A HOLIDAY TRIP.

Northern Advocate, 18 May 1914, Page 7

A HOLIDAY TRIP.

SOME IMPRESSIONS ABROAD,

DR. VENTRT-SMITIH 'S TOUR

After a very enjoyable holiday trip which embraced England, Canada, United States and Australia Dr. Ventry"--Smith is back-in Whaugatoi resume his practice The doctor left Aucklandby the Ad Red route, via Suva anl Honolulu for "Vancouver, and for sjme time stayed at Victoria. "It is a fine, growing city," said the returned tourist, "with a population of 40,000. Twenty years ago it was only a small town. A lot of retired Britishers live there on account of the dry, crisp atmosphere. At a distance of 84 miles away lids Vancouver, and connection is maintained by the 'C.P.R. Company's 23 knot boats. "At the latter place I was shown over the Vancouver Hospital by tha medical superintendent. The inptitu-, tion is a large and up-to-date one with eleven medical men in a namber whjch is shortly to be increased to fifteen. . '

"The climate, of Vancouver is cold ?,r,i damn in the "winter The city ha? beautiful public baths on the river front, con*rolled by the,OiV Couucil. There is an attendance rf'oer 2000 'U'thers a day, and childiv.-i :ira admitted free. H2re any ordinal/ attendant gets £2C a month, while the .-superintendent gets a salary of £360 a year.

"Vancouver caters w>ll for its public," Dr. Ventry-Smith went on. "Stanley Park is a beautifully laid-out area twenty minutes from the heart of the city. - All sorts of amusem'ants are provided for the children. - There are swings, ladders, maypoles, horizontal bars and switchback railways.

"Another feature in convection wUh Vancouver is that there does not a.) pear to be any really poor people there.

"Leaving Vancouver T spent,-four clays crossing Canada to Toronto," the doctor .went on. "We sr.w glorious sights passing through the Rocky Mountains —river, ravine, mountainous peaks, and snow., But it was cold. The thermometer stood at 45 degrees below freezing point. We passed Winnipeg at night with its ■ blaze of electric lights and sky-signs. Then came my destination —Toronto, and' then via Buffalo and Niagara Falls to New York. '- .

In the big 'eastern metropolis the doctor did a lot of sight-seeing and he went over the zoo, where there is one of the finest collections of fish, fowl and reptiles in the world. Another visit was to the top of theWoolworth Tower, 780 feet high, and from where he obtained a magnificent view of the city area and bay.

Dr. Ventry-Smith crossed the Atlantic in the White Star liner Cedric, 22,000 tons, and visited his people in Dublin. In the Irish capital Dr. Ven-fcry-Smith visited the. hospitals every day, as he also did when he Went to London. He had the pleasure of seeing the. latest in surgical science, and witnessed many operations of a most difficult nature, some of them being performed for the first time.

Homeward bound Dr. Ventry-Smith returned to New Zealand via the Cape of Good Hope, and the journey was broken by calls at Adelaide, Melbourn« and Sydney.

In the last-named place he had an interesting interview with Dr. Paton, chief health officer for the New South Wales Government, and when the smallpox outbreak was very fully discussed.