UNDER WAY AGAIN

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1935, Page 5

UNDER WAY AGAIN

SKATER OVERCOMES MISHAPS. PASSAGE THROUGH STRATFORD. Undaunted by the feet that more than 70 miles of his programme had still to be attempted, Stanley Mockford, a young man who started from New Plymouth on Wednesday to skate round Mount Egmont, slid on to the footpath outside the Taranaki Daily News office in Broadway at 9.35 a.m. yesterday. In support of his claim that road skating is a sound means of travel and not merely a stunt it . must be said that all the time since his departure from New Plymouth had not been spent in travelling. He had trouble wtih the skates before he reached Inglewood on Wednesday afternoon and had to spend the night there and as he had business to transact at Tariki on Thursday he stayed there that night. On skates that were showing signs of strain he left Tariki at 730 a.m., yesterday and once he had made the short climb to Waipuku he had the drop of 400 feet from there to Stratford in his favour and whizzed merrily into the northern end of the borough soon after 8.30 a.m. After calling on friends he reached the Daily News office an hour later.

Even small inequalities in a road surface make themselves felt on the small diameter wheels of skates and the vibration had caused the rims to part company with the two back wheels on one skate* Stratford shops were scoured for skates but they are not an article commonly stocked. Inquiries eventually led to an obliging resident who had two old pairs for which he had no use. Mr. Mockford rapidly changed wheels- over and at 11.45 a.m. was on the road to Eltham with a spare skate in reserve. He attracted attention through Broadway but with the replaced wheels whirring steadily the rhythmic beat of his legs soon rendered him a dot in the distance as he mounted the easy rise out of toe town. While studying a map at the news office Mr. Mockford planned his programme for the day. When he was told that on the Eltham-Opunake Road Kaponga was th j last place where board and residence was readily obtainable before Opunake, he showed little interest in the amcn-

ities of civilisation. “There would be a. hedge or haystack or something, wouldn’t there?” he airily asked and on being assured of an amplitude of such, “Well, that’s all I want. Cheerio.” ,