HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1262, 25 June 1914, Page 40

HERE AND THERE.

Mr. S. J. Nathan, of Auckland, left early this month with Mr. Buckleton for Paris, where both will act as, Auckland delegates at the Congress of Chambers of Commerce. Later on they intend to tour Scotland and the Continent.

Mr. and Mrs. G. C. Clifford (brother and sister-in-law of Captain Clifford, of the Ruapehu), who have resided for many years in India, are leaving for a lehgthy toiTr of New' Zealand with their children, with the idea of eventually settling here. Captain Clifford, who has been ill, is progressing favourably, but is not coming out with the Ruapehu this trip.

Mr. and Mrs. Alfred -G. Sadler, of Sydney, are at present touring the Dominion. They were in Wellington last week, and after visiting the South Island will leave for Canada by the Niagara on July 3rd.

Mr. E. A. O. Craigie, of Timaru (son of Mr. Craigie, M.P.), who arrived in England about- three months ago, is studying medicine at the Edinburgh University. At present he is in London.

Mr. and Mrs. Payne, of Christchurch, who recently arrived in England, intended going to Ireland and Scotland, and after that they will tour the Continent. They expect to be in Europe for twelve months.

For the want of vividness in such Small things, the modern travel book still leaves a reader so unprepared that he finds the real country utterly different from any preconceived impression,

Mr. Parsons, of Rangiora, Canterbury, who had been on a short visit to Auckland, returned to Christchurch last week.

Dr. Walter Fox, ’of Christchurch, has been cn a visit to Auckland. He proceeded to the North of the Island last week on an extended tour.

Mr. and Mrs. C. McMahon, wellknown in connection with picture enterprises in Auckland, left by the Manuka on the 15th for a pleasure trip to Sydney.

Mr. J. W. Henderson, of Karori, Wellington, who is on a trip to the New Hebrides, has written to the Karori Borough Council, of which he is a member, relative to his travels though Shijta Cruz, Tikopea, and the Saralton Islands. He asked that his leave from the Council be extended until after the first meetingin July. The request was granted by the Council.

Captain P. H. Hall Thompson, R.N., the newly-appointed Naval Adviser to the New Zealand Government, was :"».ie at Sydney by the Osterley last week. * Mrs. Thompson and their three children and maid are ing by the lonic on September 18th. Captain Thompson will stay in Australia for some little time, at the request of the Minister for Defence (Hon. James Allen), to enquire into the Commonwealth methods of training for the Navy. Mr. J. W. H. Scotland, the young New Zealand aviator, was the recipient of a presentation from Christchurch residents who wished to give seme tangible recognition of his skill as an aviator. The presentation was made by Mr. E. C. Huie, editor of “The Sun,” who wished Mr. Scotland every success in his new venture as the founder of the first aviation school in the Dominion.

“Heaven’s Gate,” a view of which appears in this issue, the entrance to the entrancing and fairy-like birch forest on the way to Diamond Lake, Otago, is famous as one of the most beautiful coach drives in the Dominion. The tourist disembarks at Glenorchy, at the head of Lake Wakatipu, and then is whirled by four-horse coach, under the shadow of the Humbolts, across the Dart and into ' the gates of Paradise. From there the track passes around the shores of Diamond Lake, under the shade and shine of the lacy foliage of the native birch, till suddenly the coach swings into the open, and the Cosmos Peaks, snow-capped and eternal, rise abruptly above the exquisite blue of the diamond-shaped mountain tarn, which is famous for its glory of colour and fine reflections, and is called Diamond Lake.

According to private advice received in Sydney, Sir Thomas Lipton has intimated that he is contemplating a trip to Australia and New Zealand next year.

Some expert cragsmen, led by Mr. S. W. Herford, who two years ago made the sensational girdle traverse of the cliffs of Seafell, have successfully negotiated the central buttress of Scafell, states the “Daily Mail,” which had been regarded as an impossible climb. The wall of the central buttress rises sheer lor several hundred feet. It is almost smooth, and stands in a class by itself. Few climbers are likely to emulate Mr. Herford’s party’s feat.

A number of deer were liberated about thirty years ago on the property of the late Mr. A. Buckland, at Kaipara Heads, and the game have now become very plentiful. At the last, meeting of the Council of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society a letter was received from Mr. M. Buckland pointing out that the deer were becoming a pest, and asking that the writer and his frends should be allowed to shoot them irrespective of close seasons, and also that they should be permitted to bring carcases to the city. Various opinions were expressed as to whether an exception could be made in the case of people wanting to shoot deer on their own property, but it was decided, on the advice of the president, to refer the matter to the Game Committee for a recommendation, to be tabled at the next meeting of the Council. * * * *

Within the last few months, much space in the English sporting papers has been given to the chamois and all concerning him; and in view of the fact that he is now’ likely to become a permanent resident in New Zealand, it is as well to have some idea of what we may expect from him in the way of trophies. I have seen the photograph, says a sportsman, of a head secured by that notable sportsman, Mr. Walter Winans, at Obertown, in Austria, on August 12th, and though supposed to be above the average, the horns measured only nine inches and three-quarters. This is just the least bit disappointing, but they do grow’ a trifle bigger than that. The record chamois was shot by Baron Schonberg, in Hungary, the horns measuring twelve and threequarters of an inch. When you come to think of it, even those would not crowd the hall; but it may be that the change to a new country will produce a more vigorous growth. -J- *

The “Pall Mall Magazine” (now

twenty-one years old and extremely proud of its majority) prints in its birthday number some entertaining remarks by Hilaire Belloc, headed, “Back from Abroad.” He complains that the more he knows of countries or towns, the more surprised he is at the paucity and exiguity of any descriptive writing about them. It is not for the want of travellers or of publishers. For one book describing a strange country or corner thereof available to one man’s reading a hundred years ago, there are now fifty or a thousand such available to the reading of all men: but they seem to have ceasefl to translate the foreign experience. The writers seem to have lost the power of transferring from their own consciousness to that of others the particular emotions of travel.”

A pleasing little story concerning Lord Kelburn, captain of H.M.S. Pyramus, has got into circulation, and possesses the merit of being true (says the Napier “Telegraph”). His Lordship has a charming personality, which strongly impresses itself on all who meet him. Recently he paid a neighbourly call on the captain of the American schooner, H. D. Bendixsen, also at the breakwater. Lord Kelburn, who, as usual, made himself the very essence of sociability, created a lasting impression on the Yankee , captain, who was telling his experience to another friend. The honoured one said that even in America, the home of democracy, s»ch a visit would never have taken place, naval officers believing that it would be a low r ering of their dignity

to visit the skipper of a miserable wind-jammer. “Why, the captain is Lord Kelburn,” replied the friend. “Is that so? Well, you bally well wouldn’t think so; he’s a real gentleman. He’s one of the best fellows I ever met.”

At the annual meeting of the Waitaki Branch of the Waitaki-Waimate Acclimatisation Society, held in Oamaru, a member, in seconding the report, drew attention to the matter of poaching, and said he was quite certain that license-holders had not done as much as they could have done to prevent poaching, although he knew from his own knowledge that there had been less poaching this season than ever before. There was yet, he said, room for improvement, and it was time to take the matter up. He hoped the incoming Council would spend money to prevent poaching. Mr. Sumpter said he knew the. Kakanui to be one of the best rivers in the Dominion for fly “fishing, but there were those who doubted the wisdom of liberating fry in that river, as it contained millions of spawn. What they should do was to spend their money in protecting the fish that were already there. Netting at the mouth was a great drawback, and until this was stopped the Kakanui would never be as good as it could be. It was a great hardship, he knew, to interfere with those who engaged in mullet fishing at the river mouth, but he knew that a great number of trout were netted as well as mullet. * » ► * The remedy is that an individual traveller should not be aslshmed of setting down the thing ttigjt struck him first and most vividly jwhen he

saw .a new land. For instance, Mr. Belloc knew, from - many writers, all the correct things to be felt and known about Italy, but what struck him the first time he saw Italy was. the colour of the houses. No book had prepared him for the astonishing effect produced to the eye by the absence of white. “Most French houses are dead white; most English ones grey on whitish, but here in Italy I saw whole streets and frontages along the sea bright green, bright, yellow, bright red, and bright blue —as one used to see the world in childhood when one looked through coloured glasses to make it seem strange.” Other petty matters had not been sufficiently dwelt on. “The loud noise of the crickets; the sight of a scorpion upon a marble floor; the permanent; heat of the air; and even the waters of the sea; the openness of everything —an openness which made churches and palaces into thoroughfares.”

As a matter of fact, it is the value of the individual impression that is making the fortune of the more astute novelist. He had the sense to per-, calve the trivialities which the writer of travels ignored, and through his characters, he may convey to the untravelled just the impressionist sketch desired. Hawthorne struck the right line in “Transformation.” Who does not remember, through him, the smell of hew bread in Rome? Howells gives us Niagara in “Their Wedding.

Journey,” and Venice in one or two other novels. With Domini, in “The Garden of Allah,” many readers first realised the desert. “Lady Betty Across the Water” sees New York sky-scrapers appearing, “bright and vivid now, as giant hollyhocks grow-* ing in irregular rows.” The rose fields of Rumania blossom in a novel by Dorothy Gerard; Dutch life stands translated in Una Silberrad’s “Good Comrade.” And the reading, but nontravelling, public, unfed, as Hilaire. Belloc complains, by the writers of fact, buy ravenously the travels of fiction.

Lloyd’s List, as a daily newspaper of the shipping world, is to be printed and published by the Corporation of Lloyd’s from the Ist of next month. It is 218 years since a little two-page mercantile newspaper was ‘‘printed for Edward Lloyd, coffeeman, in Lombard Street, London.” About 30 years ago Lloyd’s? List was united to Messrs. Spottiswtfode’s Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, and the return of of the former to Lloyd’s marks the termination of the corporation agreement with that firm. The new paper will be issued from a special department of the great marine corporation at the Royal Exchange. It will consist of 24. pages. For the purpose of their paper Lloyd’s calculate upon the arrival daily of some 4000 separate items of shipping news from all over the world. The scope will include matters connected with all general commerce, freights and cargoes, insurance, maritime and commercial law, and full space will be given to Parliamentary riews. Articles will be given on topic s of current interest,

for Lloyd’s intend to cater for commercial life as understood in its widest sense. The corporation’s private signalling organisation, by semaphore, telegraph and wireless, augmented by arrangements with foreign Governments, will serve the newspaper.

Ten miles out of Peshawar, across the plain littered with the half-com-pleted railway which we so politely abandoned at the wish of the Amir, stands the fort of Jamrud, which guards the great square mud-walled serai, where the caravan that is to march through the Khyber to-day, says E. F. Benson, in the “Pall Mall” magazine, was shut up last night for safety against excursions of marauding tribes; it guards, too, the entrance to the pass itself, which winds upwards for twenty-one miles through the barren hills till it reaches the boundaries of Afghanistan. For five days in the week the Historic road lies empty and deserted but for the passage of native tribesmen and their herds, who live in the villages that are scattered by the roadside, or. who burrow into the cave-dwellings with which they have honeycombed the porous rock, and on those days anyone who traverses the road, be he European or Afghan or Hindu, walks there at his own risk of any bullet that may come from behind the boulders of the hillside, for the Khyber is officially closed and the English guarantee, nothing with regard to it. But on two days of the week, Tues-

day and Friday, when the pass is open for the caravans to go up from India into th© unknown land beyond, bearing sheet iron and copper and petroleum for the use of the Amir and his subjects, and bringing back th© balms and the fruits and the carpets of Central Asia, the pass is guarded throughout its length by pickets and outposts of the Khyber rifles, and though a man carried on his person the flower of Golconda diamonds and the cream of the pearls of Ceylon he would walk up the Khyber road in no less safety than he would make the noonday saunter down Piccadilly. The Rai has guaranteed the safety of the merchants that come from Afghanistan, and from end to end every yard of the road lies under the protection of keen eyes and loaded rifles.

In Ashburton at the present time shooting parties are receiving good remuneration for their bags of hares, export buyers going as high as 2s. 4d. a pair. Hares are very numerous, and the recent heavy falls of snow in the high country have driven them towards the seaboard. A good many young men are now engaged in hare Shooting, which they find not only pleasurable, but also very profitable.

A story is told of a ranger not a hundred miles from South Canterbury, who, seeing a Maori with a gun and a bag, accosted him and asked where he had been. The Maori replied that he had been shooting. Had he met with any luck? Oh, yes, he had shot a few djicks. “May I see your bag,” queried the ranger. “Certainly,” replied the Maori. The ranger looked at the contents which he found to consist of a number of ducks with their heads and feathers off, and cleaned ready for the oven. “What sort of ducks are they?” the ranger asked. “Oh, you’re the ranger; it’s your business to know that,” replied the Maori. It is understood that no prosecution is to follow.

In the higher Alps of the Bernese Oberland and the Canton of Orisons a curious dark yellow glow in the atmosphere was noticed during Easter week by many Alpinists, who could not account for the phenomenon, which, however, is explained by Dr. F. .Salis- (the Berne correspondent of the “Standard” says). The scientist examined the yellow snow, and found that it was impregnated with fine sand from the Sahara blown across the Mediterranean and over Italy to the Alps by the sirocco. It is only when violent disturbances take place in the upper air that this phenomenon is experienced in Switzerland. The Alps, indeed, seem to attract aerial currents, for when Vesuvius and Stromboli are in eruption layers of ashes fall on the Alps several weeks later —hence it is reported that grey, red, or yellow snow fell in the Alps on such and such a date. However, the sirocco seldom reaches the Alps, being stopped by the Italian mountains. J

The new premises of the Auckland Commercial Travellers’ and Warehousemen’s Association and Club were officially opened on June 6th. in the presence of a large gathering of members and invited guests. The president (Mr. D. W. McLean) presided, and the proceedings throughout were marked by great enthusiasm. Among those present were the Hon. W. H. Herries (Minister for Railways), Sir Joseph Ward, Bart. (Leader of the Opposition), Messrs. A. M. Myers, J. H. Bradney, and A. E. Glover, M.P.’s, and many other representative citizens. Apologies for absence were read from the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. W. F. Massey) and other members of the Ministry. Messages were also received from commercial travellers’ associations in New Zealand and Australia, congratulating the Auckland Association on securing such up-to-date club buildings. The president extended a hearty welcome to the visitors. The president, gave a resume of the progress of the association. Formed in 1902, it had now been 13 years in existence, and from a small beginning the membership of the association now totalled 387, and that of the club 135, making a grand total of 522 members. The secretary reported that 51 new members were to be balloted for at the next meeting of the association. Of the roll of the

original members the following were still in active service:—Messrs. George Squirrel (chairman General Committee), -E. F. Capper (chairman House Committee), J. F. Pullen (traesurer), A. G. Cooke, W. Sadler, A. D. Wilson, W. Boak, W. R. Goudie, H. J. Clifton,. C.. Takle (committeemen), and D. W. McLean (president).

After crossing the great lake, says a New Zealander travelling in Central Africa, one enters the kingdom of Uganda, which is quite distinct from the protectorate of Uganda, of which it forms a part. This kingdom has for centuries been governed by powerful kings, who have developed a highly complex feudal system. The British Government uses this system and governs the county through its king and the hereditary chiefs of the people. The country is in a very prosperous condition, and is developing rapidly. Cotton, coffee and cocoa are being planted in ever-increasing quantity, and many settlers are coming in and taking up land. But fertile and rich and beautiful as this country is I do not think it will ever be a white man’s country, as the climate cannot be called healthy There is room and opportunity for the settier who can employ labour, but not for the man who has only a small capital.

Of all th© interesting features of the overland journey to Uganda, says a recent traveller, perhaps the most interesting, certainly that which lingers longest in my memory, is the scene which the camp presented at night. Round the camp fires, their black faces shining in the glow, the men are talking and singing, or listening to the notes of a Baganda stringed instrument. But gradually their talking ceases, and, after stirring up their fires, one by one they fall asleep. Near me is a large camp fire which will be kept burning all night, as lions are said to infest the region. In the circle of light cast by the fire is the grass hut in which are my bed and boxes; overhead are the branches of a great tree, black in the ..shadow, but lighted up where the firelight catches it. .All around is darkness, and a silence which is broken only by the cry of some animal wandering in search of food. Such is the scene night after night on the overland route, but one that must be seen to be understood.

To the tyro in African affairs the southward march from Gondokoro, on the route to the head waters of the ; Nile, is of great interest. The scenery is not strikingly grand or beautiful, but the native population and the animal life one sees more than make up for any lack of interest in this direction. First the villages of the Bari people are seen scattered all over the country, the houses looking in the distance like so many overgrown beehives; then the Mardi tribe is met with, and later on are seen the villages of the Acholi. In all these villages the passing traveller sees the people employed at the various tasks which make up the African’s day; the women cultivating or grinding corn, carrying water, and cooking food; the men smoking and “waiting for something to turn up.” The African man prefers to spend about 90 per cent of his time at this waiting business; the rest of his day he uses for decorating himself. Here and there along the route, chiefly on the hilltops, Bari burying places are to be seen, their upright stone slabs reminding one of the graveyards of a more civilised land; only here, instead of a cross surmounting the grave there is merely a stone slab and a notched stick to ward off the evil spirits.