WELL-KNOWN NOVELIST TRAVELS AS STEWARD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19267, 2 January 1931, Page 7

WELL-KNOWN NOVELIST TRAVELS AS STEWARD.

Mr Dale Collins, the novelist, and Mrs Collins, are visiting Lyttelton. Mr Collins, in order to obtain local colour for his novels and short stories, is travelling by the freighter City of Delhi. On the ship’s articles his name appears as an assistant steward. Since joining the City of Delhi about eighteen months ago, Mr and Mrs Collins have travelled nearly 100,000 miles. They have called at many ports in the Near East as well as Japan, Manila, Australia, American and Continental ports. Mr Collins is making his first visit to New Zealand and is very much impressed with what he has seen of the country. The depression so noticable throughout the world including the East, is not noticeable in New Zealand. He was also struck with the “snug little harbour” that Lyttelton possesses. Wife as Critic. Both Mr and Mrs Collins are Australians. Mr Collins was born at Balmain, Sydney, and Mrs Collins at Melbourne, but they were both brought up in the same street in St Kilda. “I must have seen my wife a hundred times in Melbourne, but we did not meet,” said Mr Collins. “We both went to reside in London and both had mutual friends, but still we never met. Then while on a visit to Monte Carlo, about five years ago we met for the first time, and it was not until just before our marriage that we discovered that as children we had lived in the same street.”

Both are of a cheerful disposition and are extremely interesting to converse with. Incidently Mrs Collins is her husband’s critic. She reads through all his copy and cuts out or adds as she may consider necessary. Mrs Collins spends a great deal of her time on board ship sewing and reading. Both are extremely fond of travelling. They joined the City of Delhi eighteen months ago and are still wondering when they will be able to settle down in London. The crew of the vessel numbers eighty and Mrs Collins is the only woman on board. On the trip from New York to Auckland, Mr Collins wrote six short stories.