Untitled

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12708, 11 March 1912, Page 2

Captain A. D. Blair, son of Mr John Blair, Abbotsford, has received frbmt ' the Turkish Government the decoration-, of the fourth order of Medjidie. The. order was instituted m 1852, , and •conferred, after the Crimean war, to' a. '* considerable extent on British officers. • .-. The service rendered by Captain Blair v was the following-: On July lastvhe took*^ m his ship 1000 Turkish troops, , yi\%h guns, ' etc.^ fi'Om Kamaran-tb 'a plsce called Loheiza, wnibh was ' surrounded by Bedouins, who-, had, captured ~the> wells, and the , Turkish, garrison-, were dying with thirst- Captain! Blair \ happened "bo,,haye ICK) tons of frteah "Water ballast m his tanks; "and. with the aid: : of. the condenser, augmented this*)., supply, which he landed ,with the forcements. For five, days he supplied the. troops with . water, when the '"Weljs were recaptured;' and thus eai*ned vine gratitnde of the' 'Turks;' '■;_' .' .'.,'. . '. ; /; The sale-'of a whole townsnip m onet day, that is, a town, already made and inhabited for .many years, must, be analmost *■" unprecedented fact m "Australasia. That ' what happened at Berry j, m New South W⩽ recently, when the* whole of the .'tqwh.'-sit^s/'with.-''|ine^'exc'|»p* • tion of the Government' offices, schools,, . and the churches, were brought under the hammer. Of course, such :an event can only occur: when .a single, interest is the bwner s . Berry had /been; the, 'property of the Berry family : ,; and'- tfcenV % ■ • inheritance, ,pf the Hay; fa^ly^fpf the best, part of a hundred 'years. TJtt&to^ had grown up \ thereto v serve ,tjie stirrounding agricultural arid dairying country, which Was alio the property of the. same family: 'The iieehola was h^Ver . parted with, and' sp;:^u£(tralia' had 't^a spectacle of ofl^ man' '6"svhing" a whpl^ district md a u whole tdwnshij), lock, stock and barrel. . The; 'fai-rbs were th> first to cut away ; ' from '.'(■ he* 'estate, -via mahy; instai^cfes;' theVj'. jW&e'^ldV W~ ttiehr former .tenants'' and nVw'the' iown- Ixaa followed.. The sale, which' :incindeti^tt i: large station .propfeiiy.:*c6hjprisirig 8300 dcres, took' place^on'.tl^eJß^try '; %p§;ground,.and, taken as a 'whole, was regarded as a most satisfactory one.. .