TAKING A SHIP OVERLAND.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 6, 8 January 1908, Page 7

TAKING A SHIP OVERLAND.

AN OLD-TIME INCIDENT IN NEW / . '~'.; :■. ZEALAND;'.': '--..

Recently there appeared an account of the transportation overland of one of the largest United States' lightships, which had been stranded on the coast of Oregon. . ■Mr Hague Smith, manager of the Colonial Mutual Fire Insurance Company, Sydney, when in New Zealand 40 years ago, transported a vessel overland for seven miles ; so that in this class of work America does not hold the only record. The vessel in question, Mr Hague Smith told a representative of the World's News, was named the Maori Chief, and,' was a stern-wheeler, built to draw only lft of water. She was originally the property of a commissariat contractor, and had seen three or four years' service on the Waikato River. At the close of the war the contractor left the country without giving his creditors any intimation of his intenton. Mr Hague Smith, who was at that time in: a large way of business in England, and whose ledger account against the contractor was a Pjretty heavy one, determined, if possible, to retrieve something from the wreck of a scattered estate. Armed with the necessary authority he had the Maori Chief seized at her moorings at the Waikato Heads, and towed into Onehunga. The opening of the Thames goldfield gave Mr bmith the idea of employing the steamer in that direction, and he decided to have the craft taken overland to Auckland. Despite the difficulties in the way, Mr James Mackie thought out a method of overcoming them all. He fitted up a kind of improvised timber float—about Bft long —with massive axle arms and three pairs of very strong wheels, the tyres of which were about lOin wide. [ Boiler engines, sternwheel paddle, and other movable parts were taken out, and the hull, etc., something like 100 ft long, was by the aid of hydraulic jacks and other contrivances mounted on to the lorry. Horses could not be procured which would pull sufficiently steadily to move the ponderous load. Mr Hague Smith was not dismayed. A Waita kauri

saw-miller arranged with him for the transport_of' the steamer to Auckland by me'aris of a bullock team. ' . Thirty-five bullocks were soon hauling at the lorry, and their steady effort had the desired effect. Then was seen the unusual spectacle of an iron steamer being dragged bodily along the high road, and although progress was necessarily slow-—still it was progress. The second day, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, saw the carriage and steamer in. Pitt Street, Auckland, and before sundown the steamer reached Custom Street without any serious' mishap^ and she was immediately launched in the Waitemata. A month later she was converted into a paddle steamer, ready for the river, and did good service on the Thames for a number of years aa a tender to the Royal Alfred, a steamer that was subsequently purchased by the Port Jackson Steamship Company, and was extremely popular on the run between Sydney and Manly. Mr Hague Smith's reminiscences of this and other concurrent events are full of interest, and it is satisfactory to be able to chronicle a feat of this sort in Australasia, as showing that we are not one bit-behind anyone else in up-to-date ideas. ■\- ■■ ■/ —— Mr W. J. Fuller, J.P. ? storekeeper, Rendelsham, W.A., writes:—"Some little time ago I was called in to see a neighbour who was suffering from severe cramps, and who really thought he was past help. I took a bottle of Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera, and Diarrhoea Remedy with me, and gave him three doses, according to directions, and in a few hours he had quite recovered. I have frequently used it in my own family, and am so well satisfied as to its merits that I make a point of selling it to my customers on a positive guarantee." For sale by J. Benning, Blenheim, and W. Syms, Picton. ♦ A political expedient that is finding favour in advanced communities, writes the American correspondent of the Melbourne Age, is the provision known as / the " recall;" It permits the voters to turn out of office an elected official who has misconducted himself, or with whose behaviour they are dissatisfied,/ San Francisco is the latest big city, to adopt the recall. Under an amendment to the city charter recently submitted to the people and voted on favourably, a petition signed by voters equal in number to at least 30 per cent, of the entire vote cast at the election bf the officer sought to be removed will cause the, office to be declared vacant and a new election to be ordered. The effect of such a law is to make tenure of office dependent upon good behaviour. Los Angeles has had such , a provision for more than two years. It has been invoked but once, but the presence of the law on the statute books is said to have been wholesome in its influence upon elected officials. The recall law in San Francisco, covers the case of all elected officials except judges. A bad, taste in the mouth always 'arises from a disordered stomach, and may be corrected by taking a dose of Chamberlain's Tablets. They cleanse and invigorate the,stomach, improve Ithe digestion and give one a relish for food. , Fpr^sale by J. Benning, Blenheim, and W. Syjps, Picton. ,-'.-.*