OUR WELLINGTON LETTER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 22, 1 June 1910, Page 4

OUR WELLINGTON LETTER.

May 28th. Wanted—Trees. G”7TT RBOR Day is coming round again / I and I hope that before it arJ I rives, Wellington people will have decided upon some definite form of giving effect to the purpose for which the holiday is set aside. Of all the New Zealand cities, Wellington is the most bare and most forlorn in the matter of trees. Onr ugly hillsides of red clay, our glaring •unclothed cuttings, our shadeless sea beaches, all cry out for garments of green. There are greater difficulties to encounter here than in other centres, no doubt; the strong and persistent winds do their best to prevent trees from establishing themselves, and the hideously sombre pinus insignis is the only thing that seems to thrive, probably because of its very ugliness. But there are many trees and shrubs suitable for planting on our windy hills and gale-swept shores; some of the native olearias, for instance, ought to do well. Long ago all the hills round the city and suburbs were clothed in bush of one sort or another, but the first settlers took a pleasure, it would seem, in denuding them, to the very mountain-tops, of everything that would give shelter to man, or bird, or beast. Now the duly is forced upon us of reclothing our stark and starved-loking hills. Wellington’s mountainous surroundings are really picturesque; all that is wanted is a judicious sprinkling of foliage. The broom and gorse—noxious weeds, no doubt, but still weeds of beauty—are the only bits of vegetation that beautify the tree-denuded heights of the back of the city; those who would deny these humble plants a place in the land, should look upon the Tinakori Range and the Karori Hills in the early summertime; they would at least admit that the noxious weeds give a glorious splash of colour to the. brown landscape. But it is probably the sea beaches that are most in need of verdure and shade. Island Bay, Ohiro Beach, Lyell Bay, and the boldly picturesque coast line at the entrance to the harbour, have not a single tree amongst them to shade the picnicker or relieve the eye. They are grand bite of ocean beach, but they are little purgatories on a blazing summer day. Here io an opportunity for the new Mayor to do something for Wellington that would be of lasting benefit. Let him inaugurate a comprehensive scheme of tree-planting, and make Arbor Day something more than it is at present—an off-day for Civil servants. Auckland's Government House. A good many Wellington people sympathise with Auckland in her agitation for the retention of Government House as a Vice-Regal residence. All I have spoken to on the subject, in fact, have given it as their opinion that Aucklanders should persist in their endeavours to keep the historic house and grounds for the purpose which they have served so many years. Wellingtonians who know Auckland are quite prepared to admit that the Northern city is the pleasanter place of residence; and future Governors, I have no doubt, once they are enabled to compare both cities, would like to have the opportunity of spending a few months of the recess by the shores of the Waitemata. Certainly Wellington’s new Government House, with all its elaborate fixings, will never possess the beauty of surroundings that is the dower of Auckland’s. No doubt the matter will be one of the first things to be discussed in Parliament this session, and I hope to see Auckland's private members keep their end up well. Only—a word of advice —• let them drop the petty argument of the falling-off in tradesmen's business, the drapery and the ladies’ reception hats, and similar puerilities. This is a matter that concerns Auckland's dignity and historic prestige, and drapery and carpets and the Government House meat bill should not be allowed to enter in, if Aucklanders have any sense of proportion and the fitness of things. The Tost “ Leader “ Found. As the daily telegrams huve informed you .before this, the celebrated—or, shall we say, notorious? —picture “Southward

From Surrey's Pleasant Hills” has been recovered by the police, and is being restored to the walls of Wellington’s Art Gallery. It was recovered by the simple, if tedious, process of watching for callers at the house of Mr. Wardell, president of the Academy of Fine Arts, to whom the thief, or his agent, hud, by corre spondence, promised to restore it. The thief asked for Ji 50 and a “square deal”; he got a pair of handcuffs. Hie man arrested was a rather well-dressed fellow of about thirty, by name, Francis Edwin Tier. He stands remanded until the Ist of June; by then it is expected the police will leave completed their chain and coil of evidence. Anyhow, whether Tier is the real thief or not, Leader’s fine picture has been recovered undamaged, which is the principal consideration. Now that the Art Gallery trustees have got it back, they may as well make arrangements to more adequately safeguard it and their other art treasures. A third theft of “.Southward from Surrey’s Pleasant Hills” would be too, too much. It would be less exciting and worrying to give it away, say, to the Salvation Army as first prize in a big raffle. The Dominion Scouts. The corps of volunteers known _as the Dominion Seouts has not been in existence very long, but it has already earned some fame of a sort. The Scouts, chiefly composed of men who have seen service in South Africa, have hud a good deal of notoriety in one way and another, so much so that the name of “Dominion .Seouts” provokes a smile whenever it is mentioned in Wellington. 'What particularly riles the members of the corps, I believe, is the fact that the public will persist in regarding them as small boys, confusing them with the other scouts, the youngsters in short trousers and bare knees. Recently the Defence Minister cashiered one of the subalterns of the corps, as the result of a “scrap” in the Scouts training camp. Now the officercommanding, Capt. Dalrymple, has resigned. Capt. Dalrymple has informed his corps that the time required for proper attention to the affairs of the company interfered seriously with his business, and he therefore is regretfully compelled to retire. The members of the corps expressed regret at the retirement of their captain—who is a smart and experienced soldier—and gave him a vote of thanks for his services. A Sailor Writer. I hear that the ranks of New Zealand writers are shortly to have an addition from a rather unexpected quarter—the mercantile marine. Captain H. Platts, of the Union Company’s steamer Kini, engaged in the coal trade, has, it is reported, succeeded in placing a novel, entitled “Horace Danby,” with a London publishing firm. The book is, as one might expect from a sailor, a tale of adventure. Captain Platts has been a magazine contributor, but this is his first novel. Captain Will Brooks, whose sea book was published in London recently, was also in the service of the Union Company. Another nautical writer of these parts was Captain Abram, formerly of the Union Company’s service, and for many years master of the Wellington tugboat Dueo. Captain Abram had a book pretty well complete, a sea-story with a good deal of the humorous in it, and was endeavouring to place it with a publishing linn a couple of years ago. He was waiting, however, until he had more leisure to recast it, and meanwhile Death claimed him. The fine, bluff, hearty old skipper and all his crew went down with the Dueo somewhere between here and the Chatham Islands. He was a kindly, cheery, old sailor-man, with an endless stock of good stories of the sea. I well remember the last I saw of Captain Abram. It was the day before he sailed on his last voyage. He was lighting his pipe in the usual gale of wind that blow s down the Wellington wharves. I asked him about his fishing trips to the Chathams, and whether the conditions of life wore not trying in those cold and tempestuous latitudes. The old captain laughed, and assured me that he never felt bettor than when out at sea in those waters. “Blow! Of course, it blows; but the more it Mews the better one’s appetite is. Nothing much wrong with n man when he can eat "well, is there? And as for fish —there’s nothing

like those Chatham Islands’ fish round in these waters.” Captain Abram was a Mark Tapley of the sea. The Ship That Carried Butler. I wonder if any of “The Graphic” readers recalled a sinister bit of history when the daily paper cablegrams told this week of the wreck of the British fourmasted barque Swanhilda. The Swanhihla, a brief message from Buenos Ayres stated, was lost on Staten Island, at the bleak and frosty tail of Terra Del Fuego, in the vicinity of Cape Horn. Fifteen survivors of the crew reached Buenos Ayres; the rest, including the captain and his wife, were drowned. Such was the end of a big 2000-ton steel clipper, whose career was marked by at least one bit of notoriety that for a time put her name in everyone’s mouth. The Swanhilda was the vessel on which the New South Wales murderer Butler escaped from Newcastle to San Francisco. It was some twelve years ago, as far as my memory serves me. He was arrested on the ship on his arrival at "Frisco, and was brought back via Auckland, in the R.M.S. Mariposa, and was in due course hanged in Sydney. Butler’s crimes created great excitement at the time. Aucklanders may remember the scenes at the Queen-street wharf when the steamer arrived with the murderer on board in irons. Reporters were even sent over from Sydney to “do” the arrival of the notorious man, and to interview him. Butler had shipped as a sailor on the Swanhilda, and worked before the mast on the voyage to San Francisco. Over the Southern Alps. At last some attention is to be given by the Government to that most magnificent of all our natural pleasure grounds, the heart of the Southern Alps. Not only is a new tourist hotel to be constructed in the Hooker Valley, near where the present antiquated Mt. Cook “Hermitage” stands, but arrangements are being made to link up the road systems of the East and West Coasts by a good track across the snowy backbone of the Island, from the “Hermitage,” over the Copland, or Fitzgerald’s Pass. Mountain huts are now being built on both sides of this great pass. I have seen many fine views in the Southern Alps, but none finer than those in the vicinity of the Copland, particularly in the upper part of the Hooker Valley, where an immense glacier sweeps down between two mighty walls from the floor of shining Aorangi. Fitzgerald’s, or the Copland Pass—it bears both names—is 6,863 ft. above sea level, and something more than 4,000 ft. above the “Hermitage.” The saddle itself is perpetually snowclad, but it would not require a great expenditure to make a decent track on each side of it. When this link is completed there will be a very grand round trip opened up for travellers and for New Zealanders who want to see something of the gorgeous scenery of ■the Southern mountains. Going up to Mt. Cook from the Canterbury side, one

win be able to cross over to the lon® Jake-dotted forest litteral of the West, and return to civilisation via At present this sort of thing is only for the hardy Alpinist. It is als» ex-’ (pensive—a more important; considers tion still. Girl Scouts. The “ New Zealand Times,” on Saturday, May 28, published the following letter, headed “ False Allegations A gains 6 Girl Scouts — Sir, —Some persons in Wellington have stated that they object to girl scouting, as they have seen girls out scouting at night with boys. Allow me to inform the public generally, parents and schoolmasters in particular, that the “Girl Peace Scouts” have never been out scouting with boys, either by day or by night. Some girl hoodlums, however, who have been calling themselves seouts, have been behaving in a very unseemly manner, but they are nothing to do with the girl scout movement. N.B. —Girl Peace Scouts go out lit charge of scoutmistresses, never alone.--'-I am, etc., M. C. SKELLEY, District Secretary, Girl Peace Seouts, Wellington. The Late Mr. Banme’s Seat. Under the heading, “Jumping into His Shoes,” the “ Times,” Wellington, of last Friday, said: “An enterprising northern colleague of the late Mr. F. E. Baume( has reserved by telegram the seat in Parliament fonnerly occupied by the( member for Auckland East-. It happens to be a comfortable corner position, well lighted.” A “ Living Area ” of Land. “You may talk about the necessity of a living wage, but I tell you that a living area of land for our selectors is a question that we will have to settle as one of great urgency,” said the Wellington Lands Commissioner at the meeting o£ the Land Board last week. He added that the Board must seek to help tho man with a small area rather than the man owning a big property-, for it was the former who was most deserving and most in need of assistance. Smaller Police “ Guns ” Wanted. During the hearing of the Powelka case at Palmerston, Detective Quartermain, in evidence, said that he had borrowed the revolver he carried' on the night Sergeant McGuire was killed, because it was possible to carry it in th« pocket. The regulation revolvers handed to constables and detectives were too large and clumsy to be carried in a pocket. A regulation revolver was produced, and the truth of the detective’s, allegations was obvious. Our New Citizen Army, This year the New Zealand territorial force will not be permitted, except in special cases, to capitate for more men than the number laid down in the old establishments. That is—for companies* 63; and for squadrons, 84. Special ap.

plications, however, may be made through officers commanding districts lor permission to recruit up to the new establishments, in which case capitation iwiil be paid only for the total number of efficients. All recruits taken on should be between the ages of eighteen and jtweniy-two. The restriction is not meant to apply to specialist corps, such as artillery and field engineers, for these companies will be mostly recruited from the cities, bat in the coirntry districts, where the “«ptota’’ system will be applied rigidly, it is considered inadvisable for regiments and battalions to recruit beyond the old establishments until permanent adjutants and sergeant-majors are appointed. The various battalions and regiments comprising the territorial forces of New Zealand will be distinguished by different coloured piping, although the field service uniform, which has just been approved, tsvill be universal. The piping will be as follows:—Field and garrison artillery and first regiments and battalions, scarlet; engineer service and second regiments and battalions, blue; third regiments and battalions, green; fourth regiments and battalions and veterinary serfriee, maroon; army service corps, white; medical service, dull cherry. As it will 'be almost impossible to obtain the exact shade of the material to correspond with the pattern approved, officers commanding districts will use their own judgment ivvhen uniforms are submitted to them for approval. The material must be khaki, and the piping must agree with the regulations. Trentham Range Improvements. Colonel Collins stated last week that necessary works to complete the TrenItham range had been authorised by the Government, and that instructions had ■been given to put the work in hand at fence. The improvements included the further extension of the Summerville range, the erection of 13 Ralston targets !0n the Summerville butt, removal of the present buildings to the rear, enlargement of the mess room, making up new firing mounds on the Seddon range to permit firing being carried on at 200, 300, 600, and GOO yards; construction of new Ktchen and bakers’ oven, water supply Extension, and the completion of telephone extension. There will be accommodation of 75 targets at 200, 300, 500 and 600 yards, and 50 targets for SOO, 900 and 1000 yards. Conscience Money. The Phoenix Fire Insurance Company’s (Wellington office' has just received an unexpected cheque for £350 from the (Rev. Father O’Connell, missioner, on behalf of a member of a Roman Catholic church. The sum is presumably sent to the Company by way of restitution. The identity of the original remitter and the Circumstances which prompted the return of the money are not disclosed. •The Company’s officers, too, while rejoicing in this renewed confidence in the better part of human nature, so selrevealed to insurance companies, is naturally not over curious about the motive' which prompted this practical form of Christianity. There is the money!’ Life is Wealth. The Ruahine, which arrived in Wellington from (London brought 167 passengers in the third class and 41 in the second. There are 30 assisted inmigrants, seven being children, and the remainder domestics and wives rejoining their husbands. The Sussex, due on the 14th June from Liverpool, brings 36 assisted immigrants. A Faster Mail Service. The secretary of tire General Post Office, replying to a letter from the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, says it floes not appear that a saving in time Of from four to six days in the convey»nce of mails to the United Kingdom, ilia Sydney and Suez, is of sufficient imiportance to warrant the heavy subsidy which would no doubt be required. » The Wellington Dock. P ' Experiments are being made by Messrs. McLean at the new Wellington flock works to deposit the concrete in Fueh a manner as to prevent laitance. They are now trying to lay experimental patches of concrete by shooting it to the bottom through a 12in iron tube, the Idea being to lay the mixture on the pre-

pared bed of the harbour in the same condition as when it leaves the mixing board. Mr. Murdoch McLean has great hopes that the tube will solve the laitance trouble. If it does, an entirely new plant will be required at the dock works. New Zealand’s Exports. The value of New Zealand’s principal products entered for export during the fortnight ended May 15 is £799,533, compared with £1,953.186 for the full month of May. 1909. The details arc: — Wool, £184.200; gold. £108,186; butter £23,577; cheese, £64.984; frozen beef, £31,114; frozen mutton, £65,695; frozen lamb. £122.344: wheat, £22,763; oats, £567; potatoes, £SB; hemp, £22.018; tow', £1091; kauri gum, £13,156; grain and pulse other than wheat and oats, £3861; hops, £685; skins, £77.451; hides. £5890; tallow, ,£43,109; timber, £8394. Famous Picture Recovered. After two months’ search, the police arrested a labouring man about 30 years of age, who is charged with having stolen the famous •Leader” picture from Wellington Art Gallery. Detectives, acting upon information, made a smart capture by arresting the suspect about 8.30 p.m. on Friday in the vicinity of Bolton-street Cemetery, and, in addition, secured the missing picture. Exactly how they succeeded, the detectives are not prepared to state at present. They were aware, however, that the picture was to be conveyed by messenger to a certain place, and, acting on this advice, they appeared on the scene at the right moment, and secured the picture. All through the search, the detectives have had a most discouraging task. They frequently succeeded in drawing the suspect to a certain point, but beyond this could not get him to venture. There are some grounds, it is understood, for •connecting the it wo disappearances of this picture with one and the same individual. At the Magistrate’s Court Frances Edwin Tier was charged with stealing from the Art Gallery an oil painting by “Leader,” entitled “South' ward From Surrey’s Pleasant Hills.” Accused, who is described as a labourer about thirty years of age, was remanded till Wednesday next. The Heyes Commusion. The Royal Commission inquiring into certain charges against Mr. Peter Heyes, Commissioner of Taxes, sat all last week at Parliament Buildings. Mr. Stringer "(Christchurch) appears for the informants, and Messrs. Skerrett and W. J. Napier for Mr. Heyes. Voluminous verbatim evidence has been taken by “Hansard” reporters. So far only half the charges have been dealt with. The commission resumes on Monday. Mr. Skerrett left for Auckland on Monday to appear for the Auckland Harbour Board, and Mr. Napier alone will represent Mr. Heyes. The inquiry will probably last all this week. A large number of witnesses have been subpoenaed for Mr. Heyes. After the Bush Fii'es. After the bush fireg of two years ago many of the settlers in the Wellington district found themselves in so serious a position owing to the destruction of all their stock feed that they were glad to avail themselves of an offer by the (Land Board to advance money free of interest for the purchase of grass-seed with which to resow their land. Altogether the Board assisted 328 selectors •by advancing sums aggregating £ 13,579. Tire first notes are now falling due, and at the Land Board meeting on Thursday the Commissioner made what was considered a very satisfactory report upon the position. He reported that the total sum which had become due this year was £4,526, and that only J 5393 of it had not been paid. The defaulting selectors numbered twenty-four. The (Board decided that the position as to repayment of the money advanced was very satisfactory, resolving also to take steps to enforce payment in the remaining cases. New Zealand Wine. A test cose concerning the liquor licensing laws was before the Masterton Court last week. A charge was made against Lamb, proprietor of the Tararua Vineyards, of selling liquor and keeping it for sale within the no license area of Mas-

terton. The point of the proceedings lay in the fact that the Licensing Act of 1881 provides that the Act shall not apply to wine made from grapes grown in New Zealand, while the Alcoholic Liquors Control Amendment Act of 1895 provides that liquor shall not be sold in a no-license area, no distinction being made between New Zealand-grown liquors and others. After hearing legal argument, the Magistrate upheld the contention of the defence, and the case was dismissed. A Lenient Sentence. Robert Gorki!!, the bailiff, who was found guilty of the manslaughter of Christopher Smith, was brought up for sentence on Saturday. The Chief Justice said he would pay attention to the jury's recommendation to mercy. Prisoner was in a weak state of health, and if he sentenced him to a long sentence he would lie sentencing him to death. lie would therefore pass the lenient sentence of six months’ imprisonment, without hard labour. His Honor said he desired to point out to those engaged in the same occupation as prisoner that it was wrong to carry firearms.