Looking Back

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1937, Page 14 (Supplement)

Looking Back

Anniversaries Of the Week

Till', world owes mueh to .Tolm Cnrwcn. I inventor of the tonic „olfa s.\ ~t. ni 1 of teaching 111 ii»i<■. for he perfected a simple method of instructing children i rind others ignorant of the principles ~f ni'iisic so that they could gra-<p easily the fundamentals of singiny to written' music. | Cin'wcn's nvflein requires the i*e\en note* of the ordinary scale in any key i to be sung to syllables written doll, ray. 1 me, tab, sob, la, te, and indicated in the notation by the initials d, r, m, etc.; doli always denoting the tonic or keynote, and the remaining syllables indi eating the relation to it of the other notes of t lie scale. Curwcii born on November 14. IHlll, the sou of an Independent min-i-»ter. He was trained for the ministry. aml all-cr liming served as assistant! in several charges, was settU'd as minister of the Independent chapel at I'laislow. In I I lie bewail to advocate the sol t'a. system; in bis "(irammiir of Vocal Music" ap|>earcd, ami 'thenceforward he was indefatigable by lectures, books and magazines in promoting musical knowledge and musical training. In IHHt he resigned his ministry and devoted himself wholly to the cause. He died In 1 HMO and his system has spiced throughout the world. A Farmer Flies Home

Ref \vp<'n 20.000 and .tll.iMM) people I hroiijed W'mrum aerodrome on the evcninir of November l">. last year. They were there to give a 1 mil ull lion s welcome home to Mr. F.. Clark, the yoiinjr North Canterbury farmer liver, who. at H.'Hl, landed by the aid of Hares and motor car headlight*, thus completing hi* long flight from Kngland.

Mr. Clark was on holiday in Kngland when he announced his intention of returning to New Zealand by aeroplane. so a* to be home in time for shearing in mid November. Only the briefest of cablegrams reported hin progress from Kngland to Darwin, but those reports were followed with close interest by all New Zealandors.

Mr. Clark left London on October 2(5 for Hrindisi and Cyprus. A brief mesaage on October 27 announced that he would leave that day for Bagdad. He arrived lib Karachi on October 30, at Hatavia on November 3, and on November H a cablegram from Darwin announced tlmt Mr. Clark had arrived there "most unexpectedly."

On November 8, the young pilot landed at MaAcot. Tie waited a week for favourable conditions,, taking off from th« Richmond aerodrome on the last leg of his flight home at 3,34 a.m. on November !>"». He landed at the Blenheim airport 12 hours 51 minute* later. Mr. Clark had intended to remain ot Blenheim overnight, but was persuaded In continue his flight to Wlgram. There he van given an ent husias'tie welcome. Thousands thronged round his machine after the landing and the airman was ushered with difficulty to the clubhouse for the

official reception. Then tTie crowd outside shouted for "Clark." Mr. Clark appeared at 'the window and was wildly cheered, while thousand* of voices joined in singing "For HcV» a dolly flood Fellow." Mr. Clark was "surprised that so much interest wan taken hi his flight."

Earthquake Of 1901 Late sleepers In Christchurch had a rude awakening at 7.45 a.m. on November HI, 1001. Their staid four-poster* rocked like storm-tossed ships, and they tumbled oii't on the heaving floor to find tlmt the city wa* in the grip of a ttovere earthquake. The damage in C'hrlstchui'eh was not great, its most sfiectaeiilar feature being the displacement of the top of the Cathedral spire that had replaced one destroyed by an earthf|ii«ikc In IHHH.

It. was Cheviot which felt the fiercest effect *of this earthquake. Not a brick or cob house in the' district was left standing. The township's hotel and boardinl l house were s (> badly damaged as to reipiire rrbiiilding. All chimneys were down, many roads were impassable, bridges were unsafe for traffic.

An infant ehild \v«is killed through a cob house collapsing. The property in the ilvtrii't. was estimated at nearly C'i'Wltllt. a terrible blow for all area populated in the main by young and wt ruirglltig set t Icr*.

I'.ven in ( hri*tchurch the aeveritv of the tremors was alarming. So strong were lliev that water slopped from the big WinU at the railway station.

" Good Queen Bess "

"When Britain rcallv rilled flic waves, in good Oueeii lies*'* glorious days," wrote V\ S. Ililbcrt in the famous satire on the House of Lords, which is one of the delights of " lola ii t he." There is no doubt that Britain was. in fact, mistress of the seas in Kli/.abeth's time. One of I he proudest chapter* in our history will always be the defeat of the Spanish Armada, that prood fleet which was to teach F.iighmd and her insolent Ollcen a never to-be forgotten lesson. Kll/.abeth was typical of the sturdy spirit of her age. Stubborn, courageoiis. Impulsive, but thoroughly capable, she wa* every inch a Tudor, in manv wars a female replica of her father,' Henrv Mir. '

Mi/abeth succeeded to the Throne on the death ot her sister, Mary. (>n November 17. l.>.iS, when a jrirl of 25. Flcr fii«t acts were to bring Mary's unfortunate war with the French to a speedy termination. She at once took steps to place national financed on a firm basis. There are, of course, dark passages in her 11 ill<»r v. notably her treatment of her cou-in. Mary. Qnccii of Sects; hut under her Knglatid prospered as never before. In war, in statesmanship, in . letter-. in exploration and in science |V'eat progress was made, although, in the ell-wing yearn of her reign Elizabeth | I<.-t mueh of her popularity. Cnemploy men f. poverty and on outbreak in I Ireland were the trouble* that disturbed j the great Queen's last years. She died lin her 70th year. If, a* «he said. she had "but the body of a weak and feeble woman." slie had indeed "the heart of a king, and a King of England, too."

British Take Jaffa

Tn November, 1017. General Allenbv was vigorously pursuing his brilliantly successful campaign against the Turks in Palestine. With the co-operation of the Arabs, who were inspired in their activities on the opposite side of the ll< ■djaz railway by the famous Lawrence.

By . . . MAX WHATMAN

Allenby was pushing the enemy ever northward. On November 18, 1917, Australian and New Zealand troops rode unopposed into Jaffa, ancient town and seaport on the Mediterranean coast.

This was an important capture, the port affording a valuable base and means of transporting war materials by

n quicker route to the army. Jaffa, however, was but a step in the campaign. Allenbv kept the Turks moving. Jerusalem itself fell «oon after, and the advance culminated In the capture of Da mascus. The part of the Arabs in thin plan was to harry the Turks by lightning raids along the railway track, and magnificently did they succeed in this work. (Jallantly led bv Lawrence, they blew up sections of the line, mined bridges and assaulted Turkish outpoets. Meanwhile the advance in Western Palestine, of which the capture of Jaffa was a feature of great interefit in New Zealand, proceeded to its logical end, which was the collapse of Turkey and her withdrawal from the war. General Allenbv, by this success, proved himself one of the outstanding campaigners of the war. Cape Of Good Hope Although Bartholomew Diaz discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, it was left to that famous Portuguese I navigator, Vasco da Gama. to double the Cape and sail along the coast of South Africa. Da Cam a sighted the Cape on November 19, 1497, when on his way to India. To-day, the Cape of Good Hope, as one of the four provinces of the Union of South Africa, has an area of about 277,000 square miles, and a population of nearly 3.500,000, of whom some 700,000 are whites. To the Portuguese must be given the honour of discovering this rich land, but, attracted by the wealth of the East, they made no permanent settlement at the Cape. The Dutch, who, on the decline of Portuguese power, established themselves in the East, early saw the importance of the place as a station where their vessels might take in water and provisions. A small garrison was sent out by the Dutch East India Company in 1052. its leader. Jan van Riebeek. landing at Table Bay and founding Capetown. The colony was occupied by the British in 1705. when the armies of 'revolutionary France overran Holland. Restored to the Dutch in 1802 by the Treaty of Amiens, it was occupied again by the British in 1805 when Napoleon's brother, Louis Napoleon, became King of Holland. In 1814 it was filially ceded to the British Crown, the Netherlands Ea*t. Tndia Company receiving £0.000,000 by way of com pen =it inn. Year Of Victories

The year 1750, when Britain was engaged in three Continents in the Seven Years' War, k known in history as the "year of victories." Two naval baittle*, off Lagos (Admiral Boscawen), and in Quiberon Bay (Admiral Hawke), gave f!reat Britain supremacy at «ea. Meanwhile, Cliv«V victory at Plassey (1757), followed by Coote's victory at Wandiwash (1700) and Munro's victory at Buvar (1704). wrecked French designs in fndia: and the capture of Quebec by Wolfe (1750) and of Montreal by Amherst (1700) hroke the power of the French in North America.

Saturday next will be the anniversary of Quiberon Bay. In the rocky and shallow bay, despite the fact - that a heavy gnle was blowing at the time. Admiral Tlawke holdlv attacked and destroyed the French Atlantic fleet. Thirty-six years later Quiberon Bay was the scene of an incident not so favourable to British arms. J„ nn attempt to promote a Royalist rising in Brittany, a force, consisting largely of Royalist French refugees, was landed from British *h iP s. There it was met and destroyed by the revolutionary army under Hoehe. Onlv 000 men escaped to the British ship-, and, of the prisoners taken, 700 were shot by their captors. J

DARKNESS is beginning to settle over the country valley. There is

silence, broken only by a distant throbbing that reverberates strangely round tho enclosing hills. Then a light appears, shining on the twin rails, the iron road from here to where-you-will.

A few minutes later the locomotive strains up the grade, belching clouds of smoke and showers of sparks to the skies. As it passes there is a glimpse of a grimy iireman and driver, then a line of freight wagons clatter by.

But before they have passed a man rises from the fern above the train, stands poised for a moment against thj skyline, and leaps. He drops on to a sb'wly nu>\ itig truck, lifts the tarpaulin, and crawls beneath it. Then the covering is replaced. Tho goods train has become a passenger train—for one man at least,.

Incidents such as the foregoing are by no means infrequent in New Zealand, but our country is fortunately little troubled with tiio greatest railway "racket" of all, one that has brought grey hairs to the heads of Officials in some countries. This is the hazardous practice of "ruling the rods." that is. travelling stretched at full length on the axle rods beneath passenger ears.