OUR ILLUSTRATIONS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXII, Issue XVII, 29 April 1899, Page 562

OUR ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE BANK OF NEW ZEALAND DI RECTO ILS.

We give in this issue portraits of the gentlemen now eonstituting the Board of Directors of the Bank of New Zealand. Four of the gentlemen, .Messrs. Blair, Malet, Beauchamp. and .Milne, are appointees of the Government, and the other two. Messrs. Watson and Kennedy, were elected by the shareholders. Mr Blair, the present Mayor of Wellington, is well known in the Empire City as head of the late firm of Lyon aml Blair, wholesale stationers, etc., Chairman of the Education Board, ami President of the Victoria College Council.

Mr F. de C. Malet was formerly in the Civil Service as Clerk of the Magistrate s Court, and was also Associate of the late Mr Justice Johnston for many years. He has the qualifi••ations of a barrister and solicitor, but he has not practised. From 1876 to 1896 he was a member of the Board of Governors of Canterbury College, and for some time its Chairman. Mr Malet has also had extensive commercial experience. Mr Beauchamp is a member of the turn of Bannatyne and Co., general merchants. He has been for some time a member of the Wellington Harbour Board, and a director of the Gear Meat Company. Mr Milne is a member of the firm of Dowling and Co., general merchants. Oamaru. He is an Aberdonian, and has had the training of a banker in the North of Scotland. Afterwards he entered a London bank, and he was selected to come to this colony as a visiting officer of the f olonial Bank. Subsequently he became manager of the branch of that bank at Oamaru. a position which he held for 11 years. Seven years ago he i etired from the bank’s service, and went into business, in which he has had a successful career. Mr Milne has also been largely identified "r J 1 agricultural interests. The other two gentlemen, Mr Watson and Mr Martin Kennedy, are both too well-known in the colonv to require to be referred to here. '

THE GREAT BLIZZARD OF 1899. lhe two most remarkable blizzards that have visited the United States were the storms of 1888 and the recent one in February last. Of the two the latter appears to have been the worst. Jn New York, .which was subject to the full fury of it, the temperature was ten degrees lower than the lowest recorded in the blizzard of eleven years ago. Our picture shows what the effect of the cold was on the sea. Nearly all the Atlantic ports were icebound. and in New York only the most powerful of ocean steamers could break their way into the city. The physical suffering among the poor in the ill-ventilated, overcrowded and insufficiently heated tenements is indescribable, and it is not surprising that during the height of the recent storm the charitable people of the city had to provide for more than 60,000 helpless persons. The work of the Salvation Army, perhaps, reached farther and accomplished more than that of any other organisation, the churches not excepted. By direction of the Governor many of the armouries were opened and blankets and food were provided for the homeless.

'The city was virtually cut off for twenty-four hours from communication with the outside world. Vessels could not reach the harbour, railroad trains could not break through the snow blockades, and several thousand men with shovels, aided by 300 horses and carts, were unable to" make paths through the main thoroughfares of New York. The hospitals, dispensaries and all the asylums for the sick ami suffering, the police stations, and every place where the faintest hope of succour could be expected, were overwhelmed with persons seeking aid. many of these starved and almost frozen.

The loss inflicted upon a great city by such a visitation is almost incalculable. The sudden suspension of business in thousands of factories, the interference with the trade of all the stores, the loss of enrnings by street cars and steam railroads, by ferry lines, and all other regula'rly constituted methods of public conveyance, must foot up an appalling aggregate, and it would be difficult for anyone tn approximately cipher it out.