CIRCLED THE PACIFIC

Southland Times, Issue 19478, 30 March 1922, Page 7

CIRCLED THE PACIFIC

MR H. D. HASL ,D’S JOURNEY. A traveller who had enjoyed eleven months of continuous summer by the expedient of following the sun four times across the equator in that period, arrived home in New Zealand by the Makura on Monday in the person of Mr H. D. Hazard, F.R.G.8., well known as Southland Commissioner of Crown Lands (says the Auckland “Star”). In that time Mr Haszard travelled about 31,000 miles, and completely circled the Pacific seaboard, touching at Australia, Thursday Island, British North Borneo, the Philippines, Japan, Hong-Kong, Honolulu, Hawaii, California, Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and Chili. With the exception of Australia, which is much similar to New Zealand, he found that the land tenures, in which he was specially interested, were nowhere so fully advanced as in the Dominion. One thing that impressed itself on him as a traveller was the depreciation of the English sovereign throughout the countries he touched at, the only place where he found it at a premium being in Chili. There the slump in the nitrate industry, which had boomed during the war and netted the country about £27,000,000 from nitrate exports, has helped the value of the sovereign to such an extent that the tourist can get a tram ride of three miles for the equivalent of a half-penny first class and of a farthing second class. The cars are double-deckers, and second class passengers ride on the top. In Japan, where the British visitor gets only 15s for the sovereign, a striking feature of the currency is the prevalence of local paper money. There business is done in 25 sen notes, which are about half the size of the New Zealand 10s note, and have a value equal to about sixpence of our money, while there are also 10 sen notes, value about twopence halfpenny* which have the dimensions of about double those of an ordinary business visiting card. The influence of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty is distinctly apparent in Japanese trade and official circles, remarked Mt Haszard. The railway time-tables in Japan are printed in the Japanese and English languages in parallel columns; the names of the railway stations are invariably printed in English on the stations; and many of the business places bear English notices. Some of these are quaintly amusing. For instance, he saw in Tokyo a milliner’s shop with the notice "blouses in retail.” On the facade of a butcher’s shop the announcement stands out in English characters, among Japanese hieroglyphics, “beefs in wholesale prices.” Apparently the same accomplished sign-writer was responsible for a notice on a monumentalist’s showyard, on which was printed in English, “tombstones in cheap prices.” The ship on which Mr Haszard travelled from Japan to Honolulu, a Japanese line, had only one Britisher aboard—himself. He counted among the passengers thirteen different nationalities, including Russians, French, Argentinos, Mexicans, Chilians, Chinese, and Hindus, yet the general language of communication was English. They had a death at sea, and the captain produced an English prayer book, and conducted the burial service in English.