THE WRITER OF "SHE."

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 1868, 12 March 1913, Page 5

THE WRITER OF "SHE."

QUIET, ORDINARY AND PLEASANT.

If they were asked what they went expecting to see, certain of those who assembled at the- Palmerston railway platform yesterday to meet the mortal author of the immortal "She," would probably have answered as they did to a Palmerston "Times" reporter "a wild, dis-hevelled-looking individual. " The fantastic creations of their bookwormy indulgences, however, were fated to be sadly shattered down. To the complete undoing of their dreams they found Sir Rider Haggard "quite a nice fellow a J? 00 '*" looking gentleman, with a hearty laugh—quite a jolly fellow. So much for the edifice which the imagination builds. Sir Rider Haggard was accompanied by two other members of the Empire Trade Commission, Messrs T. Lorimer and Garnet, and they passed through the Palmerston station vesterday morning by train to New Plymouth. At the Taranaki capital they intend to investigate the oil industry, the ironsand deposits, and the great butter and cheese industry. At the Palmerston railway station they were awaited by a small but representative group consisting of air M. A. Eliott (president Palmer■ton Chamber of Commerce), Capt. J. D. R. Hewitt, R.N., Mr D. Buick, M.P., with Mrs and Miss Buick and Mrs Hewitt. The Mayor of Palmerston, Mr J. A. Nash, who had desired to be present, was detained in Wellington by public busiHess. ' Mr Eliott, having met Sir Rider Haggard in Wellington recently and travelled to Levin in his company, was able to introduce to him and the other Commiesioners the assembled party. There was no set speech delivered, but in a free and easy chat the visitors commended the New Zealand' weather and expressed assurance in the brightness of New Zealand's future. They were quite unanimous that New Zealand s greatest need is denser population.