ROD AND GUN.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 48, 26 February 1929, Page 5

ROD AND GUN.

TOURIST SPORTSMEN.

AUSTRALIANS PRAISE DOMINION."

NOTED CACTUS COLLECTOR

Equipped with, camera?. fi-hing gear • and spirting gun;. Messrs. H. J. Solomon j and E. H. Mo as. two of Sydney's bestknown and wealthiest sportsmen, arrived at Auckland on the Maunganui this morning, bent on at lea*t a month s in New Zealand. "Nowhere in the world can one 1 i n, more eniovable and inexpen-ive hoi.- j Jay than in your Dominion."' remarked Mr. Solomon." when interviewed. ••One tan buy a second-hand car for about £200. obtain camping gear and wander about the country at will, seeking out the best places for fishing and shooting. Before leaving, the car and camp equipment can be sold, and one would be unlucky not to get £150 for tne lot. Anvone can have a holiday in that stylj for" £10 a week—one simply couldn't spend more.'' Mr. Solomon, who knows New Zealand well, plans to go first to Tongariro River and later to other sporting resorts. His companion, Mr. Maas, is an ardent angler, but has never visited New Zealand before. "*Yonr fish are larger and more plentiful than in Australian wat-ers," said Mr. Maaa. "By all accounts the sport must be excellent." In Australia Mr. Maas has enjoyed a great deal of kan- ! "irnn sTinritincr T?nrh «

garoo snooting, uoin visitors would ride across the plaans in a motor car, travelling at 45 miles an hour, in pursuit of the agile kangaroo. Frequently cinema photographs were taken from the ba<"k seat, these celluloid records of tb.e chase and kill being most interesting when screened privately f.-»r TVi rfinf arta 1r» -

! ior tne entertainment of overseas visitors. During the past two years there has been no sport among the kangaroos, owing to the action of the Government in protecting them. The farmers are displeased when the kangaroo is protected, since he does much damage and multiplies with astonishing rapidity. It is expected that the kangaroo will become such a pest within a short time that tie Government will be compelled to lift the protection, whereat sportsmen and farmers vrill repoiee. Mr. Maas says he has seen as many as 1000 kangaroos in one paddock. Mr. Solomon has made a life-long study of botany, -with special reference to cactus plants. A large portion of his | great fortune has been expended in collecting and cultivating cactus specimens. It is said that his cactus gardens at his beautiful residence at Darling Point are among the most interesting and picturesque plots, public or private, to be seen iin "the Commonwealth. Two acres of land —said to be worth £100 a foot— are covered in cactus plants transplanted from almost every desert in the world. The specimens are mostly of strange shapes and sizes, the odd formation of sarme of the more rare cactus trees bein? a delight to all students. Mr. Solomon J made valuable gifts from his gar- | 'dens to the people ~of S ydnev. His orchids are known throughout Australia. A -Sydney newspaper reported recentlr that there were orchids to a marke't value or £1000 decoratin? the room and table- at one of his fashionable dinner parties.