TOURIST AND TRAVELLER

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1484, 12 December 1918, Page 36

TOURIST AND TRAVELLER

HERE AND THERE.

Mr. and Mrs. T. H. Lowry, of Hawke’s Bay, have returned from a visit to Australia. ♦ • • • Mr. Robert Arscott, proprietor of the Talisman Hotel, Katikati, died at the Waihi District Hospital from influenza. * ♦ * * . The highest hostelry in the British Isles is the Tan Hill Inn, in Yorkshire, which stands at an altitude of 1727 feet above the sea. • • * * Mr. J. W. Boynton, S.M., chairman of the First Wellington Military Service Board, has been appointed, a magistrate in the Auckland district. Mr. F. Pirani, of Feilding, a member of the New Zealand Press Delegation, is returning by the steamer Ayrshire, which is due at Auckland bn December 23. * * * * News been received by Mr. Robert Millar, Ponsonby, Auckland, that his son, Lieutenant Donald Millar, who was reported missing on October 1, has been repatriated, and that he is now in London. A tramway passenger was charged at the Christchurch Police Court with travelling before the expiration of the period of convalescence from influenza. He was ordered to pay ss. witnesses’ expenses. * * * • The landlord of a large New Plymouth shop has informed his tenant that he intends to forego the rent for the two weeks during which the shop has been closed on account of the epidemic. * • • • “Every soldier on leaving camp gets 28 days’ leave on full pay,” said Sir James Allen. “After that they will get leave without pay.” Major E. W. Sharman, for many' years port health officer at Auckland, has been appointed assistant medical officer for the Otago military district. « • * * The death occurred at New Plymouth last week of Mr. A. (“Sam”) Loveridge, at the age of 37 years. He was a well-known footballer, and had represented the Taranaki province. Captain R. M. Antill, of the 12th Battalion, King’s African Rifles, and son of the late Mr. W. Antill, of Kumeroa, Hawke’s Bay, has been awarded the Military Cross. Lieutenant-Colonel Sleeman, Director of Military Training, who has been seriously ill with influenza and pneumonia, is now making a good recovery. • ♦ • » Notwithstanding the enormous demands of the U.S. Government for shipbuilding materials, the shipments of iron and steel to Europe during the year ended June 30th last amounted to the value of no less than £220,000,000. • • ■ • Mr. W. M. Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia, in reply to a letter from the British Empire League, says he favours a “British origin mark” to identify genuine British goods. ♦ r • * Mr. Charles Hedley, F.L.S., of the Australian Museum, Sydney, has been visiting the Portobello marine fish hatchery, where he is making extensive collections of fishes and other marine animals. Mr. Hedley came over to New Zealand to accompany the Amokura on her trip to the Southern Islands, but when the steamer was put on the slip at Evans Bay, Wellington, for repairs, it was found that her hull was in such a condition that very extensive alterations and repairs will require to be made. The Government therefore had to cancel her southern trip. * * » « The Government has made an arrangement with the officer who is caring for the preservation of the graves of Maori War veterans that he shall perform a similar service in connection with the graves of members of the Expeditionary Force in New Zealand.

Mr. Denison Miller, Governor of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, who has been on a visit to England, Canada, and America, is a passenger on the Makura. The High Commissioner, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, recently unveiled at Whitehouse, Argyllshire, a silvergrey granite Celtic cross presented by Mr. Peter J. Mackie, of Glenreasdell, to the memory of men of the district killed in the war. Captain Harold L. Nathan, Royal Horse Artillery, arrived in Auckland last week from Suez by the Dorset. Captain Nathan, who is the only son of Mr. N. Alfred Nathan, of. Auckland, on the outbreak of war enlisted in England with King Edward’s Horse. After considerable- service he obtained a commission in the Royal Horse Artillery. He is at present on duty furlough, and probably will return to England shortly. Mr. Jennings (Taumarunui) in the House of Representatives, said that old-age pensioners had been penal-

ised merely because they had earned a little money in war-time during the scarcity of labour. They had been punished because they had made themselves useful. Sir Joseph Ward said that he would refer the matter to the Minister concerned. • • » • The most thorough organisation has been prepared by the Public Health Department in Sydney with a view to preventing the spread of the influ-enza-pneumonia scourge in the event of it getting past the quarantine barrier, which, it must be admitted, has a serious hole in it impossible to repair. That hole is provided by the human “carrier” —a person with a throat infected with the virulent organisms but who, for some obscure reason, is immune. No quarantine regulations can guard against him. All doctors and medical men attending the patients in quarantine are compelled to undergo inoculation, the vaccine used being a new one and the only one made direct from organisms taken from a patient. It is anticipated that it will be more effective than either the Commonwealth vaccine or that obtained from South Africa. It comprises a broth made from a culture of the organisms after they have been killed. About a quar-

ter of a million of the dead organisms is in each dose injected, and the result is to set up in the blood a strong resistance to actual infection by the disease itself. The dead organisms, as it were, give the resistant organisms that are a part of the human blood a sort of physical culture course, and put them wise as to how to meet the real enemy most effectively. It is one of the little privileges of the medical staff of the department to be the subjects upon whom new vaccines are tried before they are used on the public. * * • • Disinfectants are regarded as of little use in combating the influenza scourge (says the Sydney “Sun”). The germ dies rapidly away from human tissue. The fine spray from coughing, sneezing, and even talking, is the really dangerous path of the infection. And the medical officers are strongly of opinion that mouth and nose masks are practically an absolute protective against infection. In fact, they go so far as to say that if everyone wore a mask the epidemic would die out rapidly.

At the Hakataramea Hatchery last season (1917) 1,437,000 salmon eggs were collected, and 100,000 were taken at the Dobson River, making a total of 1,537,000 collected for the season, producing 1,525,000 eyed eggs. These were disposed of as follows: —25,000 were supplied to the Tasmanian Government; 500,000 were sent to the West Coast, to continue the work of stocking the Hokitika River. 500,000 to the hatchery at Maori Creek, to begin stocking the Wairau River (Marlborough); and 500,000 to Pembroke, to begin stocking the Molyneux River. The eggs hatched out well, and from the 500,000 sent to each 495,000 fry were hatched out and liberated in the tributaries of each river. * * ♦ . ♦ Mr. Nelson Wood, the well-known South Australian scenic artist, who some months ago toured New Zealand, recently exhibited at the Victoria Hall, Adelaide, a public exhibition of water colours of New Zealand scenery. These works, which represent many beauty spots in the Dominion, were painted during his tour. His collection includes water colours of the geysers, boiling lakes of Rotorua, the Cold Lakes, scenes of Mount Cook and the Southern Alps.

Referring to the issue of permits and passports, the annual report of the Department of Internal Affairs, presented to the House of Representatives, stated that the number of applications from persons for permission to leave New Zealand for other countries had been well maintained, ■a noticeable feature being the increased number of travellers to Canada, the United States of America, and Japan. The annual report of the Railway Department shows that the gross receipts per train mile from the North Island main lines and branches were 150.25 d., against 123.00 d. last year, an increase of 27.25 d. The South Island main line and branches produced a gross return of 149.25 d., against 124.75 d. last year, an increase of 24.50 d. « « « «. The British expedition, under Mr. F. W. Salisbury-Jones, to Spitzbergen, in the Arctic Ocean, recently returned to England. British interests have obtained command of deposits of coal and iron and the Union Jack now

flies over the island on which Germany had set longing eyes. All the coal and iron is outcrop (that is, on the surface). Germany had a wire- ' less installation on the island, set up by Prince Pless and Count Zeppelin in 1912, with direct communication to Berlin. That has been destroyed and the German wireless records brought back to England for examination. Mining engineers and miners have been left on the island to begin the work of getting the coal and iron, and next year 2000 Norwegian miners will be taken there. * * ♦ • An official of the Marconi Wireless Company states that a direct wireless communication of over 12,000 miles established between Carnarvon, North Wales, and Australia makes a record. The previous record was when Marconi at Buenos Aires in 1910 received a message from Clifden, County Galway, 6735 miles away. # * • • The Peters the Red who has signed Bolshevik death warrants of hundreds of men and women in Moscow is said to be the same Peters who was sus- • pected of being concerned with the Houndsditch murders in December, 1910, and the Sydney Street, London, affair in January, 1911. Jacob Peters

was born in 1886 in Courland, then part of Russia. He came to England in 1909 at the age of 23, when he got work. as a presser with a firm of wholesale second-hand clothes dealers, now of Whitechapel. In December, 1910, Peters was arrested on suspicion of being concerned, with a number of others, in the wilful murder of three police officers by shooting them at Houndsditch. With others he was committed for trial at the Central Criminal Court at the April sessions, 1911. The defence was an alibi, it having been suggested that Peters was mistaken for his cousin, Fritz Svaar, who was his double. Svaar was undoubtedly engaged in the murders. He lost his life in resisting arrest at Sydney Street in January, 1911. At the trial the judge said there was an element of doubt in the evidence, and Peters was acquitted. * * * * Sir Horace Marshall tyas been chosen as Lord Mayor of London for the coming year. He is hqad of the firm of Messrs. Horace Marshall and Son, publishers, newspaper agents, booksellers, and stationers. Before his election Sir Horace, in reply to Major Hawkins, promised his entire support to any further action which may be desirable against enemy aliens. A fete was held at Tottenham, London, in honour of Private R- E. Cruikshank, V.-C., of the London Scottish, formerly a Tottenham Boy Scout, who was presented with a gold watch, the gift of Messrs. Lipton, in whose employ he formerly was. Sir Robert Baden Powell, who was present, said that Cruikshank was shot down four times in his efforts to carry an important message after all his officers were killed. He did his job like a brother Scout and a splendid Briton, and had been true to the Scout tradition of playing the game for his side. * * v * Apparently in England in August last they were not only tipping who would win the war, but when it would be won. The following is an extract of a letter dated August 15, 1918, received by Mrs, Sid Gainsford, of Edward Street, Woollahra (N.S.W.), from her sister, Miss Fitzsimmons, residing at 136 Finchley Road, London: —“We are taking our victories very quietly—there is to be no glorification till peace is declared. I say that it will be on November 11 at 6.53 a.m. That is my guess on the question. Lots are picking out dates.” The armistice was actually signed at 5 a.m. on November 11, 1918, so that Miss Fitzsimmons was not two hours out. « • » * Each country now has its own repatriation problem, and, so far as Australia is concerned, it is estimated (states the “Post’s” Sydney correspondent) that nearly 200,000 men will have to be brought home. It is believed that it will take over a year tQ accomplish this. So far as can be ascertained, the total of enlistments in Australia since war broke out is 417,574. Of this number, approximately 330,000 have proceeded overseas, the majority of the remainder having been found unfit for active service after a period of preliminary training. The total number who volunteered, including medical rejects, is about 700,000. Up to the- end of September, 78,544 soldiers • had returned, wounded and invalided, of whom 68,344 have been discharged. A total number of 55,000 have lost their lives. While the troops are awaiting embarkation, they will be given the benefit of an extensive scheme of technical instruction of various kinds, and all university men whose studies were interrupted by the war will have an opportunity of attending some of the English universities. « * * When the scholars and their teachers assembled at the State school at Hansonville, a few miles from Wangaratta, recently, they found a Sinn Fein flag floating from the flag-pole. They proceeded to haul it down, but found that the running wires had been cut off high up, and could not be reached. The flag-pole was therefore cut down. * • * * * Speaking in the Legislative Council the Hon. G. M. Thomson urged that the Government should thoroughly develop the fishing industry of the Dominion. To this end advances should be made to bona fide fishermen for the purchase of boats and gear on the same lines as the Advances to Settlers Act. In years to

come, he said, this country would be- T come a great maritime nation, and it would have to undertake proper measures for its naval defence, either by the establishment of a local navy or increased contributions to the Imperial Navy. The problem of manning could be met by encouraging fishermen to become naval reservists. A large portion of the interest for the advances made to them in the manner he suggested could be worked

off by the fishermen serving in the naval reserve and undergoing training in lieu of payment. According to a London cable, advices from Tientsin state that Germany has started a trade war with China. German agents are busy booking contracts at ridiculously low prices and advising the Chinese to cancel existing contracts and not to buy from the Allies.

A new Record in fitting out the War Beetle (Standard B) in six days was „ recently established by the Belfast shipbuilding firm of Messrs. Workman, Clark and Co., Ltd. This type of standard ship is of about 7000 tons deadweight. She was laid down on January 18, 1918, launched on September 10, and completed on September 14, three and three-quarter working days. The previous “record” was held by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, Limited, Belfast, with the War Snake (Standard B), which was fitted out in seven days. The War Beetle was on • the stocks for seven months 23 days, whereas the War • Snake was five months eight days on the stocks. • * * * Could you wish for anything more artistic and comprehensive than the “Sporting and Dramatic Review” Xmas Number? * * * * Speaking at the Commercial Travellers’ Club, Melbourne, General Pau, head of the French Mission at present visiting Australia, expressed his sorrow that M. Metin, former leader of the mission, had through death overtaking him just before he was about to sail for Australia, was not among them during the memorable visit to the Commonwealth. “M. Metin,” General Pau went on to say, “knew Australia well; he loved it, and he realised what a magnificent future it had before it. That man was one of the leading men of the Republic. He stood foremost in our Parliament and our Government, but still he did not hesitate, when his country called him ,to do his duty as a soldier. He left his position in Parliament, and although he was over military age, he gave up all to go out to the front as a company leader. He was a model of military virtue, brave, full of spirit, and humane, and he has been mentioned in despatches be* cause of his gallantry. He had gone out of the trenches into No Man’s Land to bring in some wounded soldiers. I am reminding you of all this because he was one of the hopes of democratic France, and also, as I have said before, because he knew ' your country well and relied upon its commercial men to bind Australia and France closer together. He would have been a most prominent leader for this Mission, and his untimely death, which happened when he was . about to sail for Australia, was caused by the strain of war and overwork that he had done in connection with this Mission. His loss will be a national mourning. But I dare to say we have another man —perhaps not so good as he was from a technical point of view—but one who will be able to worthily take his place. I allude to M. Siegfried.” * * * * File the Xmas Number of the “Sporting and Dramatic Review” if you want a photographic guide to the attractions of the Dominion. * * ■» » 'Commenting upon the decision at Home to hold a general election at the earliest possible moment, the London “Daily Mail,” in emphasising the obligation which the Government owes to electors, says that with all the problems of peace •to be dealt with “it is essential that we should have a House of Commons thoroughly representative of the new national spirit that the war has created. It will be a time of sweeping changes. There will be a thorough cleaning out of the old lumber rooms of political thought. A great deal of political rubbish will find its way on to the scrap heap. The election is anticipated with the gravest apprehension by the hacks of all parties, whose minds are still back in the early days of 1914. It is surprising what a number of them have learnt nothing from the war. Not the least disconcerting thought to them is that the election is going to be a short and sharp affair —a businesslike proceeding that will be over in a single day. Their minds still dwell upon long-drawn-out days of processions, with banners and all the other appurtenances of waste that rightly belong to the days of Eatanswill, beyond which some of them have never advanced.” A similar situation unquestionably exists in New Zealand, where an early election is highly desirable, and some drastic changes may be confidently anticipated when electors are afforded their long-awaited opportunity of giving effect to their views in a practical manner.

Dr. A. W. T. O’Sullivan, who died in Auckland from influenza, came up recently to the northern city from Dunedin to take up the appointment of assistant district health officer. His worth and character are admirably expressed in the following tribute from Dr. Frengley, Acting-Chief health officer: Because of his personality, his mental capacity, his career as a student, work nobly done on active military service, and, above all, his force of character, Aeneas W. T. O’Sullivan was selected for special training as a health officer. His open, fresh, manly manner endeared him to all his colleagues—perhaps it was more than that —we loved him. His seniors believed that in him New Zealand could anticipate one of the strongest men for the public health service. His devotion to duty in this epidemic stayed his course. He expressed his unwillingness, after partial recovery from the initial attack, to do nothing while there were so many heartbreaking calls for medical aid. He gave his aid with that determination so familiar to us all. Well be it said: ‘O’Sullivan died to save others.’ The dispensations of Providence are full of wonder. This very week he was to have finished the examination to entitle him to a full district health officership. Fate is inexorable. Be there this happiness to his bereaved mother and relatives—he died nobly doing his duty. His colleagues will miss his cheery presence, not for to-day, but always. He was a splendid fellow.” * « * « Speaking , to a Christchurch “Press” reporter on the slum question, Colonel Wylie, who has had charge of the Christchurch Hospital for the past fortnight, said that the mere building of nice houses for workers would hot entirely solve what might bo called the slum question. He knew that there was a certain class of people who, given a new and up-to-date house, would reproduce slum conditions in it in six months., It was not always a matter of lack of money either. He knew in a country district where he had worked of houses on farms where slum conditions could be found. The house might, and probably did, contain a phonograph, and a piano or a pianola, but there would be no bathroom in it or decent conveniences, and its surroundings would be filthy, though there was a modern motor car in the shed outside. The people would have to be educated to appreciate and work for healthy living conditions as well as given the chance to get them. • ♦ * # Mr. John Davison, of Hartfield, Canterbury, who died recently at the age of 41, made a name for himself as a runner of the first class when he was sixteen years old. He was practicaly unbeaten in his running career, and in his day was noted as one of the best men on the track ever produced in New Zealand. After scoring many victories as an amateur he entered the professional ranks, and. was there equally successful. He was not a distance runner, most of his races being under

150 yards. He held the record of never having been penalised a yard for beating the pistol. He was a natural runner, and never trained, going as usual about his farm work until the day of the meeting, and keeping the constant weight of 13st.

101 b. A remarkable coincidence about his death is that two of his friends and contemporaries of the lunning track, Messrs. Taverner and Lachlan McLachlan, died on the same day from the same compfaint, influenza.