SPORT IN THE DOMINION

Taranaki Daily News, 7 October 1931, Page 6

SPORT IN THE DOMINION

AN ATTRACTIVE EXHIBIT. EARL JELLICOE’S ENTHUSIASM. Vancouver, Sept. 16. With the trade treaty with Canada in the legislative melting pot, so to speak, it was a happy thought to have New Zealand represented by an attractive court at the Canadian National Exhibition, available to 2,600,000 visitors from North America. An educative and colourful exhibition, arranged under the direction of the New Zealand Trade Commissioner, Mr. J.-W. Collins, was located in the Dominion Government Building, near the main entrance of this mammoth exhibition. Scenic and sporting attractions were featured, as well as a display of the arts and crafts of the Maoris,- which drew warm commendation from the Premier of Ontario and countless thousands at tho 1926 exhibition. There were priceless examples of carved weapons of warfare, modern and ancient articles of wear, such as korowais (cloaks) and puipuis (skirts). The central feature was a beautifully carved facade of a Maori whare, with a life-size cut-out of a Maori chief at the doorway This, with its surrounding exhibits of taiaha, tewhatewa (ceremonial staff), meres, spears and some exquisite samples of greenstone, draw a chorus of favourable comment. To people of a country that also boasts sporting fish, the rainbow and brown trout, weighing up to 201 b, swordfish heads, and, in photographic illustration, the world record swordfish, weighing 9711 b, had a special appeal. Big game hunters, whose choice of “bag” in North America runs to the brown bear, the fiercest denizen of the forest, weighing nearly a top, lingered At the newest specimen of New Zealand’s wild life, the chamois, progeny of the foundation herd presented by Hie Emperor Franz Josef, about the time that President Roosevelt sent the first moose to New Zealand. An extra New Zealand note was given by the fact that Earl Jcllicoe, former Governor-General, opened the exhibition. Lord Jellicoe’s unfading interest in New Zealand was shown by his first act after declaring the exhibition open. He took its most distinguished guests, the Lieu-tenant-Governor, Sir William Mulock; the British High Commissioner, Sir William Clark, and the president of the exhibition, Mr. S. Harris, to the New Zealand court, and delivered a highclass review of its resources, particularly in the realm of diversion with the rod and gun. Pacing a map, Lord Jcllicoe indicated the Tongariro River —“the finest trout stream ■in the world,” he said —and • the mountains of Otago. Near Lake Wanaka he shot deer, he told an audience that had now grown to several hundreds. It called to memory his last hunting expedition, prior to leaving New Zealand, when someone stole his 16pointer head, only to return it a few days later, when the hue and cry was raised, and the miscreant learned, to his apparent sorrow, that he had robbed the hero of Jutland! Lord Jcllicoe, in the course of his delightful word-odyssey, said he regretted he could not show his friends some of New Zealand’s “wonderful” products — notably lamb, wool and fruit. The suggestion may bear fruit when next New Zealand is represented at the exhibition.