COMFORTS FOR OUR SOLDIERS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1342, 13 January 1916, Page 40

COMFORTS FOR OUR SOLDIERS.

At the time of the New Year, Mr. J. Rolleston, proprietor of the Grand Hotel, Auckland, made the suggestion to his guests that instead of giving the usual New Year celebrations for which the Grand is so well known

it would be better in these dolorous times if the money were expended in comforts for our soldiers at the front, and the guests heartily fell in with the suggestions, and contributions in the room were made to the sum given by Mr. Rolleston, which soon reached £.376, and before the fund is finally closed it is expected that quite £4OO will be in hand. Of this sum £3OO has been forwarded to General Godley to use for the benefit of our boys who are fighting under hard conditions in the trenches. In connection with this sum Mr. Rolleston has received from the Prime Minister the following telegram, saying:—“I have this morning received the following telegram from General Godley, Ca’ro: ‘Prime Minister, Wellington. I acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of December 30. Will you please thank, in suitable terms, the proprietor and guests of the Grand Hotel, Auckland, for their generous gift, which will be disposed of in such manner as desired.’ ” Mr. Massey added: —“I have much pleasure in

conveying General Godley’s telegram to you, and in asking you to accept and convey to the guests in your hotel who contributed to your New Year Comforts Fund this appreciation of the generous gift, which I had great pleasure in forwarding to General Godley on your and their behalf.” The following is the list of subscriptions paid or promised to the fund: — Mr. E. W. ’ Groome, £100; Grand Hotel, £5O; Hon. A. M. Myers, £25; Mrs. V. Riddiford and Mr. G. L. Stead, each £2O; Mr. W. G. Stead, Mr. V. Riddiford, Mr. A. E. Whyte, Mr. H. Gillies, Mr. Austin (Sydney), Mr. Burnett Cohen (Sydney), Mr. J. B. Harcourt, Mr. E. J. Watt and Mr. Troutbeck, each £10; Mrs. Thorne George, £6; Rt. Hon. W. F. Massey and Mr. G. P. Donnelly, each £5 55.; Mr. S. Thorne George, Mr. J. W. Abbott, Dr. Palmer, Mr. J. B. McEwen, Mr. A. Duncan, Sir G'eorge Clifford, Hon. A. H. Whittingham (Queensland), and Mr. A. Cleave, each £5; H.H.G. and

G.L.F., each £3 35.; Mr. Rothenberg, £2 25.; Mr. L. J. Denniston, Mr. F. D. Thomson, and Mr. Jeffery, each £1 Is.; Mr. D. W. Duthie, Miss Marsden and Mr. and Mrs. R. S. Sinclair, each £1; Mr. Gordon, 10s.; total, £376 11s.

Word has been received that Mr. George Cecil Russell, a former wellknown resident of Wanganui, died recently in Melbourne.

Amongst the guests who arrived in Auckland last week and are staying at the Grand Hotel are the following:—Mr. R. Thorn, Christchurch; Mr. F. Dyer, Rotorua; Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Allen, Wellington; Mr. R. Cunningham, ’ Takapuna; Mr. F. G. Mathews, Wellington; Mr. and Mrs. A. Maysmor, Wellington; Mr. E. Friedlander, Pokeno; Mr. E. J. Arlow, Wellington; Mr. and Mrs. H. Friedlander, Ashburton; Dr. Pearson, Christchurch; Mr. G. Nordon, Christchurch; Mr. N. W. Stephenson, Vancouver; Mr. C. Maudsley, Wellington; Mr. Vernon Reed, Bay of Islands; Mr. G. Walker, Whangarei; Mr. and Mrs. J. B. McEwan, Wellington; Mr. R. D. Hanlon, Wellington; Mrs. A. M. Jamieson, Timaru; Mr. G. Booth, Christchurch; Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Miller, King Country; Mr. A. Grose, Melbourne; Mr. and Mrs. McKay, Napier; Mr. H. A. Smith, Sydney; Mr. and Mrs. C. Campbell, Sydney; Mr. J. A. Latimer, Sydney; Mr. O. Gordon, Sydney; Mr. R. Young, Melbourne; Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Jack, Wellington; Mr. A. B. Williams, Wellington; Master Williams, Wellington; Mr. and Mrs. Drury, Wellington; Mr. Pearshouse, Wellington; Mr. A. S. Elworthy, Timaru; Mr. J. Hogarth, Melbourne; Mr. and Mrs. Austin, Sydney.

The guests who were staying at the Central Hotel last week were: Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes, Melbourne; Mr. and Mrs. Marshall, Sydney; Mr. J. D. Kibby, Sydney; Mr. C. F. Smuts, Sydney; Mr., Mrs. and Miss Herman, Sydney; Mr. and Mrs. Grainger, Sydney; Mr. Geo. Fleetwood, Christchurch; Mr. and Mrs. Urquhart, New Plymouth; Mr. A. Smith, Wellington; Mr. and Mrs. Charnock, Raetihi; Misses Wise, Wellington; Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, Matamata; Mr. T. M. Burt, Matamata; Father Finn, Te Kuiti; Mr. W. Richmond, Wellington; Mr. D. W. Dorrington, Dannevirke; Mr. R. Leslie Smith, Dannevirke; Mr. R. Fraser, Dannevirke; Mr. G. Beatson, Gisbourne; Mr. T. G. Roulston, Hastings; Mr. M. B. Grimstone, Hastings; Mr. A. D. Crisp, Gisborne; Mr. P. B. Bonsfield, Gisborne; Mr. C. A. Crisp, Gisborne; Dr. Hyde, Waihi; Mr. Corry, Hinuera; Mr. and Mrs. Chambers, Opotiki; Miss M. Lucas, Australia; Mr. M. Wells, Cambridge; Mr. N. Banks, Cambridge; Mr. Simms, Wellington; Mr. and Mrs. Steadman, Whangarei; Mr. J. G. Gow, Hamilton; Mrs. Rogerson, Sydney.

Woolwich Arsenal employs over .15,000 men, covers 3000 acres, boasts twenty to 30 miles of railway, has rits own wharf with two piers, its own canal, its own hospital and surgery, between 200 and 300 workshops, and its own gasworks. .

Sir E. O. Gibbes, Bart., Secretary of Education, who will retire from the Public Service on superannuation at the end of June, after three months’ leave of absence, was born in Colchester, England, in 1850. He is the third son of the late Sir Samuel Os-borne-Gibbes, and is the third baronet since the creation in 1775. Sir Edward Gibbes came to New Zealand when a boy, and joined the Government Service in Wellington in 1871. In social life he was a prominent Mason, and had always taken a lively interest in cricket, football, rowing .and bowling.

Anthony Wilding’s memory is to be kept green by the tennis players of the Dominion. At the meeting of the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association, the secretary stated that there was in hand the sum of £2O, not including a large amount collected by the Canterbury Association. It was decided to close the lists in February and to advise all associations (other than Canterbury) that an early call should be made for subscriptions to this very laudable object. The form the memorial is to take will be largely governed by the response made to the appeal. The matter will be referred to at the February meeting of the council.

Mr. Alfred Bunz, the well-known Christchurch musician, who has just returned from a trip to England, in conversation with a reporter, stated lie had never, except on one occasion, exper.enced any embarrassment on account of his possession of an ostensible German name. It was when he applied for a passport that his antecedents were made the subject of comment, and when he was

able to show the authorities that his father was really a Dane, being a native of Schleswig-Holstein, afterwards annexed by the Germans, and had lived in New Zealand for over half a century, and that he himself was born in this country and a genuine New Zealander in every way, he found that all concerned were most gracious, and could not do enough to assist him in every way possible. “There is no doubt,” added Mr. Bunz, “that a New Zealand nationality is the finest passport possible.”

Travellers who leave Australia have a good deal more trouble to get their passports than is the case in New Zealand, and the resultant document, when they get it, is sufficiently large and elaborate to explain all the delay. It measures nearly two feet in width, and is divided on its face into ten pages, so folded like a map as. to come into a handy stiff cover bearing the Commonwealth’s coat of arms. On the passport appears the signature of the Governor-General authorising the bearer to leave the country. A photograph of the traveller, almost cabinet size, has to be provided, and underneath is the bearer’s signature. Space is set aside for the photo of the traveller’s wife, if he has one, and her usual signature. Nine regulations which have to be observed are printed on the passport, together with some notes on the subject. The document also bears details of the traveller’s age, birth-place, height, the character of his forehead —if he is low-browed the document says so candidly—the colour of his eyes, hair, complexion, the kind of nose, mouth and chin Nature has provided, and any special peculiarities. Ample space is provided on the back for endorsement, and the document is good for two years. It costs ten shillings, and as a most elaborate souvenir of wartime is worth the money. New Zealand’s passport is a trifle by .comparison. It goes upon a piece of paper of small note size, but, like the Australian document, has to bear the

signature of his Excellency the Governor, showing that permission to leave our shores at this time is officially regarded as no trifling matter.

Little known, living in a primitive way, the Samoyeds, one of the many peoples who make up the vast domain of Russia, are so far removed from the rest of the world that it is very doubtful if they have yet heard of the conflict raging in Europe. The Samoyeds are a Mongolian people, who live in the wide sweep of tundra country that reaches from the mouth of the White Sea to the northern line where the forests vanish. They are reindeer herders, fishermen, and hunters of seal. It is through their surpluses in these three things that they come into contact with the Russian trader, who visits them in their far northern centres, or whom they make long journeys to visit at the city of Archangel. Reindeer skins, sealskins, furs, fish and reindeer meat are sold by the Samoyeds to their Russian neighbours, for the Russian official and the Russian trader are established in widely scattered outposts here in the north country, isolated from the world,, many hundreds of miles from railroads, telephones, and telegraphs, and beyond the reach of the press. The Yurak Samoyeds, that branch which dwells in European Russia, it is estimated counts in all only about 6000. Of these 5000 live in the European tundra. They are short and stocky, with faces much more flattened than the Finns, with thick lips, black hair, flat noses, and dark complexions. They are said to be a fearless and warlike people, though it is generations since they have given any evidence of aggressive temperament. In their dealings with the stranger they are described as mild and scrupulously honest. The Samoyeds are a poor people, but very thrifty. They eke out a precarious existence in their inhospitable country, and have learned through necessity to eat anything which grows there. They eat even the wolves that menace the safety

of their reindeer and of themselves upon their seal and fur-hunting trips. Besides meat and fish, the Samoyeds have a plain, hard, black bread as staple, and another bread, which is baked of putrid fish and rye meal.

Among the many mental pictures which a trip to Europe afforded a few years back, says a writer in an exchange, there are few which recall themselves more vividly than those of the lonely little shrines on the edge of dusty highways between the rows of grape vines, widespreading vineyards, on distant hills, and the peasant woman, weatherbeaten, time-scarred, wending her way towards the figure of the crucified Christ, or the kindlyfaced virgin, and, kneeling down, murmuring her petitions, telling her rosary, praying for strength to toil on, aye, and receiving it, if the look on the sun-browned face as she arose and returned to her work counted for anything. In the early morning, when the sun shone high overhead, when he sank beyond the purple hills, in the evening shadows, and in the pale moonlight, the same picture might have been seen. And because we, who live in other lands, and make Gur petitions within consecrated buildings, or the privacy of our own rooms, see never such scenes they have stamped themselves upon the minds of those who have beheld, and are recalled in the twinkling of an eye. Somehow, to me, they ever seem Christmas and Easter, pictures associated with the coming and passing of the Master. They will be seen in many places not again, shells, machine guns and sacrilegious hands have razed even these sacred things to the ground, and in fair France and rural Belgium the gentle-eyed, weary-fflaced supplicants have fled —whither? Some will kneel never again before any earthly shrine. Some will wonder why the piteous virgin turned deaf ears to their cry for help. Others will believe the crucified Christ has forgotten them, and the fiends of hell itself been loosed among them.

Mr. Collett, Government Tour.’st Agent at Christchurch, states that quite a large number of people have gone this season to the Franz Josef Glacier, the number of ladies being especially noticeable. A certain number of those booked are returning v:a the Copland Pass to the Hermitage, and home by Fairlie, which makes a spienckd round trip. One gentleman, Mr. Humphrey, late runholder of Kurow, although over three score and ten, is riding r.ght frmo Waiho Gorge, through the Haast Pass, to the head of Lake Wanaka, about 250 miles. This is a glorious trip, and well worth the taking. Mr. Collett thinks that when the tr’p to the glaciers is accelerated by the bridging of some of the worst r.vers. it will be one of the most popular and beautiful trips in New Zealand.

In “Forty Years in Constantinople” Sir Edwin Pears tells some interesting stories of the dogs of Constantinople, who, before the Young Turks undertook their extermination, swarmed everywhere in the streets of the city, ownerless, unwanted and uncared for. One of their characteristics was to run in packs, each pack quartering a special district of the city, and of this trait Sir Edwin Pears tells the following story: —During those days a boy of my acquaintance became possesed of a fluffy Maltese spaniel pup. Now the rule among the dogs was that no animal not free of their quarter should pass through their territory without being attacked. He therefore took the pup in his arm (when he went in the morning to feed the dogs), distributed his bread as usual, and the dogs came round, smelt the pup, and evidently made him free of the confraternity. From that time he was allowed to go into the streets, and could roam amongst the dogs as he wished. On one occasion he passed the boundary line which by canine consent existed around their quarter. Immediately he was attacked by the dogs of the quarter beyond the line.

He set up a cry of distress, and at once all the dogs in our quarter rushed to his aid, and he returned within his boundaries triumphantly.

“The first time I met M. Venizelos,” writes Harold Spender, “I was frankly at a loss to explain his great fame and achievement. In his sombre suit of customary black, bespectacled and bearded, M. Venizelos seemed more like a professor than a Prime Minister. His social manner is mild and kindly. As he conversed I passed his dazzling record through my mind, and I was amazed. Was this gentle, softspeaking man the hero who had fought in the Cretan hills, and driven a Royal Prince into the sea? Was this the chosen and adored of that most ‘electric’ people in the world, the Athenians? Was this the saviour of a people? But one day, as we were talking, the whole inner spirit of the man flashed out on me. It was before the second Balkan war, and we were speaking of the ominous movements on the part of the Bulgarian troops. His whole figure straightened, and his eyes flashed fire. ‘Never, if I can help it, shall one Balkan nation shed the blood of its brother!’ Well, he failed. But there I had come across the real centre of passion and power. It was his enthusiasm for unity—unity in his own country, which he had achieved; unity in the Balkans, which he almost achieved, but which now again lies shattered by intrigue and ambition.”

“The traveller in America cannot help being impressed by the difference existing between public opinion and the official attitude regarding the war,” said Mr. Hugh J. Ward to a Sydney pressman on his return from his trip to America. “While the latter is strictly neutral, the man in the street is at no pains to conceal his views. Apart from those of Teutonic origin, the cause of the Central Powers is without support. Barring the Hearst press and the German papers,

the weight of journalistic opinion is on the side of the Allies. When the Anglo-French loan was being negotiated, the whole of the reputable press of America was behind it. One can get the press views quickly in New York by reason of the practice of the editorial comment of the country on any big issue being summarised in some of the journals. The New York ‘Sun’s’ statement early in the war, to the effect that it was so neutral it didn’t care who licked Germany, just about sizes up the general feeling. There are a great many who act on their sympathies, with the result that a fairly extensive boycott of Germanmade goods is being carried on. One also may gather plenty of evidence proving that a great number of Americans are fighting with the British and French. Hardly a day passes without American casualties being chronicled. I recently met Mr. Cosmo Hamilton, the English dramatist, in New York. He was enjoying a fewweeks’ rest from his work as a flight commander with the British Aviation Corps. ‘Shortly before I left London,’ he told me, ‘I wandered down on the wharves one day, and there were some Canadians in khaki seated there yarning. I addressed one of them. ‘Canadian?’ I asked him. ‘Sure,’ he replied, ‘from Chicago!’ This, I assure you, is far from being an isolated case. General Sir Sam. Hughes, of Canada, publicly stated quite recently that he had received over 50,000 applications from Americans to enlist. Altogether Germans in America have plenty cause to brood over being Germans.”

Writing to a well-known public man in London, an equally well-known citizen of Copenhagen, in the course of a business letter, makes the following remarks: —“We are still flooded with ‘made in Germany’ proofs of our Southern neighbour’s irreproachable conduct both before and after the outbreak of the war. A wicked world has forced the innocent Germans to

defend themselves, and they deeply regret their share in the slaughter we are witnessing. Right up to the last, however, they honestly did their best to evade the conflict. But their bloodthirsty enemies would not let them rest *n peace. And now Germany is obliged to rearrange the map of Europe in such a manner that a lasting peace may be secured to humanity under her truly liberal and benevolent Imperial guidance. You will find this melody varied in most of the German publications, but few readers in neutral countries are blind and ignorant enough to be duped by such arguments. In Denmark and Norway the sympathies are with England and her Allies. In Sweden the Germans have a good many admirers amongst the upper classes, but the working population does not share these sympathies. Though the Germans boast of the ineffectiveness of the English blockade, we yet see many signs to the contrary. Lately German goods have teen packed in wrappers woven, of spun paper and tied with paper strings. We have been shocked at the Balkan development, but it seems to me that the attacks upon Sir Edward Grey and Mr. Asquith are very , unjust. Germany acts promptly without seriously consulting her Allies, whereas England necessarily is bound to wa.t until she has conferred with France, Russia and Italy. Besides, Germany has a decided advantage in the fact that Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria is a German and King Constantine of Greece is the German Emperor’s brother-in-law. Yet in spite of all new complications England and her Allies are sure to gain the victory in the end. It appears from the American telegrams that President Wilson expects to have a ‘say’ in the framing of the terms of peace. If the United States does not share in the fight, it would be strange to give her a voice in the peace arrangements. You ought to be able to manage that part of the business yourselves.”