LOOKING BACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 156, 3 July 1937, Page 23

LOOKING BACK.

NOTABLE EVENTS. ' 1 OVER NIAGARA FALLS. NEXT WEEK'S AjrNTVERSAHIES i (By MAX WHATMAN.) A flft rubber ball, twisting and tossing on the turbulent rapids above the Canadian eido of the mighty Niagara Falls, carried a human freight towards tho awe-inspiring abyss on the afternoon of July, 4, 1910, while thousands on both silica of the falls waited with intense and morbid interest tho outcome of a death-defying escapade. Inside tho ball was Jean Albert Laussier, a young American of French extraction, who luul decided to show the World for tho third time that a human being cotild go over Niagara and live. Ifo made the ball himself, strengthening it with lead at the base to bring its weight up to 7581b. Towed out into tho Canadian stream to avoid certain death on the rock talus at tho foot of tho American fall, Laussier was sealed up nnd sent hurtling down stream. Toppling over the brink of the fall, tho ball was lost to sight for some moments in tho smother of waters, to reappear in tho boiling rapids at tho foot. The ball was towed ashore, and Laussier, dazed and bruised, but otherwise uninjured, was taken out. Ho offered to make tho descent again for 300,000 dollars and expenses, but nothing came of it. before Laussicr's successful attempt tlireo others had essayed tho perilous adventure, but only two lived to remember it. Tho first descent was made on October 24, 1901, by Mrs. Annie Taylor, Who used a barrel of Russian oak, weighted and padded. She died penniless on April 29, 1921. Bobby Leach, an Englishman, went over in a steel barrel on July 2."), 1911, and, bv the irony of fate, died of injuries received when he "lipped on some orange peel in Auckland, Xcw Zealand, oil April 28, 1920. Leach fared badly in his attempt, getting ft broken jaw and smashed kneecaps. A barber, Charles G. Stephens, also used on oak barrel to tempt fate on July 11, 1920, but the barrel went to pieces and his body was never found. William Ferguson Massey. "All we are and all we have are at the disposal of the Imperial Government for the purpose of carrying on the war to a successful issue." It was in those historic words that New Zealand signified her intention of giving full support to the Empire in the troubled days of August, 1914. The in,in who expressed the spirit of the T'<>rni1lion in this manner was William 1' .Tfriison Mnssev, who was Prime Minister nf \ew Zealand from 1912 until his death in 102.">— a four-year interregnum beinjy during the administration of a National Government in the war years. Mr. Massey came to New Zealand in thi' ship Citv of Auckland in 1870. His lir-t. attempt to enter Parliament was in 1H93, when lie was narrowly defeated. In IH9 4 h't won a by-election for the Waifomnta seat. It was the telegram ndvi-inf; him that be had been selected to contest this seat that was handed to

"Farmer Bill" on a fork while ho was on top of & haystack.' In 1903 Mr. Massey was appointed Leader of the Opposition, which was steadily gaining in strength. Sir Joseph Ward received a doubtful mandate from the country in 1011, and following his

defeat Sir Thomas Mackenzie formed a Ministry. He was defeated on a noconfidence motion on July 5, 1912, by 41 votes to 33, and on July 10 Mr. Massey's Cabinet was sworn in. Tho National Government was formed' in 1915, tho Liberals co-operating heartily with Reform. In 1919 this association terminated, and Reform again gained a victory at the general election in December, Mr. Massey retaining office until his death on May 14, .1925. The War in Africa. After crushing De Wet's rebellion, which broke out in South Africa at the opening of the Great War, General Botha began the conquest of German South-West Africa, which was_ completed on July 8, 1915. Following the recovery of the isolated British possession of Walfish Bay and the capture of Swakopmund, tho colonial forces pressed on to the German capital, Windhuk. Although in overwhelming force as a whole, the British troops had to contend with enormous difficulties owing to the character of the country, while the Germans, who were well supplied and had the use of their railways, might have concentrated against any of the three attacking columns. Two of the columns effectcd a junction, and the third, under General Botha himself, having won a success at Pforteberg, also pressed on towards Windhuk. The capital was reached on May 12. General Botha followed the main body of the enemy, who had retreated up the railway to Otavi, which he reached on July 1. The end was not far off. By brilliant forced marches, the colonial troops came up wjth the enemy, and terms of unconditional surrender were signed bv Governor Seitz and the commander of tho German forces. The total number of prisoners taken was 349<, and the spoil included 37 field guns ?nd 22 machine-guns. The Original Holmes. ITow many who have thrilled to Conan Doyle's tales of Sherlock Holmes and marvelled at the detective's extraordinary discernment know that this famous character of mystery fiction was based on a "Holmes" of real life ? This extraordinary man was Dc. James Bali,

whose clinics Conan Doyle attended when a medical student in Edinburgh. Bell's powers, of observation and his brilliant deductions often baffled his students when he made observations on the identity, habits and general characteristics of out-patients at the hospital. Bell's lectures, and especially this novel aspect of them, remained fresli in Conan Doyle's mind, and resulted in the creation of one of the best-known character in fiction. Conan Doyle, who was born in Edinburgh in 1859, studied in medicine and practised for eight years at Southsea. Then came the call of adventure, and he visited the Arctic seas as surgeon on a whaler. Then came the South African War, when the doctor replaced "the writer, Conan Doyle serving throughout the campaign as surgeon in charge of a. field hospital. After the war he gave up medicine to devote himself to writing. The Sherlock Holmes stories made their first appearance in 1887. Conan Doyle, who was knighted in 1902, also wrote some excellent romances and a number of historical works. On the loss of his son in the Great War he became a Spiritualist, and wrote several works on this subject. He died on July 7, 1930. Voyage of the Deutschland. One of the most remarkable incidents of the Great War was the voyage through the English Channel and across the Atlantic of the commercial submarine Deutschland, which took to the United States a rich cargo of a thousand tone of dyestuffs. This submarine, which was actually an undersea merchantman, was built to defeat the British blockade. She made only one voyage as there was a strong possibility, in the event of another voyage to America, of the vessel being interned. The Deutschland was 300 ft long and 30ft wide. She carried a crew of 29, and it was stated by her commander, Captain Paul Koenig, that the one voyage was , sufficient to pay for the whole of her cost, £100,000. With a speed of fourteen knots, the Deutschland made her leisurely way from Bremen in sixteen days. While the British warships steadily patrolled the Channel, this huge submarine was lying snugly on the bottom waiting for the darkness which would make it safe to continue the voyage. Captain Koenig announced at Baltimore that Germany was building a second submarine of similar type to the Deutschland, and that it was intended to establish a regular service between Germany and the United States with these : vessels. This plan, however, was never 1 to mature. Ironically enough, it was the destruction to neutral shipping wrought by German submarines, of a less peaceful 1 type than the Deutschland, that brought 1 America into the war and severed all relations between the Republic and ' Germany.