ALL SORT OF PEOPLE

Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 876, 20 April 1917, Page 4

ALL SORT OF PEOPLE

lajrifc. W. H. Brightweil, who is just now in Wellington laying in fresh stocks of New Zealand ozone and vitality before returning to his home in Sydney, doesn't need any introduction to the Empire City. He owns up to 71 years and nearly the whole of that term has been spent in God's Own. You can't tell W. H. Brightweil much "about litle old New Zealand that he doesn't already know. « "•' - * - If.you're curious to hear tales of the early days get hold of W. H. {Brightwell and he will load you up. His •/worthy, sire was one of MaorHand's very earliest settlers. As a matter of fact he* was cast ashore in his vessel's wreck at the Bay of Islands in 1838, which was two years before the Dominion be- ~ came a British possession or before the first settlers arrived in Wellington and Aiiekland. *- . .* '.' «•' ' .-. ■* ... '''*•• c * ' Brightweil,, the Castaway, liked New Zealand from the very moment he was ■washed ashore, and he never left it. He married, a daughter of one of the pioneer settlers of 1840, and W.H. was one of 'the sons of that union. Charles Hollard, who died on Sunday last, was old schoolmate. . W. Hi Brightweil . well remembers the. old ship that was blown ashore on the present site of the Bank of New Zealand (Kitchener's •Corner), and was often on the deck' when the late John Plimmer' planted •his hay and corn store oh her sound timbers. The "Sea Serpent'' was her -name. : .. *' • ••'# ■ ■'..* *-.''. Talking to a Free Lancer the other •day, Mr. Brightweil.said:--''l well remember when the great earthquake in the fifties sent the sea fight across land from Lyall Bay' into Evans Bay, ;ahd left all the flat land that; then, existed there covered with fish; The sand Chills that are there now have sprung /up since that great earthquake. I recollect . well when two schooners were wrecked, or got ashore, where the old racecourse now is at the Lower Hutt. Those schooners were well out in the harbour at the time, and as a. boy I and my schoolmates were able often at low water to wade but close to those schooners. The earthquake left them Tiigh and dry, and the beach where they were lying became dry and was later ploughed and laid down into paddocks; all the then deep rivers being left as mere streams compared with -what they were before the earthquake. * s »• & ,i . "Wellington Harbour on the. Hutt side -shrank very much in area in consequence of the quake. In fact, all round ,the harbour the water receded never to return. It was most noticeable all along the Hutt Valley frontage because <>f the shallow, sloping beacnX I well remember sea-fish being caught daily up beyond the present Hutt, Bridge. "The tide used to go a long way past the Hutt Bridge and sea fish visited that part with every tide. The same applied to the second river, past MeNab's Gardens. Many a good kahawai was caught -from the bridge in those early days. Now that' river is only a small stream, and the 'settlers had then to cut a •channel for more than a mile, I should say, to lead its dribble of water ; into the harbour. I will not dwell further -on the early days of the old settlers, although I could write scores of pages of what might be of interest to present•day people." *■' ■ * .._#.. -• ■*■'•. Superfluous to mention, a propos of -bhose riots reported from Bulgaria last week, that Bulgaria's Czar Ferdy is looking after his precious carcase and is safe out of harm's way. He and his family are said to be safely lodged in a palace in Austria, and that he has no intention of returning to Bulgaria until the outlook has improved. Despite assertions to the contrary, Ferdinand has not visited his troops in the fighting lines for several months, and ominous murmurs are being heard against his •continued absence. In fact, the cablecrammer last week stated that his soldiers,_or some of them, had sided with -the dissatisfied populace. The late Sir Joseph Beeeham (of pill fame) left one million sterling, ; according to the return for the necessary valuation for taxation purposes. This estate has proved a regular windfall for "the British Exchequer, which has already received death duties amounting to £200,000 on this amount. Sir Joseph Beecham's great fortune was largely built up a policy of bold and judicious advertising, as were also the fortunes of Mr. J. Crossley Eno (Eno's Sbruit Salt), £1,811,607; Mr. G. Taylor

Fuliord (Dr. "Williams' Pink Pills), £1,311,000, and many others*. *'•.■*■■. * ■& Lady..Wernher has commemorated the loss of her son, who has been killed in action, by investing £2,000,000 in the last. British war loan. This boy, Alexander Piggott Wernher, who was in the Welsh Guards, was only nineteen, and.was the youngest of the three sons of Lady "Wernher and the late Sir Julius, the millionaire "diamond king." The eldest of them, Sir Derrick Wernher, /was cut off by his father, who left a fortune of several-millions and made his second son, Major Harold Wernher, his principal heir. The latter, who is in the Lancers, is rather'-young for his rank, being only twenty-three. He was in the retreat"*from Mons, and since then has had many close in France, but escaped -unhurt till he carne home on a brief leave when, while riding bis horse, Dordogne, in the Wind- • sor races; his mount fell, and Major Wernher broke his leg. \..' ' *>' : *■ .- * ■ .■*''. The cables have not recorded that Brigadier-General Walter Long, son of Britain's Colonial Secretary, has been. killed in action in France. His record - was an honourable one, and he was evidently. no mere drawing-room soldier. He was in the retreat from Mons, and itissaid that he saved a wounded, man at the risk of his own life, but enjoined the man'to keep it secret.' He was , champion 'lightweight boxer at Harrow, and for two years middle-weight champion in the Army. He also saw active : service in the South African War. ' '■ '■» ■».'•» * "Sergt. William Hodge, of 'the..New■•■' Zealand Mounted Rifles, now doing: splendid work for,the Empire on the borders of the Holy Land, writes home that the foe, whose colour ranges'from terra ootta.to jet black, will thieve and; lie and do most of things fobidden in Holy Writ, but he isn't' a. rotter like ■ the Hun and will fight like snakes. "We collected a; mixed mob of these dark-skinned persons the other day," says Sergt./Hodge,. "and it was impossible to tell whether they were Huns, -Abduls, Arabs, 'Gippies,' or Andalusians until the grime was soaked off them. What, struck me- was that they all, with one accord, set up a hideous wail, of 'Bully ! bully! bully!' and we thought this was in reference to our/ . conduct, which /was strictly military, . and as humane^as circumstances permitted. As a matter of. fact, they meant 'bully beef.' It is "a. horrible sight, ■. having thrown a tin of bully to a starving darkie, to see him try to rip" the:. top off with his teeth. It makes me think of my old boardinghouse in Hob-. - son-streetj Auckland, and the Friday 'steak' pie." * .'.-■* * ' ' * ; ' Leonard 'Isitt, M.P. for Christclittrch North, has had his total abstinence soul exercised in compassion over the selfdenying efforts of our jockeys to-train down.: to slim riding weights. Leonard, of course, puts no tickets on the tote, and, therefore, holds no brief .for the racehorse. So he writes in-this strain, histext being Sir -George Clifford's plea on behalf of racing : — I am a regular visitor to our Christchurch Turkish bath. Every race season I meet there a number of jockeys, and very civil, courteous lads they are. So thin that one would think they could not possibly become any thinner, they are there to take a few pounds of flesh off their skeleton frames. Lying on the benches in the hot rooms, sometimes blankets covered over to speed the pro-

cess, they endure "for hours an experience that must be very trying, and one would ; think in the Jong run injurious. Parched with thirst, they would give much for a drink of water, but that must not be. Already- lighter than an ordinary woman ,they must still further reduce their weight in order to help Sir George Clifford's patriotic effort to produce a type of horse that will lend to our cavalry mounts .the size, strength, and endurance that will carry a 13sfcone: man and his accourtrements on a forced march or across rough -country in a 10-hour pursuit pi the enemy.During his entertaining lecturettes • at His Majesty's Theatre, Zakaree Evmakov, the Russian, secret service agent, branches off in all sorts of unexpected directions. Regarding German thoroughness lie tells about a Teuton captain of a small Baltic schooner who was in a state of incipient delirium tremens and imagining himself to be afflicted with all the ills to which human flesh is heir. This German had, however, a thorough cure for them all. "If I have the lightest of kidney complaint," he told Ermakov, "I drink gin; if it be stomach trouble' I settle it with brandy ; for the lungs I find rum effective, and for rheumatism' lam a stickler for whisk v." •'*',;' * •* * ' The Parr family of Petone have a record to be proud of. . All the male members are serving their country. The three sons are at the .front and their father is also in khaki, being a member of the Samoan garrison; The eldest of the sons, Driver Ellis A. Parr, was recently wounded after being eight months iii the firing-line. His brother Rupert has been fighting with' him in France:, -while the youngest son ,. Mark, is in Egypt. Their brave mother resides at Petone.

CEREBRO tVJENINGITJS and otßar malignant germs are driven out of the syetem. by Fluenzol (1 /6 & 2 /6). A per-fect-"irrigant for disinfecting the nasal cavity, the microbes strdng-hold. -*■.