WORLD TOUR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19138, 6 October 1936, Page 2

WORLD TOUR

U.S. DROUGHT LOSSES

DINGY-LOOKING FRANCE

Mariv ttwnMjite -of ml\ca have been covered bv Afi\ and Mi’s. F, In Tompkins and their daughter in the past few months. Mr. Tompkins is an architect in and the three of them have been on a world tour, which has taken ;them to England and the Continent and across America. They passed through Auckland on Friday. . Generally speaking, Mr Tompkins said he. found America to be verv depressed. The results of the recent drought could be seen in thousands ot acres ' which looked worse than the doSeri. of- Austialia. No building appaientlv was going on, though there wcie one or two signs of returning prosperity. Business people, he said, had been disappointed at the lingo Government expenditure on non-productive work and were-hoping for better legislation m the He spoke of the militarism apparent on the Continent. Troops always seemed to he moving in -Germany, while lde seemed to be one military parade ft tei another. Italy was much the same, though he did not think either country, seemed to be satisfied with the type of Government—the dictatorship. Iho people themselves were very friendly to tourists, though it was hard to get them to talk. . Signs of prosperity were apparent 1 both countries. He was surprised at the amount of building going on in Milan. New streets were being built, as well as two or three steel frame buildings ot lo S 'France, on the - other hand, was a dismal place. Paris seemed to be dirty and neglected-looking. The shops looked as though they were in need of a coat ot paint, while the streets would have been bet tot for a broom over them. I saw nothing artistic in Paris whatever, commented Mr. Tompkins. He and his wife and daughter inst missed the‘Spanish trouble. They had arranged their tickets through ft, travel .•money, and were on the point ot setting out. Even up to the last minute Ihcvsevere told it would be safe for them to go.; hut one night they they received a hurried telephone call to say that the trouble had started. “We cancelled our Spanish tour,” said Mr. Tompkins.