NEW ZEALANDERS IN DURBAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12759, 9 January 1905, Page 3

NEW ZEALANDERS IN DURBAN.

«■ [BY telegraph.—ows CORUESPOXIIRXT.] CuinsTCHtTßCii, Sunday. A kkn'TLKMAX in this city recently received an interesting letter from a New Zealander in Durban. The following extracts may be of interest. " Maori hinders over here were jubilant over the defeat of the British Rugby team in Xew Zealand. In these parts Xew Zealand has a reputation for Rugby football even better than that enjoyed by Australians for cricket. "Last week quite a gloom was east over the New Zealand cummuni-tv in Durban bv the untimely death of Mr.'A. W. F. Hill, the secretary of the football club, and one of the best exponents of Rugby in Natal. Ho was suffering from appendicitis. After an operation peritonitis set in, and death quickly followed. " We have Intel a long period of depression, but the veil is lifting and people are becoming more optimistic over tho future. Huge buildings tire going up in till directions in Durban, in spile of the commercial bad times. The harbour -is being improved and developed in various ways. The steamer Everton Grange came in last midnight, drawing 27ft, which is a recoui crossing of the bar. A big scheme for I lis extension of the wharves was submitted to the Government some time ago by the consulting engineers, Sir Wolfe Barry and Sir Charles Hartley, of English fame,. As the course decided upon by the Natal Government ignored an essential part of the scheme proposed bv these eminent men they have icsigned their positions as consulting engineers to the Natal (iovcrnment, and the latter takes upon' itself to carry out a plan opposed to the opinion expressed by the experls, but that is the v.ay things are done here by men who hardly know the difference between a ship's manifest and her rudder." j . __ —■-...'.' 5