“THE WANDERING JEW”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20027, 7 February 1935, Page 13

“THE WANDERING JEW”

BACKBLOCKS MISSIONER ay Telegraph —Press Association AUCKLAND, February 5. Born sixty-four years ago in the East End of London, the son of Jewish Poles, Mr Philip Lewis, who arrived in Auckland by the Aorangi yesterday, has spent the past thirty-nine years preaching wherever he can find an audience in the backbjocks of Australia. A remarkable little man, his bodj bowed \with age, but with the broad j forehead and the clear eyes of a thinker, he is known throughout Australia as “The Wandering Jev.” He estimates that he has travelled over 261,000 miles, 73,000 of which he has walked, in the course of his self-im-posed life task. He makes his fJ oots last longer even than the traditional Scotsman, and is now wearing his ninety-first pair after thiity-nine years. He generally manages to get a “milage” of about 800 to the pair of boots. He makes no charge for his sermons, and relies on the generosity of sympathisers for his livelihood. It is rarely that his faith has misplafced. His j travels in Australia have taken him to some of the most autlandish spots in the Commonwealth. “I have received kindnesses from all who have known my mission,” he declared. “I hove had many close calls, but always I just managed to come out with my life. On two occasions when I have been fording rivers in Queensland crocodiles have almost caught me. Bulls in paddocks over which I have taken short cuts often chased me, and once in an outback camp I woke to find a five-foot snake in my bed. Cyclones and storms have buffeted me, and often I become soaked to the skin. But I have only been ill three times in my life. It is all worth while. It is my life, and I will walk and preach till I die.” Mr Lewis will speak at the Baptist Tabernacle on Sunday afternoon.