PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3804, 8 February 1927, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday’s Otago Daily Times.) We arc humiliated by the failure at Milford Sound. These Melbourne doctors, forty, of them, here for the Australasian Medical Congress, were denied at Milford “the finest walk in the world” because ho officiaF was there to certify them , medically fit to land in New Zealand. A ridiculous bungle and a lasting disgrace. Whilst looking for some one to hang, how w shall we compensate their Milford disappointment? We cannot conduct them through the lakes and glaciers of our western wonderland; but we can show them the New Medical School. They have missed the Milford track; but we can run them out to Waipori. These should be consolations. Moreover, we can dine them and wine them to the limit of their digestion and to the exhausting of their uttermost provision of dinner pills. .We can and we shall. /'Not a Medico, but a Fellow-Passen-ger” offers some general remarks: — Dear Civis, —The incursion of doctors from which Dunedin is now suffering has some curious side effects. I don’t

refer to diseases. These are lurking in their lairs ana will no doubt reappear when the ■ doctors depart. Bufc—.(here are so many of them—doctors, I mean, not diseases—that you are apt to take every stranger to be a doctor, and pay him deference accordingly. There is no reason why a Dunedin man in his own streets should go about like A gag, walking delicately. Outside his consulting room and away from his patients a doctor is a mere mortal like the rest of us. I have just come over from Melbourne in a steamer, the Moeraki, that was haif full of doctors, but I might hardly have noticed the fact. They ate and drank like other people, nlayed deck quoits as noisily, and at bridge (sixpence a hundred) disputed as vigorously over the deal and the points. But when we came to Milford, ah, alas, —it was easy to pick out a doctor. The ship was thrown into a medical ferment. No officials from the shore, no one to certify that these invading medicals were medically fit. They might have certified each other; but the captain, with Government censure and police court fines in perspective, had his doubts. And so, though they were hooked for the Milford Track across country, we brought them round bv ship, re infecta. But the Congress is now’ on and they may vet be happy.

If true to type, the medical man of to-day is of the philosophic mind, superior to disappointments, even in the matter of fees. Whether general practitioner or specialist, he has been trained 'in science; has learned to sniff at sciences falsely so called, such as “psychoanalysis” ; is poles asunder from the quack and the charlatan; moreover, as Kipling said of “Our Bobs,” “he doesn't advertise.” To put us into key with the learned Congress now sitting “in our midst”—as we say in Presbytery—the newspapers have been giving us some new medical facts, strange and wonderful. That hay asthma has no necessary connexion with hay, or with emanations from flowers; it may come from the dandruff of a horse and be curable by an -injection of horse dandruff; it may come from the feather bed you sleep on; from the smell of breakfast and dinner foods; in women it may come from face powder. Not unlikely! . Again, that by grafting monkey-glands into boys a race of supermen would be produced; and that “in order'to help the human race there must be an adequate supply of monkeys, which must' become domesticated like cats and dogs.” Do we say that we can believe these marvels? Then The Lord forgie us for leein’, for leein’, The Lord forgie us for leein’ !

No other branch of applied science has been so persistently infested by quacks, charlatans, ignorant pretenders as the practice of medicine. The unprincipled surgeon—if such there be—finding his job made safe and easy by anaesthetics and antiseptics, cuts and carves the human body as if it were a joint of meat in a butchery. That is to-day. Go back to the day of Charles Dickens. At Dingley Dell farm, where the Pickwickians are Christmas guests, Sam Weller when he brings master’s shaving water on Christmas morning mentions the arrival of ‘‘a couple of Sawbones’’—a term new to Mr Pickwick., “I thought everybody know’d as-a Sawbones was a surgeon,” said Sam; “though these here ones as is below ain’t reg’lar thorough-bred Sawbones ; they’re only in training,”—medical students in short. “I am glad of it,” said Mr Pickwick, ,■ casting his*nightcap energetically on the counterpane. “They are fine fellows; very fine fellows, with judgments matured by observation and reflection; and tastes refined by reading and study.” .“They’re a smoking cigars by the kitchen fire,” said Sam. —" “Ah !” observed Mr Pickwick, rubbing his hands, “overflowing with kindly feelings and animal spirits. Just what 1 like to see.”

“And one on 'em," said Sam, not noticino; his master’s interruption, “one on ’em s got his legs on the table, and is a drinkin’ brandy neat, vile tue tother one—him in the barnacles—has got a barrel o’ oysters atv>.. his knees, vich he’s a openin’ like steam, and as fast as he eats ’em he takes a aim vith the shells at young dropsy, who’s a settin* down fast asleep in the ehimbley corner.” - - “Eccentricities of genius, Sam,” said Mr Pickwick. “You may retire.” Caricature all this, of course;-but caricature, to be caricature, must always have reality behind it. Later, Mr Pickwick vtas to learn more about the eccentricities of genius from Mr Bob Sawyer—him of the barrel of oysters—when in medical practice as “Sawyer late Nockemorf.” Caricature. I repeat, but with reality behind it. The same may be said of Moliere’s picture of quack doctoring in his play “Le Malade Imaginaire.” “Dead in four days’” says the quack to the shuddering bypoclirondriac, —“unless I administer this clyster.” (Here, in compliment to the Congress’s facility in French, I permit myself the original Moliere.) Vous tombiez dar-s la bradypepsie.— De la bradypepsie dans la dyspepsie.— De la dyspepsie dans I’apepsie.—De I’apepsie dans la lienterie.—De la lienterie dans la dyssenterie.—De la dyssenterie . dans I’hydropsie.—Et de I’hydropsie dans la privation de la vic I . . .

Moliere was a century, and more before Dickens, and there were quacks of the first rank in quackery centuries before Moliere. Centuries after him, alas, medical charlatans of equal distinction persist.

Hope, that springs eternal in the Lvman breast, may, not unnaturally, send up an occasional sprout in the breast of the pinchbeck Napoleon at Doorn. From his Dutch St. Helena may there be no escape? There may. Germany as a republic is not a shining success; and the Kaiser that was, if allowed "to come back, would not be the High Mightiness of pre-war days. His_age by birthday tally is sixty-eight; —what harm could be left for the remaining years? The British Embassy at Berlin has Traditions of the same William of Hohenzollern when a boy in his ’teens, pulling the bow oar in a four-oared boat the Embassy kept on the lake or lakes at Potsdam, —a short, thick-set commonplace youngster with a withered arm, into which the doctors thought rowing exercise might put strength. But William’s ambition was to handle a pair of sculls—solus; would the Ambassador’s wife, Lady Ampthill, coach him? Lady Ampthill consented, and met Prince William next day at the landing stage with a light Thames-built skiff belonging to the Embassy. Lady Amp.tnill, with the caution of one used to light boats, got in--carefully, made her way ait, and grasped the yoke-lines. She then explained to Pripco William that this was not a heavy boat such he was accustomed to, that he must exercise extreme' care, and in getting in must tread exactly in the centre of the boat. William of Hohenzollern, who had never taken advice from anyone in his life, and was always convinced that he himself knew best, responded by jumping into the boat, from the landing _ stage,, capsizing it immediately, and throwing himself and Lady Ainpthill into the water. Help was at hand —two secretaries of the Embassy and some German sailors. The rescue of Lady Ampthill was a joy ; but, in the Embassy’s private opinion, Prince William, who couldn’t swim a stroke, might with advantage have been left to drown. Even so say we, with the Great War in memory.

“In the name of the Prophet—Figs!” Here in Dunedin, with no Prophet to swear by, we may cry “In the name of the Hon. G. M. Thomson —Fish!” Every-

thing krjown about fish, 'edible and inedible, the Hon. G. M. Thomson knows ; and he writes to (he Daily Times exposing the fatuous ignorance and incompetence of other people—ourselves, to wit. Unfortunately he is right. The “harvest of the sea” is ours for the gathering; we do not produce the fish, we merely pull them out of the water. And a fish when pulled out of the water is quite fresh—mark that. But only by a miracle does it escape being stinking fish by the time we get it to the Dunedin market. Muddle, muddle, muddle in threefold emphasis is the note of our fish-market-ing. Mr G. M. Thomson would reform all that. On the harbour side between the Heads and Port Chalmers should be a fish factory—analogue of the dairyman’s cream factory; at the fish factory all fish, good and bad, to be delivered just as they are caught; the good to be cleaned, packed in wire trays between layers of crushed ice, and hurried by motor to Dunedin ; other fish, now knocked on ie head and thrown overboard—shark, dogfish, skate, and the like—to be dessicated—into “fish meal,” a food for cattle and poultry, or distilled into oil, a valuable by-product. Nothing to be wasted. In lucid detail Mr Thomson has expounded all this, but, so far as I can see, nobody has taken notice ot him. If I were of any standing on the Rialto, I should institute, found, promote a joint stock company for supplying Otago, even to the backblocks, with fresh fish, the Hon. G. M. Thomson chairman.

Odds and ends of Scottish archaeology; —I can always find a corner. Dear Civis,—The followin'’ is taken from the history of the Clan Fergusson ; perhaps it might interest your readers: "Annie Laurie” of Maxwelton, so famous in Scottish song, became the wife of Fergusson of Craigdarroch; and their descendant,. Robert Cutler Fergusson, the accomplished scholar, figures in Burns’s well-known poem, “The Whistle.”

Robert Cutler Fergusson “the accomplished scholar” —of whom to my regret I know nothing —is not to be confused with Robert Fergusson, poet, to whom Burns erected a memorial stone in the Canongate cemetery, Edinburgh;— “Here lies Robert Fergusson, Poet. Born September sth, 1751 —Died 16th October, 1774. No sculptured marble here, nor pompous

layy ‘No storied urn, nor animated bust ;* This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way To pour her sorrows o'er her poet's dust.” The reverse of the stone has this inscription :—“By special grant of the managers to Robert Burns, who erected this stone, this buri:d-place is to remain for ever sacred to the memory of Robert Fergusson.” When Fergusson died, tragically, at the age of twenty-four, Burns was in his fifteenth year. “The influence of Fergusson’s writings on the Ayrshire poet is undoubted,” say the critics. He is thus apostrophized by Burns: —

Oh, thou my cider brother in misfortune. By far my elder brother in the muses,. With tears I pity thy unhappy fate! -- Civis.

An increase in the court costs to be paid by persons convicted of an offence will take effect to-day, in accordance with a Gazette notice. The fee for an information or complaint is raised from 5s to 7s,.and for a hearing or rehearing from 2s to 3s. Court costs are therefore normally 10s instead o£ 7s, as in the past. In addition the fee for a warrant is increased -from 3s to ss, and for the service of a summons from 2s to 3s. In consequence of frequent compaints as to the cost of service of criminal summonses on persons living in the country statutory provision has also been made for the service byregistered letters of summonses upon informations for matters determinable summarily. The fee where service is effected by registered letter has been fixed at 2s if the person to be served resides at such a distance that the mileage if service were effected by a constable would- exceed two I shillings service will in future be effected by registered letter.

At the New Zealand Farmers’ Executive’s meeting on Wednesday (reports our special correspondent iu Wellington), Mr , E. H. Murney, the Otago representative, questioned the accuracy of a statement that the Otago Farmers’ Union Executive was unanimously in -favour of. giving a trial to daylight saving. Mr Murney said the voting was by no means unanimous, and it was about eight to ’ six in favour. A contingent of 222 assisted immigrants arrived from Great Britain on Wednesday by the R.M.S. Rimutaka (reports our special correspondent in Wellington). The party, which comprised 96 men, 68 women, and 58 children, were met by the Director of Immigration (Mr H. D. Thomson) and his staff, and despatched_tothe follow!-- destination : —Auckland 47. Gisborne 5, Nanier 7, New Plymouth 1, Wanganui 5, Wellincton 70, Picton 7, Nelson 3, Greymouth 2, 'Westport- 17, Lyttelton 30, Timaru 5, Oamaru 3, Bluff 5, Dunedin 15; —total, 222. In ; eluded in this total were eight public school boys.

TABLE OF CONTENTS of this issue will be found oa - Page 38.

In reply to a request from the New Zealand Farmers’ Union Executive that the royalty of Is per snout on wild pigs be reinstated, a letter from the Commissioner of State Forests, read to the meeting of the executive in Wellington on Wednesday (reports our special correspondent) stated that the royalty had been paid for about three years, and about 47,000 snouts bad been paid for, but the pigs were apparently as bad as ever, and the bonus had been dropped. The Director-general of Agriculture was trying poisons, and hoped to find one which would be an effective means of getting rid of this most troublesome pest.

The radio inspector is still vigorously pursuing an active campaign against the unlicensed radio “listeners-in” and installations which cause interference to -dio recei>tion (states the Lyttelton Times). A number of prosecutions are in train, and it is expected that some of the cases will be heard within a day or two. A careful watch is being kept on persons suspected of raising aerials at night, and also on those who have aerials, but have denied being in possession of wireless installations. In regard to the latter, it should be noted that dealers’ books are open to regular inspection by the radio inspector, and, sooner or 'ater, offenders will be brought to book. Licenses are still being issued freely, the number issued for January being approximately 700. It is noticeable that the interference from howling valves has considerably diminished since the radio inspector took up duty.

Just a year age Mr William Wolf, a member of the Legion of American Disabled War Veterans, decided on a stroll round the world, and set out from Los Angeles, in California, his chief assets being a baritone voice and a haversack to carry his few belongings (says the Auckland Star). Singing, lecturing, and staying at one place until he had accumulated, enough wealth to carry him to the next, the tourist has now completed a tour of the American States, Mexico, and Canada. He next visited Honolulu and Fiji, and is. now in Auckland. After spending a week or two in Auckland, he will set out oh foot for Wellington, calling at Rotorua on the way in order to make a few comparisons with the famed Yellowstone Park of his own country. Later, he is hopeful of visiting Australia, the East, and eventually working his way across Europe before making his way home. In. addition to credentials the tourist carries an autograph book, and has obtained the signatures of leading people in the various countries he has visited. He has started the New Zealand section with the autograph of the Mayor of Auckland. “Half the world doesn't know what the other half is doing,” he remarked m Auckland. He confessed that he had already discovered that Australia was not nearly as close to New Zealand as he had imagined when he set out on his journey. He regards a casual stroll round the globe as a much more interesting way of doing things than travelling by a palatial Carinthia. His views of things in general are to be published by_ one of the American magazines.

An interesting arrival at Dunedin on Tuesday was the new motor ship Yomah, which came from New York by way of Norfolk (Virginia), Panama, and northern New Zealand ports. The vessel is on her maiden voyage, and was commissioned after being handed over from the builders on October 22. She sailed from the Clyde in ballast trim on October 30. AU the way across the Atlantic she experienced a succession of fierce westerly gales and high, mountainous seas, which buffeted her severely. On various occasions she had to be hove-to and at times the speed did not exceed four knots. She was 17 days on the passage to New York, after calling at Nor foil;, Virginia, to pick up runners to work the vessel while she was in America. The cargo was loaded in 14 days at New York, and the Yomah sailed on December 8. Another stop was made again at Norfolk to desembark the runners, and tho Yomah reached Colon on December 18. Balboa was cleared on the following day. When en route from Norfolk to Colon an S.O.S wireless signal of distress was heard from the steamer Clearton, which had lost her rudder in the Atlantic. The Yomah was too far away to render assistance, so she continued on her voyage. Generally, fine weather prevailed in the Pacific until the Yomah was south of Pitcairn Island. The vessel arrived at Auckland on January 17. The Yomah was built on the Clyde by Wiljiam Denny and Bros. (Ltd.), for the P. Henderson Line, Glasgow, the owners of the steamers Mandalay, Martaban, and Sittang, which have already visited Auckland. Her registered tonnage is 5000 1 gross and she is 400 ft in length with a 52.2 ft beam and a 28.5 ft depth. ship is fitted with oil engines and she carries eau-v**]? fuel to last for 85 steaming days at frf «f 9J knots per hour. Two boilers, oil-fireiT, supply steam for the winches and other auxiliary r..achinery. The crewnumber 57 all told, of whom 16 are Europeans and 41 Indians.

The party of surveyors from the Public /Works Department which, is investigating possible sources of electrio power in the West Coast Sounds-region has returned to the scone of operations after breaking up for the Christmas holiday season. It is doubtful whether the work will be completed this summer. The beauty of Milford Sound and the fiord lands much impressed the passengers on board the Moeraki when the vessel called there (states our special correspondent). Three hours were spent at the Sound, and, although the weather conditions had not been very pSeasant, the visibility was good. Mitre Peak and the Stirling and Bowen Falls were seen quite clearly, and the opinions [expressed by many overseas visitors, who were delighted with the wonderful scenery, were very flattering indeed.

His Honor Mr Justice Sim has granted probate in connection with the following estates: —Kobina Johnston, South Dunedin (Mr A, C. Stephens); Gavin Scott Nicol, Dunedin (Mr W. R. Brugh); Henry Lewis Jones, Tahatika (Mr J. Wilkinson); Malcolm M'Leod, Woodside (Mr W. Allan). Letters of administration were granted in the estate of William Spencer Gill, Dunedin (Mr H. S. Adams).

The work of making the new road from Balclutha to Tuapeka Mouth has.progressed as far as Carruthers, Pukeawa, where the creek has been bridged and a short deviation made through the hills in order to avoid a piece of the old road that was liable to flooding. It is anticipated that fully 12 months will elapse before the road is completed to the Mouth. Motorists and others have nothing but praise for the portion of finished road, which has been exceedingly well done.

Carrying one of the largest and most distinguished contingents of passengers brought to the South Island for many years past, the Union Company’s intercolonial steame: Moeraki arrived at Dunedin shortly after midday on Wednesday from Melbourne by way of Milford Sound and Bluff. Only saloon travellers were carried this trip. The m&jority of the passengers landed at Dunedin. They included between 40 and 50' doctors, who made the trip to attend the Australasian Medical Congress. In many instances the medical men are accompanied 4»y their wives. A large number of pas lengers left the Moeraki at Bluff on Tuesday morning, and it was with evident signs tof relief that they descended the gangway, for, according to the ship’s officers, it was fe-s worst trip experienced for 13 years that is, for this time of the year. Immediately after leaving Melbourne at 10.30 A.m. on Wednesday, January 25, the Moeraki ran into what one of the officers described as the “tail-end of a southerly buster,”- and the uppleasant conditions weie in evidence, although in a somewhat modified form, throughout the trip across the Tasman Sea. One traveller, after ’anding at Bluff, remarked that the passengers had Met seen sun, moon, or stars all the way over. Although the weather was misty and overcast when the Moeraki arrived al Milford Sound, a good view of the Stirling and Bowen Falls was obtained. Captain iW. Martin, master of the steamer,went to * great deal of trouble to ensure the bestview possible of the Sound under the circumstances, and very keen appreciation Was expressed by the travellers of his efforts Sn this direction.

The recently-formed Peninsula County Council is expected to commence its regular monthly meetings next April. Tire functions of the local road boards will by /then have been taken over, and the care of the roads throughout the Peninsula will be attended to by the County Council, which was brought into existence for the purpose of ■ having two of principal yoads declared main highways.

Mr Charles Todd (president of the New Zealand Alliance) stated in Wellington last night at a welcome "athering (reports our special correspondent) that as a result of his nine months’ tour he had gained a very fair insight into the workings of prohibition, especially in America. The state•inent that American college students were taking to drink was a libel. There was Ims drinking now than before prohibition. He did not seen one single student at Stanford University with a flask in his hip Ipocket. Prohibition was the accepted principle among the 8000 Rotarians at the HAenver Conference. There was no one in ■fee States who wanted the saloons back. Ju the biggest and best hotels in America My • grog-selling was unknown. ‘Juvenile delinquency in New York showed a considerable decrease. The secretary (Mr C. JEL Edmonds) said the alliance wanted a democratic ballot paper and did not intend %o back down from that stand. y~'-

Trouble with the stokehold members of the crew was responsible for the intercolonial steamer Moeraki being held up outside the Heads for about eight hours on Thursday. When the vessel arrived at Dunedin on Wednesday about 12 members of the stokehold section of the crew signed off the articles. Little difficulty was experienced in securing men to fill the vacancies. The ship finished discharging operations late on Wednesday night, and left her berth at the Rattray street wharf at 1.40 a.m., bound for Lyttelton. Wellington, and Melbourne. When the Moeraki reached the lower harbour - the stokehold crew suddenly discovered that one of their number was missing. When the ship reached the Heads the steam pressure was very low in her boilers, which indicated that the men had intimated their intention not to proceed until the vacancy had been filled. The Moeraki was anchored and the shore communicated with. Then followed the usual procedure of combing the waterfront for a man having the qualifications of a coal-heaver. Eventually, after considerable” exertion on the part of the Shipping Company and Seamen’s Union officials, the vacancy was filled, and the Moeraki resumed her voyage shortly before 11 a.m., The Hon. Dr S. Argyle (Minister of Health in the Victorian Government), who is at present in Dunedin as a delegate to the Medical Congress, is a soldier as well as a politician and a doctor, and. in conveying the Rotarians’ thanks to Dr Argyle for his address at the Rotary Club’s luncheon on Thursday, Rotarian Marshall Macdonald mentioned an incident which showed that Dr Argyle is a soldier of no mean ability. Shortly after the police strike in Melbourne, said Rotarian Macdonald, he and - several others journeyed to Yallourn in company with Sir John Monash. They remarked to Sir John on how quickly the strike had been quelled, to which the distinguished soldier replied that this was in a large measure due to the military organisation of Dr Stanley Argyle. At a meeting of the Dunedin W.C.T.U. the following remit was passed for transmission to the New Zealand W.C.T.U. . Convention: —“That it is highly undesirable where charges are preferred against members of the police force that the cases should be tried by a jury, and therefore to the police of the right of appeal against the verdict in such cases is unjust; and, further, that this disability imposed on a body of men in the faithful discharge of their duties is likely to discourage the enlistment of the best type of men in the service, and is not calculated to promote the well-being of the 'community. The W.C.T.U. pf Dunedin respectfully asks that the laws which rule in these cases be amended so that these serious disabilities be removed.” A case set down for hearing in the Supreme Court on Thursday (reports our special correspondent in Wellington), in which Victor Carmine claimed £350 from the New Zealand Times Company (Ltd.), for alleged libel, was settled out of court. Visitors who frequent the Botanical Gardens must have noticed two handsome orfk trees near the main entrance, a little to the left. These trees were planted as saplings in July, 1901, a few weeks after the visit of the present King and Queen to Dunedin as a memorial of that event. They were grown from acorns dropped from the parent oak, growing near by, that were planted in 1862 to mark the marriage of King Edward and Queen Alexandra —a circumstance that added a touch of sentiment to the occasion. The saplings were planted by the then Mayoress, Mrs G. L. Denniston, and given the names of George and May. At this pleasant ceremony, which was accompanied by speeches and music, and hopes, for-

tunately amply fulfilled; were expressed that the trees would grow prosperously and,.un-

molested. Quite recently Mr Tannock (the superintendent of reserves) has given publicity to this history by affixing plates to blocks at the foot of each tree.

A very handsome window in stained glass will shortly be placed. iq» the East Taieri Presbyteran Church as a memorial to the Rev. W. A. Kinmont, minister of the church between 1903 and 1918. The work has been most successfully carried out by Mr J. W’. Brock (of the firm of Arnold, Brock/' and Raffills). The theme of the composition is “The River of Life,” the centre of commanding interest being the figure of an angel holding a chalice. The colour scheme is beautifully carried out in silver and gold—the underdress being in rich orange stain. The wings of the angel are in very delicate pink, and stand out against the celestial blue of the background. The Gothic work of the canopy and base has a very translucent effect. The whole window will rank, there need be little hesitation in saying, as one of the beet pieces of work of its kind yet produced in the Dominion.

Reference to the influenza epidemic in England and on the Continent of Europe was made by the Hon. J. A. Young (Minister of Health) in the course of conversation with our representative on Thursday afternoon. Mr Young stated that so far as influenza was concerned the Department of Public Health was kept in touch with what was going on, being fully advised by the High Commissioner (Sir James Parr) through the British Ministry of Health as to the condition of affairs in Europe and England. The reports received from England indicated that the type of influenza experienced at present was not the same a the pandemic outbreak in 1918, but was somewhat similar to that experienced in New Zealand last winter. The latest news to hand indicated that in proportion to the population the present outbreak in England was not as severe as that which visited the Dominion last year. The Health Department was taking every precaution, and while he (Mr Young) hoped for the best preparations were being made for any untowards developments which might arise. Fortunately they , had the machinery and the experience of the past for guidance, and these would be of considerable value.

At a public meeting held in the Christchurch City Council Chambers on Tuesday evening, to consider the entertainment of the visiting Sanders Cup crews, it was unanimously decided that the citizens of Christchurch must be roused to a sense of their responsibility in raising funds. The sum of £350 is urgently required. The Mayor of Christchurch (the Rev. J. K. Archer) presided. He said the meeting had been called to consider ways and means of raising money to finance the Sanders Cup contest, and also of arousing public interest in that event. In the contest which would commence on February -12, boats from Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago, and Southland would compete, and it was his hope that the races would be close and keen. Mr W. T. Lester (chairman of the Canterbury Yachting Association) said that although the meeting was small, its importance ‘was not lessened. There was a great deal of work to be done, but his committee was well under way. Mr Lester stressed the social side of the contest, and emphasised the fact that yachting was not for pleasure but to train young New Zealanders for the seafaring life. Mr C. J. Treleaven pointed out that the £350 was required not only for 'entertainment, but also for general expenses, such as the hire of launches and billeting of crews. He could assure the citizens that the races would provide some of the greatest thrills ever seen on the ■water.