HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1501, 30 January 1919, Page 38

HERE AND THERE.

Mr. and Mrs. C. Sheath have returned to Auckland after a trip to Australia.

Mr. D. C. Bates, Government Meteorologist, and Mrs. Bates, have returned to Wellington after a visit to Australia.

Majon A. S. Brewis, 0.8. E., of Hamilton, who has returned from the front, has been appointed commandant of the Tanmer Springs Sanatorium.

The total amount of wool dealt with from the Poverty Bay district for the 1917-18 season was 18,529,093 lbs., at an approximate value of £1,158,068 6s. 3d.

It is understood that Mr. J. Studholme’s Coldstream Estate, Hinds, consisting of several thousand acres, is under offer to the Government for soldiers’ settlements.

Mr. Ernest C. Duncan, of the Wellington office of the New Zealand In surance Company, left for India by the Ulimaroa in order to join the company’s Calcutta staff.

The latest summary of New Zealand casualties, comprising reports up to January 6, gives a total of deaths 16,456 , missing 27, prisoners 45.. wounded 41,304.

Mr. D. Ralston, secretary to Mr. R. G. Cowlishaw, shipowner, of Sydney, arrived at Wellington last week by the steamer Swallow, to arrange affairs for several trips that the Swallow is to make in the intercolonial service.

A large party, including the Minister for Lands, the Hon. D. H. Guthrie, the guests of Mr. J. Trounson, of Northcote, attended the opening of an area of kauri bush at Kaihu, presented to the Government by Mr. Trounson.

Mr. John Robertson, school inspector of Otago, who enlisted three years ago as a private, and on reaching Egypt volunteered for the Camel Corps, has been appointed Assistant Director of Education at Cairo, with the rank of major.

Mr. E. H. Cavell, who, for the last 13 years has been accountant at Gordon and Gotch Proprietary, Ltd., Wellington, was presented with a handsome silver tea service and silver oak tray from the Wellington staff, on the occasion of his departure for Dunedin to take up the duties of manager for the South Island branches.

The largest combined letter and parcel mail which has ever been brought to New Zealand reached Wellington by the Royal Mail steamer Moana last week. The letter mail consisted of over 2000 bags from England, America and the Expeditionary Force. The parcel mail measured over 700 tons, and consisted of over 5000 bags for New Zealand.

Recently one of the Timaru fishing fleet was trawling off the lighthouse, near Jack’s Point, when, on coming to drag in the trawl, it was found that the weight was so great that the winch could not haul it inboard. Another trawler was passing, and her help was requisitioned, and the trawl was successfully hoisted aboard, when on examination it was found to contain a sturgeon 10 feet in length.

Recent guests at the Grand Hotel, Auckland, were Lieutenant-Colonel H. T. D. Acland, C.M.G., and Mrs. Acland, Christchurch; Lieutenant A. S. Herbert, M.C., and Mrs. Herbert, Dunedin; Justice and Mrs. Stringer; Major and Mrs. Anderson, Christchurch; Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Reed, Kawakawa; Captain T. E. Y. Seddon, M.P., Mrs. Seddon-Woods, Mrs. R. J. Seddon and Miss Seddon; Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Wilder, Hauturu, Mr. Perry Wilder, H. 8.; Mrs. G. J. Black, Gisborne; Major Wickens, D. 5.0., Christchurch.

A rarity—a white kiwi —has been discovered at Tahora. The bird was run down and killed by dogs at the rear of Mr. J. Robson’s mill. At first it was thought to be a fowl, but investigation proved it to be a kiwi. The skin was removed and shown to several Maoris in Hawera, and all stated it was the first white kiwi they had seen. The specimen will be forwarded to Professor Drummond, Wellington. The European brown bear, which was obtained from the National Zoological Park, Washington, through Mr. B. M. Wilson, General Manager of the New Zealand Tourist Department, was landed in Wellington last week, and taken to the Zoo. The bear was born in July, 1917, and is, of course, not fully grown, being only as big at a retriever dog. A tiger cat and a pair of little black bears, also from Washington, are expected to arrive for the Newtown Zoo at an early date.

The Distinguished Service Order has been awarded to Lieutenant D. Kennely, Second New Zealand Rifle Brigade, and a bar to the Military Cross to Lieutenant A. S. Herbert, Otago Mounted Rifles.

A return furnished by the Minister for Lands shows that up to January 20,1919, approximately £2,113,865 has been expended by the Government for the benefit of discharged soldiers on the land.

Colonel Eugene J. O’Neill, who has received the decoration of Companion of St. Michael and St. George, was born in Dunedin in 1875, and graduated M. 8., Ch.B., at the Otago University. He went to South Africa as surgeon-captain to the 6th New Zealand Contingent. At the close of the Boer War he went Home to further prosecute his studies, and then returned to his native city, joining up with the Main Body on the outbreak of war.

Late files to hand of the “Sheffield Daily Telegraph” give an interesting account of the installation of Sir Albert Bingham, as a Master Cutler of Sheffield for the ensuing year. Sir Albert is head of the great firm of Walker and Hall, silversmiths and cutlers of Sheffield, whose ramifications are world-wide, and who, no doubt, are well-known to our readers.

The “Telegraph” makes mention of the fact that this is the third candidate for this ancient and honourable office selected from the principals of Messrs. Walker and Hall. Sir Albert is the son of one Master Cutler, the late Sir John Bingham, bart., and nephew of another, the late Mr. C. H. Bingham. A few months ago Sir Albert presented the aeroplane “Ranby” to the Australian Flying Corps. A photograph of the machine is reproduced in our motor columns this week.

A special badge of nonour is to be issued by the Australian Defence Department to the wives and mothers of all Australian soldiers who have been killed on active service. The badge consists of a band of black silk, three inches long and 2J inches broad, which is suspended from a thin silver bar, so that it can be easily pinned to a dress or blouse. The rising sun badge of the Commonwealth Military Forces, in

colours of gold, purple and silver, is woven into the silken band, and the design is completed by two sprays of golden wattle flowers, artistically arranged. Beneath the badge in gold letters are the words “For Australia.” The ends of the silk band are caught up in a second silver bar, to which will be attached a sevenpointed star for each soldier in the family who has made the supreme sacrifice.

At a meeting of tne Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, Mr. L. D. Shand, remarked that the stocks of birds, etc., on Lake Ellesmere, for instance, were greater this year than for the past 15 or 20 years, and he moved that the Government be approached with a view to having the coming season an. open one. Mr. Shand’s motion was carried. The society has not yet decided what its actual recommendations will be, but there is a possibility that they will include an open season for paradise duck, and a close one for pukeko.

An Australian soldier, writing to his mother in Sydney, gives an account of the terrible experiences aboard a plague ship carrying Anzac troops. “When we reached Capetown,” he says, “we found a terrible epidemic of Spanish influenza raging. There were so many deaths that the dead were lying about the streets,

so, of course, none of us got ashore. Two days later we sailed for Sierra Leone, up the coast of Africa, and the expected happened. In three days’ time we buried our first man, and in five days’ time 600 of the troops were down with Spanish influenza, and every morning the ship would stop while we buried the dead, to the accompaniment of the ‘Last Post,’ every man who could standing to attention facing the west. The troop decks below, where the men sleep and eat, were a sight I shall never forget. They were lying everywhere on the floor in their dirty blankets, a number suffering from bleeding from nose, ears and mouth, with perhaps an empty fruit tin to bleed into, sometimes nothing. This Spanish influenza is not influenza at all; it is more like Yellow Jack. It attacks one suddenly, and in 48 hours one is usually through the crisis or dead. It is the quickest thing I have seen, and it is wonderful how quickly the haemorrhage

comes on from nose, lungs and ears, and then pneumonia supervenes, and probably death. Now at Sierra Leone we learn that the correct treatment is two grains of quinine three times a day, washed down with two tablespoonfuls of rum, and pills or salts taken daily. This is prevention as well as cure.”

The trustees of the National Art Gallery in Melbourne have arranged for Generals Foch and Pau to have their portraits painted in Paris to hang in the Melbourne Gallery.

An old Auckland resident in the person of the Hon. Thomas Thompson, passed away last week at the age of 86 years. Mr. Thompson took a keen interest in local government and political matters. He entered political life in 1884, when he was elected to represent Auckland North in the House of Representatives. He held the seat for three years, and in 1890 he was elected for Auckland City. He was elected again in 1895, and remained a member until 1899. He held the portfolios of Minister for Defence, Justice and Industries and Commerce from 1896 till 1899. In 1903 he was called to the Legislative Council, and he was re-ap-pointed in 1910, ceasing to be a member by effluxion of time in March, 1917. He leaves a son, Mr. J. Thompson, of Greytown, and. a daughter, Mrs. A. Kohn.

Mr. Lin Shih-Yuan, Chinese Consul at Wellington, and Mrs. Lin ShihYuan, returned from Australia by the Moeraki after several weeks’ absence.

Mr. S. H. Rhodes, a motion picture photographer, who is engaged in taking scenes of travel in various parts of the world, is at present in New Zealand.

Three tourists who are about to see the sights of New Zealand, Mr. G. Hodgson (England) and Mr. and Mrs. T. Manning (United States), reached Wellington by the Moana last week.

The house in which the British Prime Minister was born in Manchester has been sold, with 17 other cottages, for £ll6O. It is understood that the property \has been bought for the purpose of presenting Mr. Lloyd George’s birthplace to the nation.

Constable Jack Williams, Sydney’s tallest policeman, died at the Coast Hospital early in the New Year. He had not been in good health for months, and a few days prior to his death had a leg amputated. For a number of years he did duty at the Central Police Court and the Central Police Station. He was 51 years of age, and 6ft. 7£in. high.

“One of the most interesting meetings I attended in America,” stated Captain T. Y. Seddon to a press representative, “was that at the Armoury of the 71st Regiment, 34th Street, New York, where M. Paderewski and myself addressed some 5000 Poles. Another interesting meeting was that of 7000 workmen at Detroit, at the American Cars and Foundry Company’s works.”