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Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 23 February 1927, Page 2

William Smith intended to ho married yesterday, bub instead he was compelled to keep an appointment at- the Police Court (states a Press Association message under yesterday’s date from New Plymouth). This was because, with John William Rust and) Joseph Marks, members of the stokehold staff of the liner Rimutaka, he left the .ship without the permission of the master. Armed with a marriage license, which appeared to amuse his incredulous mates considerably, Smith stepped into the box to tell tlie Magistrate he was to have been married that day. He was not willing to go hack to the ship and wished to stay in the country, offering as an additional reason that his eyesight was defective. The other men were willing to go back, and all three were sent to gaol, and are. to be placed on the ship before she leaves 'Wellington on March 12. Mrs. Thomson, of Wellington, was the first lady to climb Mount Cook. She traversed the three peaks on that occasion. She is now a veteran mountaineer, 68 years of age, and her most recent feat is climbing the lower peak of ,Mt. Rolleston. She is. the twelfth person to accomplish this. Mt. Rolleston she considers to be as difficult as any alpine task she has undertaken, and a person who is successful on it she regards as being in the first flight of alpine climbers. Preparatory to setting out on the climb a camp was pitched at an altitude of 4000 feet. in the Otira Valley, the party 'consisting of Mrs. Thomson, Messrs G. Jj. Butler, Cal well, and W. Frazer (guide). _ The party left camp at 4.30 a.m. on Friday, reaching the lower peak at 11 a.m. Mrs. Thomson considered it was too late then to set. out for the higher peak, which she thinks too difficult to make a further attempt upon, as .itwould necessitate a certain amount- of rope work and step cutting. The journey home was accomplished in short time, the party, roped together, going down a drop of 2000 feet in ten minutes. The same stretch took them two hours to climb. Mrs. Thomson is a cousin of Mrs. E. Payne, of Hawera, ndio was a veteran in another form of sport.