ROUND ABOUT WELLINGTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 3862, 20 March 1928, Page 65

ROUND ABOUT WELLINGTON.

By

Pencarrow.

(Special fok the Otago Witness.) March 15. The French sloop Cassiopee, from Noumea, came into port this week, Captain Auvernay in command. The usual courtesies were exchanged between officials, and a very fitting welcome given to the visitors, whose all too short stay has been a great pleasure to this community.

The courtesy of a French gentleman is proverbial, and to meet one is a delightful experience, which leaves us with the wish that we, too, could be more natural and less self-conscious. Both officers and men have received hospitality m the city, and have made friends who will not soon forget some very pleasant hours.

Many Wellingtonians have had the pleasure of visiting the warship, which is very small. What astounds most of us is the ease and fluency with which officers and some of the men speak the English language. Such perfection in a foicign tongue is usually acquired-by us only after long residence abroad. The Cassiopee will be in New Zealand waters about a month. She departed yesterday for Milford Sound, en route to Dunedin and other ports in the South Island. Eventually she will go into dry dock at Auckland, while some of the officers and men will visit Rotorua as guests of the New Zealand Government.

Sir Douglas Mawson, the famous geologist and explorer, is again in Wellington. He, too, is bound for Milford Sound, and he reminds us that many travellers and scientists consider this the finest sound in the world—and he regrets that ships do not call there more frequently.

I have been reading Lothrop Stoddart’s “ Racial Realities in Europe,” and am interested in his re/eronce to the economic development of Norway—the result of energetic and intelligent foresight. “ Norway began to capitalise her scenery, becoming one of the chief tourist resorts in the world. Every year great floating hotels bring multitudes of travellers to enjoy the beauties of Norway's magnificent fiords and to gaze at the midnight sun.” Yet Sir Douglas tells us that our New Zealand fiords are much finer, “ more picturesque and awe-inspir-ing than the Norwegian fiords, which are bare and bald compared with the rich drapery of primeval forest which cloaks the steep sides of Milford Gorge and Dusky Sounds.”

In the year 1912 there died in Wellington a very much respected merchant, Mr T. G. Macarthy, who in the course of years had amassed a considerable fortune, half the income of which he left for charitable and educational institutions and efforts in the province of Wellington—irrespective of creed. Eventually the whole capital ami income of the estate will become available for the sam n purposes. The will provided that the sole executor should he the Public Trustee, and that a special board of trustees should handle and distribute the monies available for the altruistic purposes this very splendid citizen had in view. Those trustees are always to be the reigning Governor-General, the Prime Minister, the Mayor of Wellington, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of the archdiocese of Wellington, who are to have the assistance of an advisory board or committee, which at present consists of Sir Charles Skerrett, Mr A. R. Atkinson, Mr E. P. Bunny, Ladv Luke, C.H.E., Mr J. W. Macdonald (Public Trustee), and Mrs Henry Hall, who has just been appointed to take :he '.dace of Mr G. A. Troup, now Mayor of Wellington, and so automatically a member of the board of trustees. The income distributed yearly by this board is very large—and increasing yearly. I believe it is over £12,000. The public is intensely interested —and not ungrateful. The community is distinctly pleased by this latest appointment to the Advisory Committee. Mrs Henry Hall, wife of a well-known Wellington barrister and solicitor, is entirely qualified for the responsibility she has undertaken, for during many years she has taken an active and practical interest in all philanthropic work here. She is a naughter of the late Mr J. K. Logan, 1.5.0., and the happy mother of three sons, who are completing their education in England. Mrs Hall was one of Dame Massey's very faithful associates during the war, when the soldiers’ club in Sydney street was a haven for men from every part of New Zealand, and she was also an active member of the Thorndon Association, which did very splendid work during the influenza epidemic in 1918.

A correspondent in one of the papers suggests that the fence which fronts Williams Park at Day’s Bay shall be entirely dispensed with instead of being set back as suggested by the Reserves Committee. The fence is very ugly, and it shuts out the view of the sea, and causes, much congestion near the Day’s Bay wharf, which is opposite the gates. If those who manage the affairs of Williams Park can be persuaded to throw it open to the road and beach we

shall hardly know ourselves, and may ba in danger of losing our heads with the rate of speed at which we progress. It was Mr Norwood—recently Mayor —who returned from abroad determined to open up all our parks, reserves, and tiny green enclosures—and to him we partly owe the new layout of Cambridge and Kent terraces, now an embryo avenue, at the south end of which the silent memorial will most surely be placed. Curiously enough, just at this particular time when the fence at Day’s Bay is up for discussion, Mr Hawke (New Zealand representative to the World’s Poultry Congregs at Ottawa, 1927) has been telling the Poultry Conference hero that we waste millions of pounds on fences in the New Zealand towns. The description he gives of Canadian cities and their wide streets with imfenced gardens makes us wish that we, too, had tidy minds, and that the public could be persuaded to refrain from throwing banana peels and cigarette ends on any little piece of planted ground which happens to be handy.

Tar-sealing makes all things possible. I ntil recently our fences have be’en very useful in keeping out large chunks of road metal, this being a windy town. There are a few modern places in T horndon and Kelburn and other districts round Wellington with gardens open to the street—and very charming they look—but what happens when the ladies want to dry their hair? Being shingled—perhaps it does not take so long—and, of course, the town is full of hairdressers. Still, there are moments?