DUKE’S FOOT INJURY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18589, 27 December 1934, Page 15

DUKE’S FOOT INJURY

IMPROVEMENT REPORTED

BEST STILL NECESSARY

TO-DAY»S ENGAGEMENTS

(Pet Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, this day. Although to-day there was a slight improvement in.the Duke of Gloucester’s injured foot, His Royal Highness is taking no risks, and giving it the maximum of rest.

In compliance with medical advice to rest the foot as much as possible, the Duke reluctantly cancelled his visit to the meeting of the Auckland Trotting Club at Epsom this afternoon. After attending the children's rally at- the Domain, he returned to Government House, having no other engagements tb fulfil until the garden party late in the afternoon. His Royal Highness remained seated on a chair on the lawn, where the guests were presented to him. To-night he will attend a private dinner at the Northern Club, but it is unlikely that he will make a speech to members.

A special new year's message to the children of New Zealand is beingwritten by the Duke of Gloucester, and arrangements are being made for its publication in the newspapers on Monday next. The message will be signed by ’the Duke and duplicated copies of the document, as autographed, will be available for presentation to school. This souvenir of ■remembrance of the children o’f the Dominion is typical of the Duke of Gloucester's unfeigned interest in the juvenile population.

SKILL WITH RIFLE

PRINCE AS SPORTSMAN

INCIDENT IN AFRICA

REMARKABLE ORYX HEAD

How Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, secnfeil the second fyest head of oryx ever shot, or reported, is ( ibid in “Sport and Travel in East Africa, an account of the 1928 and 1930 visits paid to Africa by the Prince of Wales, who was accompanied on the first visit by the Duke. The. book has been complied from the private diaries of the Prince of Wales by Mr. Patrick R.. Chalmers, and is illustrated! with photographs taken by His Royal Highness. While the Prince- of Wales was fulfilling certain official engagements the Duke oE Gloucester Set out for Northern Tanganyika on a hunting expedition and camped in a- district just becoming noted as sheltering several remarkable head of oryx.

TEMPTATION TOG GREAT

“It was (late, in the blank day,” states the book, “when a casual spy over open plain picked up a mixed hern of antelope, of several kinds, and zebras. Of this shifting community—its units were in constant flux—the Duke’s good fortune, and good glasses, showed him a pair of horns as to which he at first thought himself mistaken. He kept the glasses on them and soon saw that he had made no mistake, that here was an oryx with an astounding bead. . , “’Oryx are eonsirteredi by some to be thb tifttidsomest trophies in Atrioa. Their horns are long, straight and spearshaped ; and as one horn or other is frequently broken off short, -oryx are, it has been suggested, the origin of the legendary unicorn. . “It is a mistake to begin a stalk when the light will soon be failing, and when camp is many miles away. But the Duke was tempted. There con.d be few beads in Africa like that one; such a chance might never be his again; it was, moreover, the chance of to-day and not- of to-morrow, when who knew where the head might be? So lie started his stalk.

ART OF THE STALKER

“Now, stalking an antelope in Tanganyika is not the same stalk as that of a red deer on the braes of Mar. In Africa no professional forester shows the way ‘in' to his ‘gentleman.’ Nor does the antelope, if suspicious or, alarmed, put an end to the whole occasion by moving, as would a red deer, oft the igrouitd and at once. Indeed an antelope seems all curiosity. 1 “A suspicious antelope will put himself just out of range; he will then stop and look back. The stalker and ibis gun-bearer approach, npt bellyidbwn always, but on foot sslinkingly, Pnd as though they had other intentions than oryx. Thus did the Duke niid, again and yet again, the herd bolted in dust and bounding confusion only to halt once more. “MOanwhilo the dark was coming, ■and camp, it seemed, was being left farther and further astern. For the fourth time the herd stampeded and stopped. The Rifle looked at his wrist watch and asked himself if the head after all really was such a wonder-dead. Nevertheless, he approached once more, and at 300yds., -lay down beside a. thorn' bush and decided that if the oryic, within the next few minuses, gat e a chance at that range, he would take it. THE TROPHY SECURED

“He could see the high horns, but. a smaller beast and a zebra covered theit 'owner. Five minutes went by and then 10, and once more, the herd, becoming suspicious, first stood at gaze •then wheeled about to bolt, lor a second of time the wide pale broadside was exposed in the turning. “The chance was taken and, at the shot, the big beast pitched on its nose, recovered and galloped on with the. rest. But. it was hit, and sorely hit., and presently halting, a second shot dropped it ill a heap. It was a cow 'oryx, but it is the cows that, as a rule, carry the longest horns. These ones were, 36in. in length, and made the second best, head ever shot or reported. “Artel the luck held, for, congratulations finished, it was found that the pursuit bad led in a circle and that camp was, after all, comparatively close (it hand.”