A SOLDIERS' FRIEND

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 132, 2 December 1930, Page 12

A SOLDIERS' FRIEND

MR. F. J. HOOK

Many New Zealanders who served in the Great War will remember Mr. il. J. Hook, a director of Peek, Frean, and Co., the well-known biscuit manufacturers in England. Mr. Hook, on two clays a week, used regularly to entertain Australians and New Zealanders who were in London on leave, motoring them by charabanc loads to the biscuit ' works and providing tea and smokes. These outings were much appreciated, and many have been the letters of thanks since 'received by Mr. Hook. Mr. Hook is now in Wellington making the acquaintance of New Zealande-rs in their own country, and a delightful country he says he finds it. The- good impression he received when here on a flying visit in October last, he says, is more than confirmed. "I must say I thought I was coming into summer, but apparently you have the same cause to grumble at the weather as people have elsewhere." Mr. Hook is here for ten days only on a business trip, which started in August last, and has taken him to the United States, Canada, and Australia. Having spent four days in motoring ' between Auckland and ■ Wellington, and having had a trip up the Wanganui River, he says that he has seen enough to convince himself of the charms of the country, but regrets that time will not permit him to see a great deal more. "What I like about New Zealanders," he remarked this morning to an interviewer, "is their spirit of self-help, and their goodwill, which 'is everything. The deep cloud of depression hanging so heavily elsewhere does not seem to weigh so heavily here. You regard the position with seriousness, as opposed to seriously, and rightly so; but depression is one thing and pessimism is another." The general outlook in England, added Mr. Hook, seemed to be brighter than it was, but as he had been away for several months he could only judge from the newspapers. Still, he thought that the general tone at Home was brighter than it had been.