THE TOURIST and TRAVELLER

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1457, 28 March 1918, Page 36

THE TOURIST and TRAVELLER

HERE AND THERE.

A London cable states that the King received Commander Worsley and Lieutenant Stenhouse, members of the Shackleton Expedition, and conferred upon them the D.S.O. ♦ * * * Dr. L. Serpell, son of the Rev. S. Serpell, late of Masterton, who was killed at the front recently, met his death while going off duty. He was just leaving the trenches when he was killed by shrapnel. # * » * On the occasion of his retirement from the chairmanship of the executive of the New Zealand War Contingent Association, Lord Plunket was presented by the members of the executive with a paper weight in the form of a silver kiwi, standing on a silver pedestal. * * * * Sir William Cullen, Chief Justice and Lieutenant - Governor of New South Wales, and Lady Cullen are spending a holiday in New Zealand.

Mr. David Mills, of Sydney, was in Auckland last week, staying at the Grand Hotel.

Mr. Joseph Mandel, a well - known citizen of Wellington, died last week after undergoing an operation for acute appendicitis. He had an interest in several hotels in New Zealand. His eldest son, Dr. Leo Mandel, is a member of the staff of the Royal Naval Hospital, Edinburgh.

Dr. R. A. Cameron, president of the Municipal Golf Club, Wellington, was presented with a memento in appreciation of the work he had done towards “preserving the rights of citizens to indulge in Sunday recreation on the town reserves.” The presentation was made at the opening of the Municipal Golf Club’s season.

The Waimate Acclimatisation Council is urging the Minister of Internal Affairs to extend the season for quinnat salmon to the end of May owing to the late run of that fish this year.

Mr. E. J. Allen, manager of the Nelson branch of the Bank of New Zealand, w’ll retire , from the service of the bank in about three months’ time, after a connection with it that has extended over 44 years. Mr. Allen will be succeeded at Nelson by Mr. A. L. T. Jones, of Ashburton.

The new president of the Headmasters’ Association, Mr. W. G. Rushbrooke. St. Olave’s School, Tower Hill, S.E., at the annual meeting in the London Guildhall, said the war has helped to create a keener and more general desire for education than has existed since 1870, and secondary schools are overflowing. This, he added, is a sign that the nation is renewing its youth.

Private D. Bullock, a Christchurch was wounded at the battle of Meswas wounded at thfe battle of Messines, being struck on the head and buried by a shell the first night he was in the front trenches. The wound in the head healed, but the shock affected his speech to the extent.’of depriving him for some months of the power to articulate at all. He got sufficiently well on the journey back to New Zealand to be able to make himself just audible, and with difficulty, understood. Visiting some relatives in Gore recently, says a southern exchange, Private Bullock was one of a party thrown out of a trap through an accident, which was a blessing in disguise, for it gave him back his speech.

The Union Steam Ship Company’s head office has been advised that Mr. A. A. Winsloe and Mr. W. S. Hyslop, chief and second officers respectively of a Union Company steamer in the Imperial Government’s service in the Atlantic, were drowned several weeks ago while endeavouring to secure a ship’s boat which had broken adrift in heavy weather. Both the men had many friends in every port in New Zealand. Mr. Winsloe was 36 years old, and was born in Melbourne. Mr. Hyslop was a native of Glasgow, and was 29 years old. Both were single men.

One would hardly credit this, but it is true (says the “Western Star,” Riverton). A local boy, on active service in France, while watching German prisoners passing by, was greeted with the salutation: “Whatho, how’s Tuatapere?” Glancing in the direction of the voice, he was astonished to recognise a German with whom he had worked in the bush out west.

At Sir Thomas Mackenzie’s reception in London to Colonel Rhodes, the New Zealand Red Cross Commissioner, many New Zealanders were present. Trooper Clutha Mackenzie handed to Major Brandon the Imperial Air Fleet Committee’s bronze medallion in recognition of his efforts in bringing down two Zeppelins.

How Captain Murray Urquhart, of Taranaki, gained the Military Cross is shown in the “London Times” of January 15, as follows: —“For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when commanding his company in an attack. In spite of no barrage being available, and of the fact that the enemy’s position was exceptionally strong and heavily wired, he so admirably arranged his plans that he overcame the stubborn opposition which was offered, and captured the position, killing and capturing numbers of the enemy. After this was effected, he held the position for 24

hours under a violent bombardment, displaying the same splendid coolness and courage throughout and greatly inspiring his men by his personal example under very trying conditions.”

It has now become necessary for shops in England to obtain a license to sell margarine. This is being done, an English paper says, to get a more effective control over distribution and prices. Offenders against various orders issued for the protection of the public are likely to have their licenses cancelled, which means that they will be put out of business.

A truly wonderful letter was to be sold at Sotheby’s recently (says the “London Sphere”). It may sell for anything between £2OOO and £3OOO. A letter by the same writer sold recently for £1025. But this is the last letter of Mary Queen of Scots, written on the night before her execution, although not actually signed, it would seem, until the morning of that tragedy, for it is dated two hours after midnight, and she was executed at eight o’clock that morning, February 8, 1587. Mr. Froude, who cannot have seen it, speaks of it as “a few lines to the King of France,” but it is actually a letter of three folio pages. The letter is most pathetic; the denial of her request to have the ministrations of her

own confessor, and her inability to provide for her faithful servants, evidently weighed heavily on the sad Queen. Her allusion to her son is as follows: “As to my son, I recommend him to you in so much as he shall deserve it. I cannot answer for him.” This son, afterwards James VI. of Scotland and James I. of England, made little effort of save his mother.

Medical men the world over are agreed that one outcome of the present war will be an astonishing addition to surgical and medical knowledge and experience. In surgery particularly some extraordinary achievements have been recorded (says the “Adelaide Advertiser”). A case in point is Corporal C. Merrill, who served on Gallipoli with the 9th Light Horse, and, while there, was wounded by a bullet in the head. The missile entered the forehead, passed through the left eye, which it destroyed, and lodged in the antrum, a little under the surface of the skin. It remained in that position —meanwhile having caused Corporal Merrill almost constant pain—until a fortnight ago, when it was skilfully extracted by Colonel A. M. Cudmore, at the Keswick Hospital, South Australia. The bullet might

have been removed by making an incision in the face, but that would have involved leaving a scar. Consequently the operation, which proved to be eminently satisfactory, was done by way of the mouth, and now Corporal Merrill has an interesting souvenir for the decoration of his watchchain.

Anglers will be interested in the following paragraph from the London “Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News” of a recent issue: A great fuss has been made because the quinnat salmon (a Pacific species) has been caught in New Zealand — possibly there are rivers in New Zealand where the presence of quinnat would not be detrimental to the wonderful trout-fishing—the trout is a sporting fish in every sense of the word, and when he grows to salmon proportions as he does sometimes in these waters, he is a salmon in every sense of the word, except that of species. He is a sea-going trout, and there obtains his size, just as the salmon does. The Atlantic salmon has been tried many times in New Zealand, with failure for every result. He grows well in fresh water, goes out to sea, and that is the end of it. He never returns. On the contrary, the quinnat salmon has returned, but whether he is worthy the fatted calf that is being sacrificed in his honour is very doubtful. If he

establishes himself in any river it will be at the expense of every kind of fish. New Zealand has had unexpected good luck in the making up of a breed of trout with habits created in some way by the translations, habits that were never expected, for their origin was not our sea trout, but our brook trout, which have an annual inclination to go to sea and never do go there unless they are washed out in mighty spates. The catching with rod and line of a quinnat salmon in fresh water is quite exceptional, so that, as a sporting fish he is not going to improve New Zealand. In his rivers he runs up only, spawns, and dies, and blocks the finest rivers in the world with putrid fungus-growing matter. Is that a good thing for the trout that have become the natural fish of the river? I cannot answer that question; it has to be tried to find out, but that which is much easier to answer is that the young quinnat will require more food than the young trout, and, being stronger, they will get it. So that once more, and in a very exaggerated form, the hostility of the trout and salmon interests crop up on the other side of the world.

A swordfish with a broken sword recently captured at Russell has been proved to be the one which rammed the launch Virginia on February 19. Upon examination it was found that the original sword, about two feet in length, had been broken almost exactly in half. The fish weighed 2671 b, measured 10 feet 3 inches from the tip of the sword to the tail, and 44 inches in girth. The fish is to be preserved.

The French Army General Order,

No.’ 62, contains the names of five British officers who have received special mention “for exceptional services rendered to the French Army during the Flanders offensive of 1917.” Among the names is that of Captain K. R. Park, Royal Flying Corps, youngest son of Professor Park, of Dunedin, and formerly of Thames.

Mr. A. E. Cheal, assistant tramway engineer to the Wanganui Borough Council, has been appointed to the position of works manager of the British War Department’s wireless and telephone factory No. 3. Mr. Cheal joined the Auckland aviation school in January, 1917, qualified for his pilot’s certificate in the course of a few months, and then sailed for England, and, after passing several examinations in aeronautics, signalling, etc., was on the eve of crossing to the firing line, when he received orders to take up the above position.

Sir James Allen, Minister for Defence. visited the Thames last week and presented Military Medals for gallantry on the field to Mr. Francis, father of Dance-Sergeant Francis, and Mr. Whitehouse, father of Poti Whitehouse. Both winners of the medals lost their lives, and Sir James Allen spoke highly of their meritorious conduct as an incentive to others.

Ernest Wild, who was a member of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition has been killed on a minesweeper in the Mediterranean.