THE TOURIST and TRAVELLER

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1340, 30 December 1915, Page 40

THE TOURIST and TRAVELLER

HERE AND THERE.

Mr. Fred. Hall, of Gisborne, is at present in Auckland to attend the summer racing carnival, and is staying at the Royal Hotel.

Miss G. G. Vaughan, of the Diocesan High School, Auckland, leaves for England by the P. and O. Arab a in January.

Mrs. A. E. Johnston, of Auckland, left, together with her two sons, for Gisborne last week.

Mr. D. R. Flavell, of Pukekohe, together with his family, left by the Monowai for Sydney.

Miss L. Luck man, an Auckland nurse", leaves this month to take up an appointment under the Hongkong authorises.

Mr. J. W. Tibbs, headmaster of the Boys’ Grammar School, Auckland, left for Wellington last week to join the Manuka en route to Hobart.

Mr. and Mrs. C. G. Hume and son, who are at present residing at Takapuna, leave by the N.agara at the end of the month, and intend to spend some months in America before proceeding to Scotland.

Mr. F. W. Brown ng, an Auckland business man, leaves by the Japanese steamer Tango Maru next month on a business visit to Japan.

Mr. T. H. Glendin ng, of the local branch of Messrs. Ross and G'lendining, is at present on a vis t to Dunedin.

Mr. Harry Caton, of Thames, who is going Home to offer for work at munition making, leaves by the Remuera early in January.

Mr. R. Sanderson, of H kurangi. intends to leave for England by the New Zealand Shipping Company’s Rotorua in February next.

The Misses Douglas and Miss Wharfe, of Devonport, left last week for a holiday tour as far as Lake Wakatipu.

Mr. A. D. Campbell, who is probably 'the .best-known Engjbsh spoytsfrnairj who is n the habit of visiting New Zealand, arrived by the Niagara upon her last trip. Mr. Campbell is an authority upon fishing, from the trout of Rotorua and Taupo to the king fish of the Bay of Islands.

Mr. Oswald Johnston, youngest son of the late Hon. Walter Johnston, will go into camp this week with the Eleventh Reinforcements.

Mr. H. E. Morton, City Architect, City Building Surveyor, and DeputyCity Surveyor, of Melbourne, i s on a v.'s't to Wellington. Mr. Morton is a brother of Mr. W. H. Morton. City Engineer and Tramways Manager.

Mr. W. A. Walsh, formerly of the literary staff of the “Evening Post,” Wellington, has enlisted.

Capt. Cardale, of the Defence Department’s staff in the Wairarapa, is undergoing treatment n Greytown Hospital for a nervous breakdown.

The Serbians are among the most democratic people n Europe, and every one of them has, quite literally, a substantial “stake in the soil” of the country for which he is fighting. In Serbia the land belongs to the people, and every grown’ man has a cla'm to five acres, which he can neither sell nor have taken from him. His land and its produce are exempt from all claims for debt. Thus the poorest man in Serbia has always five acres to his credit.

Mr. John B. Trivett, Government Statistician of New South Wales, is on a visit to New Zealand.

Mr. A. B. Lane, sub-ed tor of the Christchurch “Sun,” and formerly sub-editor of the Southland “Times,” is. at present spending a few days in Invercargill.

Mr. Esau Pretty, the well-known axeman and athlete, has volunteered for active service. He has had 18 years’ military experience and holds the rank of sergeant.

The Queen Mary Guild, which is a branch of the activities of the St. John Ambulance Association, has been work’ng since the commencement of the war to provide clothing, etc., for sick and wounded soldiers. All goods are forwarded to the headquarters of St. John Ambulance in London, who undertake to distribute the garments to whichever hospitals require them, whether n Egypt, in England or on the Continent. The Guild finds itself much hampered now for want of funds, and the Auckland branch has teen asked to give all further assist-

ance possible. Mrs. Smith, Corps Lady Superintendent in Auckland, makes an earnest appeal to the public for ass'stance, especially in view of the fact that so many of our own New Zealand boys are now in the various hospitals. All contributions of either money or goods will be very gratefully received at the office of St. John Ambulance Association ’n Rutland Street, Auckland. The Queen Mary Guild, of which Her Majesty the Queen is president, is an organisation recognised by the War Office, so all donors may be qu’te sure that their gifts will be properly dealt with.

A German merchant, writing to a friend in Switzerland, mentions that so much shipping being inactive, many of the population inhabiting the north-western coast of Germany are in absolute want. Reports from those in a position to know workingclass conditions say that over a million men dependent for their livelihood on the North German Lloyd and the Hamburg-America lines, or belonging to the Geestemunde fishing fleet,

or employed as lightermen, pilots, and dock labourers, are in a desperate state, and as the winter draws near their condition must become worse. * * * * A good story of naval self-reliance and ready adaptability in the face of imminent danger is told by a correspondent. One of our submarines suddenly found itself, when cruising within a five mile radius of Heligoland, with its engines out of commisson, and quite incapable of even temporary repair with the means available on board, with the result that for two days she had to be practically derelict within range of the guns of the island. At last she aroused the attention of six German trawlers, which surrounded her and threatened her with immediate disaster. The submarine, however, made as great a show of vigorous preparations for attack as she could, with the result that all but one of the trawlers sheered off. The one that remained was presently boarded by an armed party from the submarine, and used to tow the damaged vessel into a British port, a proceeding which took three days.

Mr. Lovat Fraser, in the “Daily Mail,” points out that the Germans are following their primal instinct, the blood-lust, in this war. He says: Here are these seventy million Germans solidly established in the. heart of Europe with a spirit essentially that of their forbears who wore short tunics made of skins. To talk of taming the Germans through leagues of peace or leagues of love, is to ignore the whole story of mankind. We might as well offer buns to a python. Whenever that periodical stirring of the Germanic peoples has come they have drenched half the world with blood. Of no other European group can the same thing be said. They have now broken out again, as they have done with unfailing regularity ever since the Stone Age. What is to be done with them?

Amongst the guests who were staying at the Grand Hotel last week were: —Mr. J. H. Miller, Leamington; Mr. A. C. Gillies, Wellington; Mr. I. L. Bruce, Wellington; Mr. C. Stack, Wellington: Mr. H. C. Armstrong,

Wellngton; Mr. and Mrs. Ledingham, Wellington; Mr. Hugo Friedlander, Ashburton; Mr. and Mrs. Young, Wellington; Mr. J. Wallace, Wellington; Mr. H. B. Williams, Gisborne; Mr. O. A. Sutton, Bay of Islands; Mr. and Mrs. Jones, Portland; Mr. E. Bradshaw, Portland; Mr. J. S. De Beer, Dunedin; Mr. Jas. McLellan, Wellington; Miss McLellan, Well ngton; Miss G. Pitcher, Wellington; Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Reid and family, Wellington; Mrs. L. Dwan, Wellington; Master Leo Dwan, Wellington; Hon. J. Allen, Well ngton; Mr. G. F. Dixon, Wellington; Miss Eva Williams, Tuparoa; Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Williams, Dargaville; Mrs. W. H. Horton, Dargaville; Lieut. D. G. Johnston, Trentham; Mr. H. H. P. Sloman, Sydney; Miss Florence Young, Sydney; Mr. Reginald Roberts, Sydney; Mr. A. Herzel, Sydney; Mr. J. Prouse, Wellington; Mrs. D. W. Duthie, Wellington; Mr. E. Hatchard; Mr. and Mrs. N. M. Beebe, Christchurch; Mr. and Mrs. Shirtcliffe, Wellington; Mr. H. Bourn, Christchurch; Mr. H. S. Dadley, Auckland; Mr. James Webb, Wellington; Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Troutbeck, Napier; Mr. H. B. Coupe, Putururu; Mr. R. McMichan,

Sydney; Mr. C. A. Jeffrey, Well'ngton; Sergt. Dawson, Trentham; and Mr. L. H. Denniston, Wellington. For three centuries Cracow was the residence of the Polish kings. Here reigned Kasimir the Great—great alike in prowess and in the encouragement of peaceful arts, the author—this in thg ■fourteenth century—of the celebrated edict of tolerance to the Jews Here in 1386 was also celebrated the marriage between Grand Duke Jagello of Lithuania and Queen Jadviga of Poland, which fused the two States into one powerful kingdom. And here, too, in 1525 the fatal mistake was made by King Sigismund 1 •of granting to Albrecht of Brandenburg the Duchy of Prussia in perpetual fief—that Duchy which in course of time grew to be the Prussia of Frederick the Great, the gravedigger of Poland. Cracow remained the royal residence of Poland till 1600, when Sigismund 111 took up his abode in Warsaw. Bait both he and all his successors till 1764 continued to be crowned at Cracow, and all of them were laid to eternal rest at the Cracow Katedra—the Cathedral which still survives.

An unusual spectacle in the shape of a white •' rainbow was observed in the southern heavens at Hastings recently. The conditions were misty, with a clear eastern sky, late in the afternoon, when a perfect arc, of the purest white, formed l , and beyond the fact that it was absolutely tintless and much' broader, it had the appearance of the ordinary rainbow. It lasted only about a minute.

Twenty-seven members of the New Zealand Institute of Architects are now serving with the various Expeditionary Forces. By a special resolution of the council th'eir annual subscriptions have been waived pending their return to civil life.

Germany is the cuckoo chick in the world’s nest; it wants to shove andi wriggle every possible rival country out of existence.—H. G l . Wells.

As a rule 250,000 service tunics are made annually, but now as many as 5,250,000 are being made up. Instead of 43,000 greatcoats for the men, 1,500,000 are being made. The number of boots being made has gone up from 245,000 to 6,500,000. Amongst other articles of clothing being made are 11,000,000 shirts and 5,000,000 pairs of trousers.

Few people live among the Carpathians, and those who do are chiefly Ruthenians—at any rate, in the districts where fighting has been taking place. The Poles, who have displaced them, are Roman Catholics, and submit to the Latin civilisation. The Ruthenians belong to the Greek, Oriental, or Orthodox Church, and are allied to the Russians, whose literary characters they use with few modifications. Little friendship exists between Poles and Ruthenians. The Ruthenians appear wild and unkempt to those used to the neat ways of the West.

Mr E. *J. Arlow, of Christchurch, has been appointed New Zealand manager for Messrs S. V. Nevanas and Co., the wellknown English importers of frozen meat, wool, etc. Mr Arlow takes up his duties in Wellington early in January.

Never since the beginning of the war on the Russian front had they concentrated such l a murderous fire on a narrow area as in the recent attempt to reach warsaw. Between Borzimow and Wola Szidlowiecka, a distance of about six miles, the Germans had 85 batteries in constant action. They simply showered shell on every patch of ground within range. They made full use of all theiu death-dealing mechanical devices.

The expression "pigeon English” arose from the Chinese attempt to pronounce the word “business” which, through various forms, became “pidgin,” and then '‘pigeon.” “Pigeon English” is a strange jargon of many languages, but “business’’ is carried on by it.

General de Castelnau, who is being spoken of as a successor to General Joffre in the immediate charge of the Western line, is a man of whom everyone has great respect and admiration. Only a few days ago he acquired, at the cost of painful sacrifice, another claim to France’s gratitude, offering up the life of a third son to his country, the other sons having already fallen on the field of honour.

A Palmerston resident has received a letter from a friend in Egypt who is a nurse on one of the hospital staffs there. Referring to the magnificent work of Sir Victor Horsley, the brilliant British 1 surgeon, the writer states that almost incredible feats are being performed by this celebrated surgeon. Some of the wounded sent in are so badly mutilated that it appeared that their life tenure was limited to a few hours, but Sir Victor Horsley seemed to be able to take a man to pieces and then put him together again. Some wonderful operations had been performed, and the recoveries had been little short of marvel-* lous.

Tb'e ‘Humanite’ states that 20 Turkish Socialists have been hanged at Constantnople. They had been. imprisoned since the beginning of the war on charges of conspiring for the Independence of Ar-

menia. : ■> Among them were the entire staff of the Marxist newspaper ‘Kajtz (Light). The Russian Socialist, Archef Suracoff, who conveys this news, adds that Marshal Von der Goltz was living in the Sultan’s palace, and is virtually the sovereign of Turkey. The execution of the 20 Socialists would have been impossible without the approval of the German authorities.

If anything further were needed to prove the diabolical Machiavellianism of German foreign policy, it would be found in this strange drama of the Balkans. Here the German agents have been openly and flagrantly, and with cynical confidence that gold weighs heavier than scruples, buying a passage for those German armies designed to Teutonise the East. Possibly the Allies relied too much on the old friendship between Russia and the Balkans Slavs. Certainly the Allies’ estimates of human character were based on the honest idea that a nation is grateful to its liberators, and a nation’s leaders are true to the best interests of the people. Anyhow, we did not send bags of gold with our special envoys, and we used no gold in the Balkan Embassies in out capital cities. All the Allies did not approve of this rigorous policy of “clean hands.’’ One member of the Quadruple Alliance is furious at tb'e turn events have taken, because it considers that the balance could have been swung so easily the other way. But the fact remains that we did not bribe. Of course we always had a powerful antagonist in the King of the Bulgars, who was all the more dangerous because be dissembled his real position.

Although the Panama Canal is still far from paying expenses of operation, to say nothing of interest on the capital cost, each month’s report shows an increase in the volume of travel through the waterway. When the dislocation of ocean commerce due to the war shall have become a thing of the past, normal shipments by way of the Canal will, in the opinion of experts, be three or four times what

they are now. Recently a new departure tn Canal traffic was Inaugurated, when Ban Francisco welcomed a large passenger steamer from New York, the first to mgke the trip. The Finland brought 450 passengers through the Panama Canal. She is the forerunner of a regular passenger service between the Atlantic and Pacific Coast, via Pano ma. The Finland and Kroonland will be the first two vessels to test the possibilities in this line. Both were formerly trans-Atlantic liners, crossing regular to Europe. The passengers on the Finland state that the trip from New York to San Francisco, Which occupied 17days was one of continuous pleasure very little rough weather being encountered. * * e • The French Government has allowed a party of journalists to view in the cathedral town of Bourges some of the big cannon which the French ordnance department have constructed since the war broke out as a reply to the monster Krupps. The new Gallic monsters, which are. to reduce Metz and the Rhine strongholds, are, according to the description given of them in the French press, not howitzers or mortars, but long guns of about 15-inch calibre—“37s’s” as our Allies classify them. The visitors to Bourges were delighted with these "powerful, yet elegant,’’ pieces. Hitherto the heaviest pieces hadi been naval "340” (13 4-in ch), mounted on the latest French Dreadnoughts, and the “270” (10.8-inch) siege mortars, a somewhat (10.8-inch) siege mortars, a somewhat obsolete pattern, dating back to the nineties.

The French newspaper La Croix records the death on active service of the third son of General de Castelnau, the right-hand officer of General Joffre, French Commander-in-Chief. Two of General de Castelnau’s elder sons were killed earlier in the war. • Before his death took place Sub-Lieutenant de Castelnau was decorated with the Legion of Honour. He was only twenty years of age.

Most of the women in Paris are in black. Almost everyone on the streets seems to be wearing some kind of mourn; ing. But their faces are calm and dryeyed; there are no outward signs of grief other than the black clothes; just a grim silence. There is little loitering and gazing in at shop windows these days. Everybody seems to have something important to do at once, which must be done in sober silence. And the wounded soldiers crawling along the boulvards or drinking bocks at the cafes have thin, pale, silent faces. A French friend who- has seen many of these invalids at the hospitals, which are everywhere, tells me that the wounded, even the common soldiers, rarely talk about what they have been through; they seem .to feel that the,ir experience are too terrible for talk.

Trains full of the innumerable German wounded from the fighting in Flanders ©ass throug Brussels day and night. A» few days ago, says a recent visitor one of these trains halted at the level cross Ing at Schaerbeek as I was passing, consisted of forty trucks, and the wounded were so numerous that they .ay rolled up inblankets actually on the platforms of the carriages. A German brakesman opened the door of one o the trucks and I had a glimpse inside. It was a ghastly, an unforgettable sight The truck was full of dead. So many are the dead, that the Germans can no longer bury them in the plains of Flanders They therefore tie the corpses together, four at a time, with ropes at the heads and the feet, and stack them erect in serried lines in these waggons of death. Many of the bodies were headless. All the dead are sent through Brussels to the smelting furnaces of the Walloon country and are there crema e .

Captain Ernest F. A. Gaunt, R.N., who has been promoted Rear-Admiral, is a son of the late judge eraunt, of Victoria. Rear-Admiral Gaunt and his brother, Captain Guy R. A. Gaunt, formerly in command of the Challenger, and now iNaval Attache at Washington, were among the first Australians to achieve

brilliant careers in the Royal Navy. Rear-Admiral Gaunt distinguished himself ■during the Boxer outbreak in China in 1900.

Belgrade which has been evacuated could not have been held. The river flats and plains of the north-western corner of the country permit the Austrians to establish themselves across the Save and the Drina without serious difficulty, and although the crossing of these rivers has been opposed it need not be supposed that the Serbs can offer an effective resistance to a real invasion in force. In this campaign they will have to retire, as they did last October, to the mountains and Belgrade is once more in the hands of the enemy. The country has been called a chaos of mountain ends, which' fall into two main groups, east and west of the central channel of trade and communication, the Morava Valley. This valley is the natural avenue of advance. It constitutes the direct road to Nish, and so to Sofia, but actually it contacts to a long gorge, in places 3000 ft deep, and here and there the road and railway bed have had to be cut out of solid rock. Moreover, several valleys give access from the flanks, while the tumble of mountains on either side prevents an advance parallel with the main valley. The Morava cuts through Serbia north and south, and indeed gives Serbia her unique strategical position, but the mountains that bar commercial development on either side offer an equal bar to military operations, except those of a guerilla character.

The raid with French aircraft made recently on Treves, among other places, by way of reprisal for the recent bombardment of English towns, is by no means the first experience of war that has befallen a town which is one of the oldest in Germany (writes H.R. in the “Field”). Treves saw the Romans fighting the Treveri, a tribe of the Belgae, who gave the town its name (Augusta Treverorum to the Romans, Treves to tire English and French, Trier to the Germans). It was the centre of the Roman defence against the Franks,

was sacked by the Northmen, held in turn by French and Spaniards during the Thirty Years’ War, and ceded to Prussia after the Napoleonic wars. Now the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop in a department of Rhenish Prussia, Treves is pleasantly situated on the tortuous Moselle, surrounded by vineclad hills, only a few miles from the frontier of Luxemburg. To a student of history and geography it is best known nowadays as the town which contains more Roman architectural remains than other north of the Alps. But this historical renown is far surpassed by the fame which Treves enjoys among Roman Catholics as the cathedral city guarding that most miraculous reWb, tbe Holy Coat (der heilige Rock), believed to be a seamless robe of the Saviour. An object of acrimonious dispute ever since Luther’s days, doubted by many venerated by more, the Holy Coat is nevertheless a great material asset to Treves, and attracted m 1891 during a six weeks’ exhibition no fewer than two million pilgrims from all parts of the world. This relic is kept in the cathedral, the nucleus of Which consists of a quadrangular basilica, built in the fourth century. Another basilica, built entirely of brick, and dating from the same period, served for some centuries as the seat of Frankish kings, and is now used as a Protestant church. Of the Roman Palace—supposed to have been built by tbe Emperor Constantine for his mother Helena, who presented Treves with the Holy Coat there are still left a fine tower and the subterranean passages for servants, while the heating arrangements are clearly discernible.

Being, at its most flourishing period, tbe administrative centre for the Roman province of Gaul, Britain, and Spain, called by some the second metropolis of the Empire and “Rome beyond the Alps,” Treves naturally boasted of an amphitheatre, built probably under Trajan, and accommodating 7000-8000 spectators. The ruins are now surrounded by vineyards The remains of the Roman Bath, although below tbe street level, still indicate the plan of the es-

tablishment, consisting of the hall for cold baths, trepid baths, hot baths, and a heated swimming basin. The oldest among the Roman remains are some of the buttresses and piers of the bridge across the Moselle; they were probably built at the beginning of the Christian era. The most imposing and complete Roman monument, however, is the famous Porta Nigra, a huge fortified gateway built by the Emperor Maxlmian. The name Porta Nigra is variously explained. According to one account the gate is called black, because of the dark colour of the huge blocks of the sandstone of which it is composed. Another explanation is that funerals used to pass through the gate. A local name for it is Simeonstor (the gate of Simon, a hermit, Who lived there in self-imposed close confinement). Although of some importance as an industrial town and centre of the trade in Moselle vintages, Treves has never again occupied such a prominent position as it held under the Roman Empire, or later on as the seat of one of the Spiritual Electors, who exercised a considerable temporal power over a broad strip of territory along the Saar and Moselle, including the towns of Coblenz and Lahnstein.