‘SINGING SUNDOWNER’

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20588, 30 November 1936, Page 12

‘SINGING SUNDOWNER’

YOUTH SETS OUT ON CYCLING TOUR The spirit of adventure has seized many young men, and there arrived in Timaru yesterday yet another who aims eventually to get to England, where he has a job waiting for him. The youth is Hugh Napier, aged 191, who belongs to Christchurch. For a long time he has had a desire to go to sea, but the nearest he got to achieving his ambition was to become a Royal Naval Volunteer Reservist. Not having the means to buy a passage to England, and being unable to secure the necessary papers which would enable him to work his passage, Napier decided to set out on a cycling tour. His total worldly possessions when he left Christchurch were his bicycle, a few clothes and 25/-. The adventure commenced at 4.5 a.m. on Saturday and Ashburton was reached about 8.30 a.m. Napier’s only means of raising money is by singing, and he took up a position near the Ashburton race-course on Saturday, with rather encouraging results. Here he earned the nick-name of the “singing sundowner,” and this he Intends to be known by. The trip as far as Ashburton was accomplished in comfort, but rain was falling when he left Ashburton yesterday morning for Timaru, and it continued throughout the trip, which occupied six hours.

From Timaru the “singing sundowner” intends cycling as far as Bluff, by which time he hopes to have sufficient money to reach Australia. If his luck holds, he intends going on to South Africa and thence to England, and the Isle of Wight, where he states he has work awaiting him.