A WORLD TOUR.

Southland Times, Issue 19500, 14 March 1925, Page 6

A WORLD TOUR.

ZN MANY LANDS.

DR TROTTER RETURNS.

EUROPE, AMERICA, THE EAST.

After nearly a year spent in travelling through England, Scotland, the Continent, America, China and Japan, Dr. N.C. Trotter, Mayor of Riverton, returned to Southland on Wednesday, and after a day in Invercargill, arrived in Riverton on Thursday evening. Although the Doctor spent a great deal of his time in England attending to matters in connection with his profession, he has managed to see a very great proportion of the world, and in an interview .with a Times reporter he related some of his most interesting experiences.

FROM NEW ZEALAND. THE VOYAGE TO LONDON. “I left New Zealand from Auckland by the Paparoa on March 15, 1924, en route for Panama. “We were favoured with perfect weather, and on the way we called at Pitcairn Island a lonely British outpost in mid Pacific. A few more days, and Panama was reached. There, I was keenly interested in the wonderful sanitation system that has been installed by the United States management. Here the mosquito problem has been effectively dealt with—all stagnant water is disinfected, and as a result I found that the pests were no so bad in Panama as in Auckland. After leaving Panama we again were fortunate with the weather, and it was not until we entered the English Channel that bad weather was encountered. Two days of fog and rain, and we berthed at Southampton where I entrained for London.

“A great deal of my time was spent in London which was made my headquarters while I was in England. However, I spent two weeks in Paris, a month in Edinburgh, a week in Manchester and several days on the Isle of Man. While in Edinburgh I saw a great deal of Colonel Leighton of the Edinburgh University who is Government Inspector of Foods. While in Paris I visited most of the famous art galleries, and took many sightseeing tours round the city. I did not visit the battlefields. There was much to see in Paris, and though many visitors make a point of seeing the graves of the fallen, we did not go there. CANADA AND THE STATES.

Continuing his narrative, Dr Trotter said that after the visit to the Old World had been concluded he sailed for Canada, and visited Quebec, Montreal and Toronto. Near Toronto, he spent some time with a friend in the town of Hamilton. It was winter time and the cold was intense, steam heating being used in all houses, hotels and business premises. The superheated houses were strange at first, but he soon got used to it, and found the system very comfortable. From Canada he passed into the USA. visiting Chicago and Rochester and it was in the latter city that he got his first taste of real American cold. The temperature was below zero for a month. Then on to Nevada and the Denver-Rio Grande railroad which passed through wonderful bush and mountain scenery. Here be was fascinated with the grandeur of the Royal Gorge canyon and the Feather Creek canyon and then the train passed on over the great American desert that took all day to cross. Eventually ’Frisco was reached where the climate was much better, conditions being quite mild while inland, zero temperatures were still recorded. ON THE PACIFIC COAST. “ ’Frisco is a wonderful city,” observed the doctor. “It impressed me as a beautiful, gay bustling city, set in ideal surroundings, but its liveliness is not what it used to be. Here I saw the great road 1500 miles long, that stretches from Vancouver to the Mexican border. It is called the Main Highway, and throughout the whole of its length is made of solid concrete—a great road. Here also we visited the fruitgrowing areas of Southern California where for miles and miles the fruit trees grow in that delightful climate. From ’Frisco we journeyed by rail to Vancouver. The railway passed through mountain and timber country where I saw the forests of Oregon pine. Here the weather was intensely cold, and snow covered the forest. Vancouver is also a fine city and beautifully situated but the people there are crying out for railways to open up the country to the north and inland, and business life in the city itself seemed depressed.” With reference to the oft-discussed question of Prohibition in America, Dr Trotter said that as far as he could see many people did not appear satisfied with the new conditions and the way in which the liquor laws had been passed. On the other hand, the working class people appeared to be better off and prosperous. He had been given many opportunities of partaking of liquor while in the U.S.A. TO THE FAR EAST.

Leaving Vancouver, the doctor sailed for Japan on the Empress of India and on the ship he got his first taste of the East, for the ship’s company was almost entirely composed of Chinese. The service was excellent, whilst the attention was all that could be wished for. Victoria was the steppingoff place from the American coast and the ship sailed on December 19. Christmas was spent on the sea, and after a calm trip Yokohama was reached at the end of the month.

At Yokohama, evidences of the great earthquake were to be seen everywhere, and the visitors were surprised at the little that had been done in the way of replacing ruined buildings and structures. The piles on the wharves were lying at various angles just as the disaster had left them, and the wharves themselves were undulating and uneven. Cracks and breakages in the big breakwater had also been left unrepaired. It was explained that the Japanese were waiting three years until they can be satisfied that the’ earth had finally subsided. Until then only flimsy native houses have been built. The skeletons of the big ferroconcrete business houses that had remained immune from the earth tremors, still stood as witnesses of the way in which the great fires swept the city at the time of the quakes, destroying everything that had nut already been ruined by collapse. THROUGH THE INLAND SEA. “From Yokohama,” he continued, “we went on to Kobe which was undamaged by the earthquake, and after remaining there a day, cruised through the wonderful Inland Sea of Japan. It is a very beautiful part, and this portion of the trip I particularly enjoyed. At Nagasaki we took on coal. The method of loading was most interesting, the work being performed by numbers of Japanese women. They stood in long lines and the coal was passed from hand to hand. In this method 2000 tons were loaded in 8 hours, but the system was a great contrast to the up-to-date American methods we witnessed at Panama where automatic overhead shutes transferred coal from the lighters to the ship in one continuous operation. Leaving Nagasaki we steamed through the Yellow Sea where the water is discoloured for 200 miles out by the waters of the great Yangtse River. Our next port of call was Shanghai and in the I Taris of the East’ L spent 10 days.

THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR. In Shanghai, Dr Trotter found himself amidst the activities of the Chinese Civil War. On the Sunday before he left, a battle was raging on the outskirts of the city opposite the French Concessions, between opposing factions. All Europeans were going about fully armed, and British and French gunboats were standing by in readiness. As the battle progressed, hundreds of natives poured through the city from the fighting area. They carried with them their household goods in all manner of conveyances from handcarts to motor cars, and many were in great distress. Later in the day the faction fighting with their backs to the city began to lose the day and slowly retreated into the French Concessions. Here the French commanded the roads with machine guns, and as the Chinese came in they were disarmed as a very necessary precaution against looting. From Shanghai the boat sailed for Hongkong and all the way down the coast hundreds of fishing craft were passed. On one occasion an immense fleet was met with and it took two or three hours before the last of the little vessels were passed. Five or six days were spent in Hongkong, and besides a* trip up the mountain where a glorious view of the city and the interior was obtained, Dr Trotter was taken one of the best motor trips he has ever enjoyed —a run of 60 miles on perfect concrete roads. The roads were built by the Hongkong Government and were a great credit to the city.

Then China was left behind and he set sail for Manila where the ship waited a day in that Spanish-Am eric an city. Here the “largest dance hall in the world” was visited, and the old Spanish fortified walls and picturesque buildings were examined with interest. In Manila the doctor noticed that a great proportion of the business people were Chinese. Leaving Manila, the ship called at Zamboanga where the cultivation of coconuts forms the principal industry, and an interesting run to Thursday Island followed. During that portion of the voyage innumerable little islands were passed and the ship was never out of sight of land. On the way, Bird Island was passed and there the captain steamed round the shore and sounded the siren to startle the thousands of feathered inhabitants, who filled the air in black, whirring clouds.

THURSDAY ISLAND, AUSTRALIA AND HOME.

Thursday Island, the home of the pearl fisheries, appeared in the doctor’s opinion to be a place with a much more thriving past. Now it is deserted and the numbers of tumbledown and deserted dwellings of all kinds told of a population that had dwindled away with the passing of the years. Half a day was spent there in the excellent harbour and then the voyage continued along the Australian Coast inside the famous Great Barrier reef. A call was paid at Townsville and Brisbane, where contrary to expectations rain was falling heavily and the country looked fresh and green. The ship on which the doctor travelled had a lucky escape from a cyclone for although it was favoured with fine weather, a steamer only a day behind struck the full force of a terrific gale. The doctor spent some days in Sydney where he saw the commencement of the great bridge, after which he joined the Makura and enjoyed a good run across on a crowded ship. SOME RANDOM IMPRESSIONS. “The general impression I formed during my long trip,” said the doctor in conclusion, “was that everyone, no matter where one goes is out to help the traveller and made his visit to their territories enjoyable. I have come to the conclusion that the London crowds are the most polite and careful in the world. If one is jostled on the street, profuse apologies follow immediately, and everywhere in London people are out to serve honestly and well. The police are wonderful, and are a never failing source of information.

“In Canada and America the same applies, and there in particular the wants of travellers have been most carefully studied. The business of dealing with luggage there, has been reduced to a fine art and the certain and speedy method in which it is handled is a revelation. I noticed particularly that the U.SA. railway tracks are built with an absence of curves and on the observation cars at the rear of the trains one can sit and watch the line stretching, dead straight, away into . the distance. This, combined with the broad gauge accounts for the fast speeds that are attained. Still, for speed combined with comfort, the British railways lead the world, and many of the express trains in England establish remarkable records. “I found no trouble about foreign languages, for everywhere one goes English is spoken. It looks as though English will finally become the universal language.”