JUDGE'S HOLIDAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 213, 9 September 1935, Page 5

JUDGE'S HOLIDAY.

IN AFRICAN WILDS. CAPE TO TANGANYIKA. VAST GAME RESERVES. Before he left New Zealand at the beginning of the year with his wife on twelve months' leave of absence from the Supreme Court Bench, Mr. Justice Ostler said that he hoped to be able to do a little big game jiunting in South j Africa, but that his interest chiefly! would be in obtaining pictures of game and other things of interest with n movie-camera. In a letter sent to relatives in Wanganui, says the "Evening Post," Mrs. Ostler gives an interesting description of part of the trip and relates enough to indicate that his Honor is seeing plenty of game and should! bring back with him a comprehensive j movie record of animais seen on hisj extended motor trip from the Cape toj Lake Tanganyika. He has an interest, in a farm property at the south end of j Lake Tanganyika. j Mrs. Ostler's letter, dated June 23, j was written at Nairobi. "We left | Abercorn over three weeks ago with! Andrew (the judge's old cook) and another boy, Philip," states Mrs. Ostler. "We went up towards the Tanganyika border and stayed with a fine old Scotch doctor — Chisholm —at the Mivenzo Mission. He began it thirtyfive years ago. His work seems more medical than evangelistic. Anyhow, he was a very fine old man, and he has asked us t'o stay again, so we shall, as the judge end I are to go to Mteko, close by, for three weeks' shooting on August 7. Then we stayed on a lovely toffee estate with a Mrs. Vernon, a splendid Irish woman, quite elderly, but full of physical and mental energy. From here/Tanganyika Territory, we staved at Mbeya, where there is an aerodrome and small white settlement with a good hospital, Government Administration and hotel.

Without "Water. "We ' set out to the Lupa goldfields over terrifically high country, up to 8000 ft, and corkscrewy roads, and found we had been misled as to camping conditions, no'water being available, so we had to go back twenty miles to Mbeya and stay there the night. We pushed to Corfack's Hotel, a good place at the foothills of the H™^ 01 tains. The proprietor is a fine oldman an ex-Public Works engineer. He has asked ue to stay further afield on his farm on our return, so we are all agog to go One has to, travel on a donkey. 4om here we went over 100 rnUes Barnard) and from there we bailable 1 quid was thick and the colour n plasticine I lived on two oranges SCSI'S Severe Hand-shaking. "On the way to Arusha from here we met 300 Masai in full war paint red ochre) braes ornaments, a marvellous and were very picturesque and exciting. I had my hand nearly pulled off, as they insisted on shaking it Now I feel J sorry for royalties! Arusha is at the o O t ofW urns gsiinmm »*^

wonderful game country. We went from here to the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro and stayed there with a Mr. Mauran, a splendid fellow, who, though unable to walk, directs his own big coffee estate. The roads into Kenya from here were awful, pot-holes and thick dust so bad we had to stop several times. "Eighteen miles ineide the Kenya border we stayed at Namanga Hills Hotel in a big game reserve. We saw thousands of all kinds of wild animate, but no enormous ones except lots of lovely giraffes. Later we came across the famous AIM Plains, comprising one hundred miles of game reserve, and saw tens of thousands of all kinds of buck, as well as hyenas, jackals, ostriches, zebras, heaps or them only a few yards away. I took a lot of photographs and movies again. Stuck in Black Mud. "We got stuck in thick black mud for 2i hours on the Alhi Plains and after "unloading everything and digging and digging, the boys got us out. There was no wood there, only longish grass, so they had to cut masses of that and shove it under the wheels. "We have had two days here at Nairobi and have to stay to-morrow for minor repairs to the car, which gives us very good service. Petrol is 2/0 a gallon here, but. we have at some places had to pay 4/7. "We have had a good look at the place and like bite of it. Lots of game is to be seen within three or four miles of the town. We are lunching at Government House to-morrow. It is a lovely place with a magnificent garden. The next day we leave for a trip north to Uganda and as far as the Murchison Falls on the Nile."