THE TOURIST and TRAVELLER

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1337, 9 December 1915, Page 40

THE TOURIST and TRAVELLER

HERE AND THERE.

The Rev. P. C. Durward returned to Dunedin from Auckland on the Paloona.

« * * * The Rev. A. H. Wheeldon left Auckland for Gisborne last week.

The Rev. and Mrs. Finlayson, of Dunedin, left Auckland last week for the South.

The Rev. Frederick Stubbs sailed on the Paloona for Gisborne en route for the South. * * * *

Mr. A. Smith, of the Pacific Cable Board, accompanied by Mrs. Smith, left Auckland last week for Suva.

Mrs. T. E. Wilson, of Auckland, accompanied by her two children, left for Fiji last week.

The following passengers returned to Suva by the Makura: Mrs. A. Bentley and two children, Mrs. and Miss Cuthbert, and Miss L. Malcolm.

Mr. and Mrs. W. Connor, of Auckland, accompanied by their two daughters, left for London on the Makura.

Mrs. A. Joske and her four daughters returned to Suva last week by the Union liner.

Mrs. J. and Miss Campbell, of Auckland, sailed for Vancouver last week.

Mrs. King, wife of the manager of Messrs. Wright, Stephenson and Co., Auckland, left last week for a trip to Sydney. Mrs. King was accompanied by her two children. 4: ♦ * *

Mrs. J. O. Eva, of Dunedin, and Miss Eva, of Suva, went to Fiji by the Makura last week.

Major and Mrs. Ariell and Miss Ariell, of Paparoa, North Auckland, have been on a trip to the Wanganui River.

Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Carruthers, of Sydney, are at present in the Hot Lakes District, en route to Wellington.

Mr. R. B. Cotton, of Upper Riccarton, Canterbury, left Auckland last week by the Makura for London.

Mr. R. H. Frew, of Melbourne, is at present on a visit to Rotorua, and will travel to Wellington by the Wanganui River.

Miss A. Jamieson and Miss Z. Munster, of Melbourne, left Auckland last week for Rotorua.

Mr. C. M. Todd, of Adelaide, accompanied by Miss D. H. Todd, are at present on a visit to Rotorua, and will make their way to Wellington via the Wanganui River.

Mr. S. Thurston-Hogarth, of Melbourne, a well-known business man, is on a health recruiting tour of the Hot Lakes of New Zealand, and will include the South Island gorges in his travels before he returns to Melbourne via Hobart.

Mr. Alex Burns, sub-editor of the Christchurch “Press,” left on a holiday visit to Sydney by the Moeraki.

The Rev. H. J. Deane, formerly vicar of Patea, in a private letter, states that it is his intention to return to the Dominion in the near future.

Dr. and Mrs. Putnam, of Palmerston North,, are leaving shortly for Egypt. Dr.' Putnam has received an appointment as surgeon in one of the hospitals there.

Mr. F. Earl, K.C., has been elected president of the New Zealand Cricket Council for the season 1915-16.

Mr., Mrs. and Miss Fitzgerald, of Oriental Bay (Wellington) are visiting Napier.

“We expect thorough fair play from America,” said the Crown Prince of Germany. Of course they do. But don’t they hope they won’t get it.— “Globe.”

More than 100,000 people witnessed the interment at Moston Cemetery, Manchester, of seven Belgian soldiers who died in the local military hospital.

Rumanian (or Wallachian) is one of the Romance languages—the general name for those modern languages that are the immediate descendants of the languages of ancient Rome. The language differs slightly in different parts of the country, like the north and south of England.

Miss A. F. Ironside, M.A., senior mistress of the Palmerston North High School, has been granted extended leave of absence, and sailed from Wellington for Australia by the Mokoia last week.

Mr. W. G. K. Kenrick, S.M., at Hawera, has found it necessary, for reasons of health, to take a rest, and he has been granted extended leave, which will commence this week. Mr. Haselden, S.M., will temporarily take up the magisterial work in the Hawera district.

A visit will be paid to New Zealand next February by Archbishop Bonaventure Ceretti, Apostolic delegate in Australasia. He will be accompanied by his private secretary, Dr. Ormond. They will travel from Melbourne to Wellington, and will make a tour of the South and North Islands, sailing from Auckland to Sydney at the conclusion of the tour.

News has been received in Hastings that the Misses Miller have arrived safely in Cairo, where they intend helping the sick and wounded New Zealanders in Egypt.

Mrs. Fritz Kemp, of Wellington, is returning to England shortly, Sur-geon-Captain Kemp having left for the front with the last Reinforcements.

Mr. A. H. Brigg, City Surveyor of Sydney, arrived in Wellington from New South Wales last week, and will make a tour of the Hot Lakes District before returning to his home. He is accompanied by Mrs. Brigg.

Mr. and Mrs. C. Y. Fell and Miss Fell, of Nelson, who are at present in England, are staying at WTllesden, at the home of Mr. Arthur Fell, M.P.

Salisbury Plain (Eng.) has an area of about 500,000 acres; Warwickshire 557,527 acres, Staffordshire 744,985 acres, and Worcestershire 479,218 acres.

Mr. D. J. McKay, who has been on the engineering staff of the Ocean Beach freezing works, Southland, during the past three years, has been appointed to the Westfield freezing works, Auckland.

A well-known Gisborne cricketer, Mr. Harry Babbs, passed away at the Gisborne Hospital recently. The late Mr. Babbs was a native of Barbadoes, and had travelled all over the world. He was a good all-round cricketer, and had played in England and in several centres in New Zealand, including Wellington, Wanganui, Palmerston North, and Gisborne. He gained representative honours at Wanganui, Palmerston North, and Gisborne.

A Belgian author, now resident in England, states that the burning of Louvain was delayed by twenty-four hours pending the receipt of definite instructions from Berlin.

Mr. and Miss Laslett, of England, are visiting New Zealand, and are at present in Christchurch.

The driest place in the world is that portion of Egypt between the two lower falls of the Nile. Rain has never been known to fall. >':* **

The Rev. C. A. Fraer will be retained in Europe another six months as chaplain to the Maoris, more especially those wounded and in England.

Approximately 300 German vessels, costing for their upkeep roughly £5OOO per week, are lying at the piers in New York.

Mr. J. Readhead, curator of the Ashburton domain, who has volunteered and been accepted for active service with the Field Ambulance Corps, left for Trentham training camp on December 2nd.

Mr. John Campbell (.son of Mr. Thos. Campbell, of Karori), who took part in the quelLng of the Singapore mutiny early in the present year, has been granted a commission in the Navy.

The angler should never be discouraged from trying his luck by any weather conditions condemned by the text-book, but should persist in face of apparently hopeless circumstances. A too careful attention to the face of the sky may at times baulk the overcautious fisherman of what might, by trusting a little more to luck, have been a red-letter day.—“ Fisherman’s Weather.”

An interesting side-show on the Agricultural Show ground, Wanganui, was the first machine-gun made in New Zealand. It was turned out by the Petone railway workshops, and works perfectly, its construction reflecting high credit on the men who made it.

Horse racing has never been taken so seriously in England as in Mongolia, where it is carried on under the auspices of the Buddhist priests. The races are rarely less than ten miles long, and the chief event of the Mongolian racing year is a contest over 30 miles of rough steppe. When Mr. C. W. Campbell visited Mongolia he attended a race meeting at which most of the competing horses were owned by Lamas. “The great races which take place yearly at Urga,” he writes, “are held under the direct patronage of the Lama Pope of Mongolia, who becomes the owner of all the winners. A horse race with a bishop in the judge’s box, a public chiefly clerical, no bookmakers or betting, and nominal prizes is a phenomenon entitled to a little attention from an Englishman.”

The guests at the Royal Hotel, Auckland, last week included: Mr. F. C. Davis, Melbourne; Mr. and Mrs. Jennings, Taumarunui; Mr and Mrs. A. E. Harding, Dargaville; Mr. H. Garbutt, Christchurch; Mr. and Mrs. H. Oldfield, Glenmurray; Mr. D. Potts, Waihou; Mr. and Mrs. J. Campion, Wanganui; Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Hamilton, Wanganui; Mrs. A. A. Gower, Wanganui; Dr. R. McDiarmid, Huntly; Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Carr, Rotorua; Colonel Hobday, Christchurch; Mr. E. J. Stewart, Hamilton; Mr. and Mrs. E. Short, Feilding; Mr. Jas. Coombe, Waitotara; Mr. H. E. Hocken, Feilding; Mr. and Mrs. A. Matthews, Carterton; Mr. R. W. Harding, Mangawhare; Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Hunter, Cambridge; Mr. W. H. Smith, Rotorua; Captain Dyer, Whangarei; Mr. and Mrs. N. W. Nelson, Whangarei; Mr. and Mrs. J. W. L. White, Taumarunui; Mr. and Mrs. Urquhart, Rotorua; Mr. T. C. H. B. Poore, Christchurch; Mr. R. J. Linn, Normanby; and Mr. H. E. Carde, Wanganui.

Mr. Charles Hall, ex-M.P. for Waipawa, is returning to New Zealand from the Old Country.

A little French girl of 14 who took her father’s place as a baker when he was called to the ranks, and who baked bread for an entire village, has Just been decorated by the Government. It wil be hard to overcome a country where even the children show :such a spirit.

On 12th October, at Apia, the High •Chief Tamasese, who figured so prominently in the newspapers some years ago as the co-aspirant with Tanau Malieatoa for k.ngly honours, and who, after being defeated ’by Mataafa, fled for protection to the Porpoise, then under the command -of Captain (now Admiral) Sturdee, and who for many years had been a disturbing factor in Samoan affairs, died very suddenly of pneumonia and .a complication of other complaints. His actual illness lasted but a few days.

The once-famous Columbia (stated the “Syren” of September 15) is coming to England, not as the wonderful creation of beauty she was when defending the America Cup against Sir Thomas Lipton’s Shamrock I. and Shamrock 11., in 1899 and 1901, but .as shot and shell. This celebrated yacht, which cost the New York Yacht Club £60,000, has already been dismantled, and her steel frames, her lead keel of 100 tons, and the brass fittings will be converted into missiles of war. Who could have prophesied such an ending for a boat built for the peaceful amenities of an international yaching competition?

The Marquis De Sommery, who is -staying at Prestatyn, North Wales, recently received news of the death of his cousin, Viscount Jaques De Saint Legier D’Orignac, of the French Army, who was killed in action near Rheims. "The viscount was the last male heir -of the Counts De Saint Legier, whose -castle near Bordeaux has been in the

possession of the family in unbroken succession since A.D. 1200. The late officer was a descendant in the female line of the Worralls, of Cheshire.

Dr. A. A. Martin, of Palmerston North, describes the bayonet charges of the different soldiers engaged in the war. The Germans charge with a peculiar guttural shout, “hur-ruh, hur-ruh,” and with their rifles held close to their sides. The French charge with shouts and cries of “Pour la Patrie,” amid great excitement, but the British charge silently, or else cursing in a low voice. They hold the butt of the rifle against their shoulder, and the French themselves describe their charge as the most relentless thing in the world. Nothing can stand against it, and the Engl.'sh Tommy always gets his man.

The smoke of battle, says an onlooker, presents many varieties of colour. Shrapnel gives a puff of pure white, lyddite bursts indifferently black —if detonation is perfect—or if imperfect, all shades from bright to greenish yellow. “I have also frequently seen clouds of pink smoke, but have never been able to decide whether it is the real burst or clouds of fine brick dust, for I have never noticed it except among buildings.”

The most admirable thing about the Russian army is the transport. The English are rightly proud of their tremendous transport trains. But splendid as these are, they would never stand the test of the miserable Polish roads. The enormous English motor lorries are not so well fitted to the peculiar conditions in Russia as the light cart drawn by Siberian ponies. It takes an enormous number of transport ponies to do the work, but Russia seems to have an inexhaustible supply. Sometimes six are hitched in pairs to drag heavy loads, or at other times they are harnessed four abreast. They keep going day and night in all weathers, doing extraordinary work on a small hay ration.

Rather more latitude is being given to the New Zealand soldiers at the front in the matter of letter-writing, or rather in the range of domestic matter allowed to go uncensored. For that purpose an official envelope has been isued to the men. which has the following note printed above the space left for the address: —“On Active Service.—Note.—Correspondence in this envelope need not be censored regimentally. The contents are liable to examination at the base. The certificate on the flap must be signed by the writer.” The certificate referred to reads: —“I certify on my honour that the contents of this envelope refer to nothing but private and family matters. — (Signed) This privilege was accorded to the troops in France many months ago.

Canon Burton, vicar of St. Michael’s, Christchurch, who has returned from England, met an officer who was in the fighting round Mons, and the officer told him his own experience, which was sufficiently ghastly. The officer was lying wounded and helpless on the field, when a German officer approached him. and, pulling out his pistol from his holster, deliberately shot him through the chest. The Englishman fell back unconscious, •and later on the British foree re-took the ground and rescued him. There was no possible doubt as to the truth of the English officer’s story, and there was also no doubt that it was not an isolated case. Canon Burton is now in khaki and attached to a New Zealand regiment as chaplain.

Harry Lauder, writing to a friend in Christchurch, is as full of fervid patriotism as all good Scots are when Britain is involved in desperate war. “Our generations,” he says, “will for ever and ever bless the name ‘Britisher.’ Scotland, I rejoice to say, is top dog again. The ‘Spartan spirit’ is not dead; it lives in Scotland yet. It’s ringin’ thro’ our mither’s cry: ‘Go on, Jock, dae yer bit!’ and I feel sure the boys of New Zealand will all rally round the old flag. We only need the

numbers; we have the grit. The Germans are not beat until the war is ended, and that must not be until Britain and her Allies have exacted from our unworthy foe the last ounce of regret and shame. Tell any young fellows you know we want them here, to be ready to enter the den when the door of the cage is opened. We need them all, the men of pluck like the boys of the old Brigade.”

It is stated on good authority that German trade journals, by order of the Imperial Government, have discontinued the printing of advertisements coming from any foreign country, whether neutral or belligerent. The reason is said to lie in the possbility that the innocent-appearing advertsement might contain a cypher message. And this (writes the “Financier”) is not the Celestial Empire, but a nation that claims to lead the world in intelligence and enlightenment. Perhaps, however, this is only a Teutonic attempt to hide from the rest of the world the fact that nobody outside Germany has any further use for that country’s journals as an advertising medium.

Samples of goods have been received in New Zealand from firms in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and Holland, from firms of which the local retailers had not heard, or of which they knew very little before the war pressure on German export trade became sensibly acute. Samples of hosiery, ribbons, enamelled ware, and other goods of which the Germans made a feature, and of which experts can tell at a glance or a touch the origin, are coming in from countries contiguous to Germany, and some are branded with the name of the country from which they are exported. Enamelled iron ware, for instance, marked Swedish manufacture, in its finish and general appearance is so like the German article as to arouse the strongest suspicions in traders’ minds that it actually is German, made by Germans with German capital and German plant, just transferred during the war to neutral territory.

Italy, we are assured by the foremost of the Milan publicists, might have received in exchange for her cooperation the promise of Corsica, of Nice, of Savoy, of Tunis, of Morocco, and of Egypt. But the Italian people would have risen in wrath against any who should urge her collaboration in an enterprise of aggression and oppression.

For many years Indian Mohammedans have made the pilgrimage to Mecca in British ships sailing from Bombay to Medina, in the Red Sea. But, the Hedjaz, or Arabian Holy Land, being now an enemy country, the Indian Mohammedan can no longer travel thither by sea. His only means of access to Mecca is a most arduous land journey to the Persian Gulf, which is now entirely in British hands. It is probable that the rigours of this route will prevent most Mohammedans from making the attempt, but the Government of India is naturally extremely anxious that none of its subjcets shall turn their steps towards Mecca so long as the war lasts.

General Cadorna, the Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Army, is a son of General Cadorna, who commanded the sth Army Corps at Custozza, Verona, the scene of two famous battles against the Austrians in the struggle for Italian unity in 1848 and 1866. He was born at Pallanza in 1850, and first served in the infantry line. Afterwards he was appointed colonel of the famous 10th Bersaglieri, and later became Staff General commanding the Verona Division. On the expiration of his term of office he was moved to Florence. It was about this time that he wrote his well-known book, a technical analysis of the Franco-Prussian War. He received his general majority in 1898. General Cadorna has been Chief of the Staff since last summer. A strong disciplinarian, he knows the eastern frontier (stretching from the great entrenched camp of Verona to the

River Isouza, near Trieste) valley by valley. When a junior- officer he passed all his summer holidays there.

Mr Eric N. Webb, of Christchurch, who was magnetician in Sir Douglas Mawson’s Antarctic Expedition, has been appointed lieutenant in No. 7 Field Company, Royal Engineers, Australian Imperial Forces, which is leaving Sydney shortly. Lieutenant Webb is a son of Mr S. R. Webb, formerly Mayor of Lyttelton. His brother, Trooper H. D, Webb, of tire Canterbury Mounted Rifles, who was wounded during the attack on Sari Bair in August, and returned from Egypt by the Tofua. Mr Webb is one ■of the brilliant men who claim Canterbury College as their Alma Mater.

A British officer in command of an Australian brigade in Egypt heard a Queensland sergeant addressing his men in very lurid language, and began to remonstrate with him. “That sort of thing won’t do, you know, my man,” he said, but the sergeant took no notice, and continued as fluently as ever. “Here, you,” shouted the officer, indignantly; "you with tire kangaroo feathers in your hat.”

A nephew of Mrs Mmns, Brooklyn road!, Carterton, writing to her from India, where he is stationed with a force of British Territorials, says;— “We have not moved out of India yet, and I don’t suppose we shall. There Iras been a lot of little incidents here that prove that it is necessary to keep a good supply ot white troops in this country. After a bad attack of malaria I have been sent up to the hills for a couple of months’ coolness. lam having a glorious time, and words cannot express tire wonderful sights I have seen. Jalapallar is 8000 ft above sea levdl and we are above the clouds. Tire journey up was wonderful. For 45 miles up we were on a little toy mountain railway curling and zig zagging all over the place. Sometimes we were in a jungle and sometimes we were looking down a precipice into a valley below. After five hours we reach-

ed a point 7000 ft up, and then had to march for a mile. I shall never froget that march. Every few minutes we had to stop for breath, the air was so rare. The view from my bedroom window is indescribably grand. If I look down in early morning I see great masses of white clouds with the sun shining on them, and here and there breaking through and showing up the valley thousands of feet below. If I look up 1 see the snow covered mountains towering up to 28,156 ft above sea level, the second highest mountain in the world. For eight weeks we have lived on the flat plains of India and simply sweltered. At night we used to sleep naked with a punkah working about a foot over our bodies, and then sweat all night. Here we have three blankets and a fire all night.” The young soldier whose letter we quote from was formerly a bank clerk in London, and the changed conditions must be rather startling in contrast.