IqMiTfROM LONDON. I

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 201, 26 August 1930, Page 8

IqMiTfROM LONDON. I

CALL AT PITCAIRN.

treatment fob lockjaw.

ENGLISH BOYS FOR LAND.

When the time comes for the writing of the life history of the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company's well-known liner lonic there will be little to say of her sixty-fifth outward voyage to New Zealand. Her trip from England, which ended when she dropped Waitemata at eleven o clock this morn in"-, was singularly uneventful. Average weather conditions prevailed out the long journey across the Atlantic and the Paciiic, and there were 110 births, deaths .or marriages. . The liner, commanded by Captain W. T. Hodgson, sailed from Southampton on July 18 and passed through the Panama Canal on August 3. On the day that the vessel crossed the Equator, a couple of days after leaving Panama, Father Neptune and all his retinue came on board and there were the customai y hi oh jinks. A call was made at PitcaTrn Island, where the islanders came out to the ship in their small boats laden with fruit and curios. By parting with a suit of pyjamas one of the youths on board secured enough oranges to last him and friends almost until the end of the voyage. At the island t.lie vessel took 011 board mails and 100 cases of oranges. When nearing Tiri this morning the lonic encountered a thick fog, and was compelled to anchor two miles outside until the fog lifted.

When the vessel was off- Pitcairn Island word was brought out by one of the boats that a man had been injured ashore. Dr. P. F. Woodruff .Minett, ship's surgeon, accompanied by Mr. liisdell Moore, surgeon, of Auckland, and Dr. Alfreda Slater, of London, went to the island and found that the man was suffering from lockjaw. He had trodden on a sprig of wood which had penetrated his foot. After treating him for three hours they left him in comfortable condition. "A Tip-top Lot." The liner's passenger list totalled 162 all told, including 53 in the first saloon. Among the passengers were 21 youths, who have come to New Zealand under the Church of England immigration scheme. The lads are all between the ages of 15 and ISA, and most of them have had an English public school education. Mr. M. Porterficld, of Christchurch, who had charge of the party, describes them as a "tip-top lot," who are just the type that is required in the Dominion. A number of them have already had somo experience on sheep, dairy or fruit farms. A. L. Carl vie went .Home on H.M.s. Diomede -at the end of last year to pass his wireless examinations at Portsmouth, and was successful. He has returned by the lonic, to be posted to one of the ships of the New Zealand Division. As a pal for trip lie had Stoker Petty Officer ■J. S. E. Green, who has come out to a commission on H.M.s. Laburnum. Ssven-week-old Passenger. The youngest passenger on the steamer was a baby girl, who came put in charge of the nurse. The infant was only seven weeks old when she was carried aboard. "Well, she has put on four pounds in weight," smiled the nurse when asked how the tiny traveller had stood the voyage. All on board evinced keen interest in the doings of the Australian cricket team in England and the fortunes of the British Rugby team in Xew Zealand. As most of the passengers were English-born folk, neither the victory of t-he Australians in the fifth Test nor the defeat of tho British footballers caused great enthusiasm, although both items of news were hailed with delight by New Zealanders returning on the vessel. The only news that the lonic received of the Tahiti disaster/was that the ship had gone to the bottom. '