the flower* market. .This is a whole square only one block off the main street, and simply a mass o* cut flowers. Flowers were very cheap; a huge bunch of roses cost Is, and carnations. 6d and Is for big bunches. None of the flower? had a great deal of scent,, but they were all brightly coloured. , ' •The City and Its People

""The buildings in ftio are most Impressive. Huge blocks of business offices- and flats have been built in very modern styles, and lots of them ■are over. 10- storeys high.. -Quite a number of them would easily fill a city block in. New Zealand. Along the main street a strange variety of building types were to be seen. Four-storey buildings of Spanish design would nestle beside the most modern skyscraper, and then beside that would be a small plain concrete > building*, perhaps onlv two storeys high. There was certainly no lack of variety. On the streets themselves" negroes. Brazilians, and white people, who are in i the minority, mixed freely, and with no distinction at all as far as I can , see. although some of the negroes gave rne the creeps. "The negro and Brazilian labourers at the wharves get 100 millereis a week, or just.over £l. and have to live on this. They find the shopning , part of the town much too expensive for their incomes, and have markets of their own. The police will not let white people near these markets or the neero Dart of the town, so that conditions must be orettv awful. I certainly cannot, imagine them beinf? anything else at tliat wage. The labourers at'the docks usually wear a positively antique pair of trousers and a ragged shirt- Half of them looked as though a good bath and wash would lighten their colour considerably. : "It•'is surprising to see such evidence of such extremes of'wealth and poverty in a city of 2.500.000 people. The wealthy class has evidently no limit to their money as i*~ as we Could see. • On our way to the statue of Christ, on top of the Corcovado we 1 passed through the socially elect portion of the citv. The orivate hou«e of the president was a iov to behold. It stood in large, well-kept grounds, with fountains statues, and rockery cbmDlete. and was a reallv beautiful structure, built in the Soanish sMe and two storeys and a-half high The front is decorated with coloured tiles, andthe Whole building looks as though it has beeri scrubbed onre a week since the, day it was built. All the big homes wer.e'beautifully kept, and as clean as anyone could wish for. , "'The statue of Christ is well over 100 feet high and built of beautiful grev. granite. A short terrace fronts it. from which an uninterrupted view of the city and. suburbs can be obtained. I think it reminded me very much Of Mount Albert at Auckland, although very much superior of course; /'

City's Night Life

"That night some of us decided to sample the night life of the metropolis, and so arranged to go to the Casino Copacabana Cabaret Cafe. We left the ship in a taxi about 9.30 and arrived at the Casino about 10 p.m., a distance of nearly seven miles, and a taxi fare of about 2s. Apart from this, no taxi fare was more than 9d anywhere within three or four miles of the ship. This fare was in a big Packard that held seven of us, and petrol in Rio is Is 6d a gallon. I think they must live on air. or less.

"The Casino was quite close to the beach, and was a really outstanding building, even among all the big ones so common along the waterfront. The upper portion is a hotel, and they charge £2 10s a day. with a bath and dressing room, and with a sitting room too, the charge is £4 ss! For this you have the use of three tennis courts, eight billiard tables, a wonderful swimming bath 50 yards long, a cabaret every second night, and a private picture theatre when the cabaret is not on. There are four rooms for gambling, and in each of these are four roulette tables and two baccarat tables, all going hard the whole time. The rooms varied according to the minimum stake. In the cheapest you could bet a minimum of 2s, and in the highest about £2. Money simply flew about, and I did not see anyone but the bank win all night. "We went into the cabaret and danced Cuban rumbas, tangos and a quickstep. Our style of dancing was so different from theirs that when we danced everyone else stopped to watch, and twice when we stopped they clapped. I never felt such a fool in all my life, and so we stopped and

went to watch the roulette, etc., again. No one spoke a word of English all night. "We paid a visit to Pan-American Airways. We had a great time there, and everyone was very good to us, showing us everything there was to be seen. They had two huge Junkers airliners, a Clipper flying boat (fourengined) a Sikorsky flying boat (twoengined), and three seaplanes. Altogether we spent a good 'two hours there before going on to the civil aerodrome, where every plane is privately owned. We were advised not to show any interest in their military 'drome, as foreign air force officers are not welcomed by the German interests there. The civil club must have had 30 planes from one to three-engined, and some of them miniature airliners