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Otago Witness, Issue 3870, 15 May 1928, Page 47

The safe approach to Otago Harbour impresses shipmasters. The motor liner Port Dunedin, from London to Port Chalmers, anchfli’cd off the Heads in a thick fog on Saturday night. Captain Farmar had navigated the ship to an anchorage despite the fog, and when the mist cleared away it was found that the harbour entrance light was only six miles distant. As the last land in sight was Panama, and as three days of heavy weather had just passed, the land fall made by Captain Farmar was remarkably accurate. A reporter commented on the matter to the captain, who pointed out in reply, how safe the approach to Otago Harbour is. The ocean, he said, shallowed on a sandy bottom, and a fine line of the soundings extended well off the coast. It was easy, he added, to make Otago Harbour even in foggj- weather. Twenty-one - bankruptcies were notified in last week’s issue of the New Zealand Gazette. Fifteen of the number were in the North Island,

The manning of motor ships has materially altered the proportion of officers to the rest of the crew. Motor propulsion had also reduced the number required to man such ships. The motor ship Port Dunedin, whicli arived on Sunday from London direct, carried a crew of 62 all” told, and of that number 23

An amusing comment .. of a tour around the West Coast and Nelson was given by Archbishop Julius’’ in an atidress to the Historical Association at Canterbury College (says the Lyttelton Times). The Archbishop told of an experience during the visit about a year ago of the Bishop of Salisbury. “ I was asked to suggest a tour for the Bishop of Salisbury, flhinking of the beauties of the West Coast, I advised him to tour around the West Coast and up to Nelson. \\ hen he returned, the bishop replied in answer to my inquiry as to his trip: ‘No good. It has no association.’ And he was right,” continued the archibsbop. '■ W 1 the only place of interest on the way , Nelson from Christchurch is the spot where a man was murdered and a stone was erected to mark the place.” "Oh! of course, there is the place where a motor car went over a cliff,’’ said the archbishop as an afterthought. Some idea of the outfit which the son of an Indian prince is allowed when he is sent to school was given bj' Mr 11. E. Vaile during a lecture the other night (says the Auckland Star). He ’stated that the son of a native prince, whom be named, was despatched to school with a retinue of 80 servants, three sets of polo ponies, four or five motor cars, and half a dozen elephants. The principal was used to royal splendour, but the outfit was deemed by him to be too large, so he sent back 50 servants, two sets of polo ponies, a couple of motor cars, and some of the elephants.

'■’Women are notoriously careless,” said an Aucklander a few mornings ago, and be proceeded to relate an incident which occurred in one of the insurance offices on the previous day. Ahead of him in the queue at the counter was a woman who received a cheque for £195, the savings of a lifetime. “You don’t want to lose it,” said the clerk, as he handed the slip over. “ I’ll look after that,” replied the lady emphatically, and, folding the cheque, she dropped it into her handbag before making for the door. Just two minutes later another lady handed in the cheque to the clerk. “ I picked it up from the floor near the door,” she said. Many English families, dissatisfied with life in South America, are looking to New Zealand as a future home, according to Mr Walter Lewis, of Johannesburg, who. with Mrs Lewis, arrived in Auckland from Sydney by the ?>launganui on Tuesday in the course of a world tour. Mr and Mrs Lewis set out from Johannesburg 18 months ago, and have visited practically every place of importance in South and North America. “ I was amazed at the interest I found displayed in New Zealand by people living in South America,” he said. “It is the rule in any of the South American States that the children of British subjects living there must become naturalised. Many parents object to this, and I met at least four families who intended to try their luck in New Zealand.” Preliminary consideration has already been given in Australia to the celebration of the bicentenary of the birth of Captain James Cook, who was born at Marton, in Yorkshire, on October 27, 1728. It is probable that the Government will appoint a committee to arrange a fitting celebration. One of the principal suggestions for the celebration is that 1000 Yorkshire boys and 1000 Yorkshire widows each with one child should be induced to come to Australia to help to people the country that Captain Cook —himself a Yorkshireman —discovered and charted. Other suggestions are that portraits of Captain Cook might be presented to the schools in New South Wales and Yorkshire, and that school children should be given an illustrated book of Cook’s life. Another proposal is that pilgrimages of the various clubs and the Yorkshire Society be made to Captain Cook's statue in Hyde Park, and to Kurnell, and that special displays of Cook relics and pictures should be made by the Mitchell Library, the Kurnell Trust, and the Australian Museum. An unfounded rumour requires silencing. In this issue appears an important announcement by the firm of Leyland Motors, Ltd., who emphatically deny a current rumour to the effect that they are closing down in New Zealand. Mr Dancan F. Bauchop, attorney for the company, declares that “ Leyland won’t quit,” and makes a statement of imiiortance to all present and prospective owners of commercial motor vehicles.

A walk round the inlet at Anderson’s Bay is not popular to-day. The stench to which pointed reference has been made by residents recently has not abated. A report from the district health officer would make interesting reading to the lieople who live in the locality. The new Government motor ship, Maui Pomare, at present on her way to New Zealand, had three stowaways on board when she left Great Britain. One of them was a jockey, one a young Welsh fruit merchant, and the third a civil servant from London. After the men came on deck at sea one of them astounded ths captain by asking for his letters. The letters in question had, as a matter of fact, reached the ship when she was sail* ing from Southampton, and, of course, had not been claimed by any of the crew. The astounded captain had perforce to '■“xad the stowaway his correspondence.