A JOURNALIST ON TOUR

Southland Times, Issue 23816, 13 May 1939, Page 14

A JOURNALIST ON TOUR

MEN AND By S. Elliott Napier. Angus & Robertson Ltd., Sydney. Price 7/6. S. Elliott Napier is an experienced traveller in the lesser-known places, he is a practised writer and he has the observant eye of the trained journalist. In “Men and Cities” he describes a visit to Virginia, U.S.A., and a tour of the Dutch East Indies and Singapore, not in the stereotyped style of a diarist, but with a happy gift for emphasizing the picturesque and explaining clearly the unusual. Mr Napier’s voyage to Virginia took him first to Wellington and then to Tahiti, Panama and, finally. Newport News. He praises New Zealand’s capital city and its fine harbour, but obviously he was not so pleased with Wellington’s seagulls. A “really hostile crew” was his opinion of them. His description of the passage of the Panama Canal is interesting, even if it deals with a familiar subject, but in the history and customs of Virginia, the “old Dominion,” he has something new to offer the majority of New Zealanders. Few persons in this country, where there has always been equality between Maori and pakeha, realize how rigidly the “colour bar” is enforced in the southern states. It is hard to believe that nearly 80 years after the liberation of the slaves, men and women with the smallest dash of negro blood are regarded as coloured, treated as inferiors and forced to live in “Dark Towns.” The first place in the Dutch East Indies visited by Mr Napier was Macassar, and his visit prompted him to explain the terms “Macassar” and “Antimacassar.” Macassar is the hairoil that soiled the backs of many Victorian chairs and antimacassar is the “hideous crocheted affair” that was designed as a protection. Mr Napier goes on to describe the great ruined Buddhistic temple at Boro-Budur, in Java, which was built about 200 years before William the Conqueror invaded England, the exotic sights and sounds of Java and the curious dramatic art which has evolved on the island through the centuries.