"FIFTY YEARS AGO"

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 94, 18 October 1934, Page 19

"FIFTY YEARS AGO"

A PLEASANT GATHERING

S.S. '-.DORJG'S' PASSENGERS

-Mt.- and- "Mrs. T. "E. Oorkill gavo a. tea-party- at the rooms of Kirkcaldie ■ and- Stains yesterday, the guests being such' passengers as could conveniently bo -brought together who arrived at Wellington on. the s.s. Doric fifty-years ago on':-Oetober 11; 1884; : . There are not many survivors , after half, a century, though, some were of very tender ago iyh.cn."ithey were embarked. Husbands and -wives' -\vere invited to the party, and among the ex-passengers who met again .'• to .revive old' memories were Messrs. A. H. Miles, G. Bothamley, J. iiciildowuey, E. H.1 White (Stratford), T. E. Cprkill, the two sons of the late Rev. Dr. Kennedy Elliott, and Mrs. E. M. Cowie, the wife of the vicar of Kha.ndallah. .': ■ ■

■■'.The.■ s.s.'X)6rie was built in 1883 by Harland and Wolff,, of Belfast, for the White Star Line, and : chartered in 1884 to the New Zealand Shipping Company. • Sho' sailed , under the White Star aud Shaw, Sayill Company until 1902,.when she was. renamed "Asia," under the flag of the- Pacific Mail Company, of America,, and traded out of San-.Francisco to the East/until 1911, when she was -wrecked off the South China coast. • . ; '. :,

In 1884 the Doric was under the command of ouo of; the old' "sea-dogs," Captain.' Jennings,, whose voice was no menu acquisition of a .mariner during stormy, days.: recalled to memory by oue of the passengers at the half■'century. reunion,. the captain's seamanship was fully' tried, in "running tho easting down" between the Cape and Hobart ou.the: 1884 voyage when the Doric was battened down for days, .wallowing in huge seas, and ia grave danger of foundering- . She had more than 600 people on board, including many womeu and children. The survivors of the voyage of fifty years ago agreed that the comfort in the ■third-class ..today exceeds that of the first saloon of tho Doric in 18S4, and there was less grumbling and ilis--satisfaction . then than now. Captain Jennings, when he approached the dockhead in London at the end of Homeward voyages, used to roar out to the nearest man on shore "Is that old scoundrel Gladstone still alive?'' Ho was effectively cured of this.unpleasant habit by a. passenger of radical tendencies once standing on dock immediately below tho captain on the bridge, and at the right moment, oi' rather just before it, shrieking "Is that old scoundrel" Salisbury stfTi alive?"

Tho passenger Jist of tliu Doric, sailing from Plymouth Hound on August 31, and arriving" at tho small and not very comfortable town of Wellington on October 17, J.BS4, shows the names of quite a goodly number of. people who have left their mark on the progress of the colony.

A successful clance was Held by the Levin Miniature Eifie Club recently, when the president (Mr. T. Burling) welcomed visitors from the Hautore and Manawatu Rifle Clubs, and called | upon the Mayor of Levin, Mr. P. W. Goldsmith, to present tho trophies won during the season just closed.' The [following were the trophy winners:— Championship belt and, Mr. K. Shaw's trophy, G. Smart; Sherlaw Cup and Mr. J. Kimmer's trophy, A. Cameron; Junior championship, M. Burling; trophy for the bost aggregate in the Manawatu Miniature Eifle Association's" shoots (presented by Mrs. Burling), B. Armstrong; president's trophy No. 1, C. Swanwick; president's trophy No. 2, N. Anyan; trophy for best score at the liual shoot, A. Cameron.