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New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1475, 1 August 1918, Page 36

HERE AND THERE.

Mr. E. J. Righton, secretary to the New Zealand Picture Supplies, Ltd., is leaving on a visit to America by the Makura. * * * • Lieut. H. Mackenzie Douglas, a well-known solicitor of Wanganui, has returned to New Zealand. He saw a good deal of fierce fighting, and has been mentioned for his “conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty.” He is severely wounded in the right forearm.

Mr. F. J. Burgess, S.M., whose retirement from the Bench has been announced, entered the Justice Department in 1868 as a cadet in the Thames Warden’s Court, and was subsequently clerk of the court and mining registrar. In 1894 he was appointed clerk of the court in Auckland, and six years later he was appointed a stipendiary magistrate in Central Otago, returning in 1908 to the Thames district, where he was also warden. Since 1916 Mr. Burgess has been chairman of the First Military Service Board in Auckland, which position he will continue to hold. * * * *

Mr. James Marchbanks, engineer for the Wellington Harbour Board, will leave New Zealand on a business visit to America this month. As a farewell gift he received a handsome set of pipes from his fellow-members. Mr. Marchbanks is to study at first hand matters concerning the modern way of handling coal and cargo at the most improved ports in America.

Lieut. Garth R. Jackson, of Masterton, has been appointed to the staff of Major-General Sir Edward Chaytor, at the New Zealand Headquarters, Cairo.

Sir Washington Ranger, the blind solicitor who has just been knighted by the King, is the legal adviser of the Salvation Army. He is totally blind, but moves about and works with great ease.

As the streams in the Waimarino district were depleted of trout by the recent bush fires, a consignment of 2000 yearling rainbow trout is being despatched from the Masterton fish ponds.

Mr. W. Yates, the secretary of the Greymouth Bowling Club, was tendered a farewell social at Greymouth on the occasion of his leaving the Coast to take up his residence in Christchurch.

Sympathetic reference to the death of Chaplain-Captain Dore was made at the annual meeting of the Manawatu Patriotic Society by the Mayor (Mr. J. A. Nash). The Mayor stated that Father Dore had proved himself a soldier and a man, and had done his duty on Gallipoli. In his selfsacrificing effort to save the life of another man he was shot, being very seriously wounded. He was sent back to New Zealand some time ago, and although he had borne his suffering patiently and all possible had been done for him, he had passed away. His was a great and noble life, and men of all creeds who had been associated with him had spoken in the highest terms of the work he had accomplished for the soldiers. His death was a great loss to the country. Inspired by the highest ideals, it was sad indeed that he should be cut off at such an early age. The Mayor concluded by moving a vote of condolence with the friends and relatives of Father Dore .the motion being carried in respectful silence.

The Australian Red Cross Society has received a cablegram recording the remarkable escape of Private J. L. Newman, who was taken prisoner at Lagnicourt on April 15, 1917. He was interned at Heilberg camp, in East Prussia. After many hardships he reached Russia and visted Petrograd, ultimately making his way to Archangel.

England has already provided work for 400,000 discharged soldiers, 60 per cent, of whom have returned to their old employers.

“You are a single man?” queried Captain Beale of an appellant, in the Gisborne Appeal Court. “That’s not my fault,” replied the appellant. “You know how to remedy it easily,” was the sharp retort of Captain Beale, amid laughter. * $ $ * “We cannot win the war and save democracy unless we dictate terms to Germany on German soil,” said ex-president Taft, in a speech at New York. * * * * Mr. Alec Lorimer, Australasian representative of the Paramount Service of America, has been on a brief business visit to Wellington.

A pleasant function took place at the Soldiers’ Club, Hamilton, when Private W. H. Frye, of the N.Z.M.C., was presented with a set of ebony military hair brushes and shaving outfit. In making the presentation on behalf of the Waikato Returned Soldiers’ Association, the vice-president (Mr. T. Reynolds) referred to the great assistance rendered by Private Frye in the arranging of concerts, etc., and wished him good fortune whilst on active service, and a safe return to New Zealand.

Lieutenant H. C. Wilkinson, M.C., who has been granted six months’ furlough, is a son of Mr. C. A. Wilkinson, M.P. for Egmont, In addition to his British decoration, Lieutenant Wilkinson has a Belgian award for gallantry. He is clue back in England in October.

At the N.Z. Council of Agriculture, sitting in Wellington, Sir Walter Buchanan brought forward the following remit from the Wairarapa: — “That the conference is of the opinion that the protection on opossums is not in the interests of the Dominion.” The mover said that rabbits were bad enough, but they could be fenced off —opossums could not be fenced off. Because some misguided individuals had brought opossums into the country some fruit farmers were suffering heavily as a result of the appetite of the opossum. Instead of being protected these animals should not be allowed to be harboured by any person. Parliament should deal seriously with this question next session, as the opossum was a dire enemy of the fruit industry. Other speakers differed and said the opossum was not a menace to the fruit industry, but instead a national asset in other respects. The remit was lost.

Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., has been appointed chairman of the Licensing Committee and Registrar of. the Licensing Committee and Registrar of the Supreme Court at Wanganui, vice Mr. J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M. * * * Captain Hales, who has been wharfinger for the Union Steamship Company at Greymouth for eleven years, has received notice of his transfer to Sydney. Prior to going to Greymouth Captain Hales had charge of the Union Company’s steamer Mahinapua, and before that he was in command of the Moeraki and Oonah. * * * * Mr. H. D. Driver, of Mount Eden, Auckland, has received advice that his son, Private E. H. Driver, who was reported missing about three months ago, is a prisoner of war in Germany. Private Driver enlisted in the Eighteenth Reinforcements, and served continuously in Flanders for 18 months, taking part in the battles of Messines and Passchendaele. He had high scholastic merits, and had passed the first section for the B.A. degree at the time of his enlistment.

He is a New Zealander of fourteen years’ residence. He has just returned from a visit to Australia (says

the Feilding “Star”). He was filling his pipe from a packet of tobacco he had bought here in Feilding. “See that!” he cried, as he pushed the packet under our nose. “Cost me one-and-three here. Oh, I’m not kicking against Feilding. Same price all over New Zealand. It’s the exploiters I’m kicking against. That same packet costs only a shilling in Australia. Why the threepence difference? Ask the exploiters—blame your Board of Trade. Now, listen: Over in Australia, the merchants jumped up the price of butter. The public protested to the Price of Commodities Commission set up by the Federal Government as a sort of Cost-of-Living Appeal Board. That is what the New Zealand Board of Trade is supposed to be. But does it do anything? I ask you.”

Mr. Life Septimus Dacre, who died in Auckland recently, was the seventh son of the late Captain Dacre, one of the earliest pioneers of New Zealand. He was keenly interested in athletic sports, and represented the Auckland province in football and running. He was also an enthusiastic oarsman, and was a member of the Auckland Rowing Club for many years, and was one of a representative crew that was never beaten.

One day I saw the Australians march up sth Avenue to the strains of “Australia Will Be There,” their flag saluted as punctiliously as if it were “Old Glory,” writes an American correspondent to the Christchurch “Press.” Every loan booth tried to get a few “Anzacs” or “Blue Devils” to autograph bonds, and very proud and important they looked while inscribing their names. The Australians also worked hard with the British recruiting mission. When off duty they had only to stand a minute in the street, and they were mobbed by admirers, girls asking for autographs, and men offering pleasing hospitalities, with the exception of “come and have a drink.” All I spoke to seemed quite moved by the graciousness and heartiness of their reception; they had not dreamt of anything like it. The New York “Times” said: “The city is theirs, and all in it they can find or we can offer. Not only are they the guests of the city; they are also the guests of every citizen who meets them, and all are eager to play the role jf host. To spend money for them is a privilege eagerly sought; to take it from them is something to be done only under protest. New York honours itself by honouring them, and

how well, how modestly, how courteously do they bear themselves in circumstances that might easily turn heads less steady than theirs!”

Speaking with regard to repatriation at the annual meeting of the Second Division League in Wellington. the president (Mr. R. A. Armstrong) said he understood the present Minister for Lands was doing good work in connection with the placing of returned soldiers on the land. It was a great mistake, however, to practically force men to go on the land whether they had an aptitude for farming or not. “Farming is a gift,” said Mr. Armstrong. “For instance, a man might wish to paint a picture, but it doesn’t follow he could do so. Well, the same applies to farming.”