HOME AGAIN.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18073, 11 January 1921, Page 4

HOME AGAIN.

ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND THE STATES. IMPRESSIONS AND COMPARISONS* Miss Margaret Walker, back again after an extended tour of the Mother Country, the Continent and the Cnited States, is satisfied that New Zealand *s indeed one oi the most bountifully favoured countries in the world, and that alter all there is no place like home. “Not that 1 have any reason to regret my trip,” said Miss Walker Lu m “Chronicle” representative yesterday. “On the contrary, it was a most delightful and interesting experience, nut, nevertheless, one could m help realising how much more severely thu older and more densely populated countries were ieeiing lh<? alter effects <*i the war. However, 1 did not hnd the conditions obtaining in England ceaiH so bad as they are painted by some people, True, there is evidence of unrest, industrial aiiairs—due largely u» tho disastrous consequences oi the miners’ strike—are far from satisfactory, and mere is much unemployment. But there are encouraging signs that the nation is lacing its dihiculties in a spirit of courageous optimism, and one couid not out ieel that all would yet be well, v ?namiy, iron) a traveller's point oi view, the Mother Country i.« preferable to America, perhaps —to giv*one reason only —because the cost oi living and of travel is infinitely more costly in the Republic than it is in the United Kingdom, in France, too. one was delighted to find a brave and cheerful people, even in the devastated area of the battlefields. It was an impressive sight to see them tilling and harvesting in fields fringed on the one side by stretches oi ugdy, gaping shell craters on laud tortured out ot shape by the horrid implements of slaughter and on the other ny those silent cemeteries in winch the warrior heroes, known and unknown, are resting. It was all so sad, oh, so terribly eloquent of the awiul ordeal which our own splendid men had to face and enduro. ] am sure that our people out here cannot even begin Lo realise wnat our so Idu rs passed through, ft is only on the spot m sight of the shell-torn ground and shattered homes, that one can Iwgin tc dimly comprehend the lull measure oi their wonderful courage and heroic endurance. 1 shall never. nu.-r iorg< . my visit to the ; atilefivlds oi Frame." Miss Walker visited both Scotland and Ireland, reaching Belfast ju-t alter one of the big riot,-. Of the deplorable conditions existing there she did not care lo speak, but her impressions were signilicantiy summed up in the pnrax ,

“three days wa» all the time I cared to spend in Ireland.' Turning to mere prosaic affairs. Miss Walker expressed the opinion that although there was apparently a tendency lor prices ly tail, there was little 11 any piospect ot any really substantial decline.. Some of the smaller hruis, faced with the dual consequences oi over-stocking and linam.al .-.tnngcnc., had found 11 necessary to unload ; but large manufacturers with whom she •discussed tiie situation, assured her that there was but scant likelihood of raw materials becoming appieciabij cheaper lor some time to come, and 1 4* lact, coupled with the very greatly in?" creased cost of production, would inevitably prevent any substantial cheap* <nmg cl tile output ot the mills and ia<lories. Miss Walker, who, with her sister, is about to inaugurate a new soil goods ai m under tiie style of the Aliases 31. and i. Walker, went Home primarily to buy for the linn, and she expresses herself as more than satisfied with the success which attended her ellorts. In concluding an interesting chat. Mi.-s Walker expressed her warm appreciation of the courtesy a ’Mended to her by Captain Donne and other members of the High Commissioner's staff.