Tourist and Traveller

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1504, 20 February 1919, Page 38

Tourist and Traveller

HERE AND THERE.

Lord Rhondda’s estate has been sworn at £883,465.

It is proposed to add an art gallery and museum to the proposed Hamilton Soldiers’ Club as a war memorial.

Mr. George McLeod, manager of the Union Bank of Australia at Hamilton for the past 13 years, has been transferred to Wanganui.

A London firm has received a contract to supply a large number of gas masks for miners working underground.

Brigadier-General Richardson will leave London by the Remuera on February 28, and should arrive in New Zealand early in April.

Captain James B. W. Roberton, second son of Dr. Ernest Roberton, of Auckland, has been awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Lieutenant F. W. Lang, son of Mr. W. Lang, of Mount Albert, who left on active service about two years ago, has been awarded a scholarship at the University of Edinburgh.

Colonel R. J. Collins, C.M.G., 1.5.0., Controller and Auditor-General, is retiring, and is to be succeeded by Colonel G. F. C. Campbell, Secretary to the Treasury.

Mr. V. W. Russell, youngest son of the Hon. G. W. Russell, Minister of Internal Affairs, has been appointed assiciate to his Honour Mr. Justice Edwards.

Mr. Joseph Munnings, chief architect to the Government of India, and Mrs. Munnings and their two children, are making a tour of the Dominion. Mr. Munnings is on 12 months’ furlough.

Mr. W. B. Bennett, who was general manager, formerly in New Zealand, but later in Australia, for the National Cash Register Company, and who resigned his position about twelve months ago on entering camp, has accepted the position of general manager of the company’s business in London. Mr. Bennett is the elder son of Mr. F. Bennett, headmaster of the Berhampore School, Wellington.

A party of Dunedin sportsmen spent a profitable day fishing outside the Heads one day last week. The party left in Mr. W. R. Waters’ pleasure launch, and were engaged in netting flatfiish in the shallow waters at Kai Kai Beach, when the net gathered in a shoal of fish known as kawhia. This fish is well known in Auckland waters, but is very seldom seen far south. Altogether 143 of these fish were caught in the net. They were in splendid condition, and averaged about six or seven pounds in weight.

A tribute to the memory of one of Australia’s most famous batsmen, the late Victor Trumper, was paid by old comrades and friends and members of the visiting Victorian cricket team at Waverley (Sydney) cemetery on January 23. Mr. E. R. Mayne, captain of the Victorian team, placed a beautiful wreath on the grave, to which was attached a card with the following inscription: “In loving memory of our comrade. Victor Trumper —from the Victorian eleven.”

Second-Lieutenant R. A. (“Bobby”) Young, C.M.R., has been awarded the Military Cross. Lieutenant Young left New Zealand with the Main Body, and saw service during the whole period of the Gallipoli campaign. and in Palestine. For over four years he escaped both wounds and sickness, but on September 25 of last year he was seriously wounded in the left thigh at Amman, during which engagement he did good work which resulted in his beingawarded the decoration. He is at present in hospital, but is expected back in New Zealand during the next month or two. Lieutenant Young was a well-known guide at Mount Cook prior to enlistment.

Dr. H. Dean Bamford has been elected president of the Auckland Club for the ensuing year.

The autographs of the British, French, and Italian statesmen who took part in the Allied Conference in London were sold at the Savoy Fair for £7OO.

Mr. R. W. McVilly, assistant-general manager of railways, has been appointed general manager as from April 30 next, when the present manager, Mr. Hiley, will retire.

Lieutenant W. T. Watson, D.C.M., son of Mr. R. Watson, of Nelson, serving with the Australian Forces, has been awarded the Military Cross and a bar

Colonel Begg, N.Z. Medical Corps, who died in England of influenza, was about to leave for New Zealand to take up the position of Director of Medical Services, in succession to General Henderson, who shortly returns Home. Colonel Begg was a well-known Wellington practitioner and had been on service abroad since the earliest days of the war.

Meals, including meat, are now being served in the London restaurants without coupons.

Nine letters of Napoleon and MS. with autograph corrections at Sotheby’s realised £324.

Mr.. J. Harris, chairman of the Woodville County Council, will be leaving the district shortly. He intends visiting Gallipoli for the purpose of locating the grave of his son who made the supreme sacrifice there.

The cost of fighting the influenza epidemic in the Christchurch district was £14,263, including temporary hospitals .£5970, motor and ambulance services £2BlO, and inhalation chambers £769.

At a meeting of the Hawera Returned Soldiers’ Association a land bureau department was formed, to assist returned men to settle on the land. A land agent’s license has been granted the association.

A London cablegram reports the death of Sir Edward Montague Nelson, aged 78 years. He was a brother of Mr. William Nelson, of Tomoana, and was one of the founders and at the time of his death managing director of the firm of Nelson Bros.

Mr. and Mrs. Shirtcliffe and family, Wellington, intend leaving New Zealand for a trip to England.

The Victorian Cabinet appointed Mr. H. G. C. Macindoe, a Gallipoli hero, to the vacant position of Senior Crown Prosecutor, at a salary of £lOOO a year.

A little girl, eight years of age, belonging to Epsom, who has been visiting the Nor.th Egmont mountain house with her parents, lately performed the praiseworthy feat of walking with a. party of others to and from Dawson Falls’ house, a distance of nine miles each way, or a total distance of 18 altogether.

“The holy places made little impression upon them,” Chaplain James C. Wilson, who has been to Jerusalem with the troops, told the Dunedin Presbytery, “but the land itself made a great impression. We could not supply Bibles fast enough, not primarily because the men wanted to study the great truths, but because they discovered that the Bible was probably the best guide book to the country that could be got.”

Mr. P. G. Morgan, Director of New Zealand Geological Survey, is making a geological trip up the Rakaia Gorge, and will spend some time in Otago before returning to Wellington.

A notification appears in the Gazette of January 30 to the effect that the holder of a trout fishing license may fish for salmon in any river up to and including February 28.

Mr. W. Holt Harris, of Auckland, who was one of the first to volunteer at the Sydney Street Hospital, Wellington, during the recent influenza scourge, has several tributes of appreciation from his fellow-workers and patients in memory of an arduous period during which he worked unceasingly.

Captain J. D. Holmes, New Zealand Tunnelling Company, has been awarded the Distinguished Service Order for services rendered, while in actingcommand of the company, in erecting steel bridges over the canals du Nord and de I’Escaut, while under fire, during the advance in September, 1918, of the British Army, to which the company was attached. The former was the largest bridge erected by the army when in action during the war. Captain Holmes is a son of Mr. R. W. Holmes, 1.5.0., Engineer-in-Chief, Public Works Department.

Mr. W. G. Calender, late assistant town clerk at Hastings, and wellknown in sporting circles in Hawke’s Bay, has been appointed manager of the Wellington Returned Soldiers’ Club, vice Mr. J. I. Cox, who is leaving for England. Mr. Calender has seen considerable active service. He went away as a private, and during his three and a-half years’ service gained his commission.

“It has been very gratifying to me as one of the heads of the Canterbury Rugby Union,” said Mr. F. T. Evans, president of the Canterbury Rugby Union, at the Merivale Football Club’s gathering, “ to see so many Rugby footballers go to the front. I understand that between 2000 and 3000 Rugby players from Christchurch and its suburbs went away with the forces, and I think that, if the numbers were totalled up all over New Zealand, it would be found that there were well on to 15,000 Rugby footballers who went away, and that is out of about 90,000 soldiers who left New Zealand. Such a high percentage is naturally a great feather in our cap,” said Mr. Evans; who went on to say that various generals had expressed the opin-

ion that sport had had a great deal to do with the excellence of the New Zealanders. In fact, said Mr. Evans, he had spoken to a man who had just returned from the front who had said that in the words of a famous British general, outside one particularly well-known British regiment, the New Zealand Brigade stood alone as far as fitness and general appearance and discipline were concerned, and that must be regarded as very high honour. As far as football was concerned, well, the New Zealanders were “out on their own.”

Captain J. C. Maclean, of Dunedin, who met with a fatal accident while abroad, was a fine athletic in years gone by, He was a member of the 4th New Zealand Contingent in the South African War, and after his return to this country travelled widely, settling for a time in the Transvaal, and then proceeding to Brazil, where he had an adventurous journey in little-known regions. Coming back again to New Zealand, he was here when the great war broke out in 1914, and, enlisting for service, left as a second-lieutenant in the Mounted Rifles with one of the earliest drafts.

He saw active service both in Gallipoli and France; was wounded on three occasions, and earned promotion and high distinction, being awarded the Military Cross and a bar to it. He was married while on furlough in England.

Lieutenant Alexander Campbell Craig, an Aucklander, was killed while mountaineering on Ben Nevis.

Dr. E. W. Sharman, who has been engaged on military work during the war years, has resumed his duties as port health officer for Auckland.

Captain Phillips, ex-commander of the Makura, was presented at Sydney recently with a wallet well filled with Government war bonds by friends and persons who had sailed with him, as a mark of personal esteem and in recognition of many courtesies during the years he commanded Union Company’s ships.

The kea pest was a subject of discussion at the last meeting of the Mackenzie County Council. Complaints were made that the trouble was increased by the action of Government guides who did all they could to protect the keas, as they would have them to show to tourists. It was said that through the action of the guides keas were being bred on the Hermitage reserve, to the great detriment of Mackenzie runholders, and it was decided to join the Lakes County Council in seeking Government assistance to combat the pest.

“Sandy,” one of the chargers that accompanied the late General Bridges when he left Australia on the Orvieto in October, 1914, has returned to Australia. After more than four years’ honourable service (says an Australian paper) he has been brought back -—partially blind, and altogether less sleek and fiery than when he went away—to spend his remaining days in the well-grassed paddocks near his master’s grave at Duntroon. All the men in the First Australian Division knew “Sandy.” A well-bred upstanding bay, his appearance commanded admiration,- and the late General Bridges was immensely proud of him. When that splendid soldier went to Gallipoli in command of the Australian troops, “Sandy” remained in Egypt, and after his master’s death he found another owner. Later he was sent to France, where, after many stirring experiences, he was gassed, after his rider had been killed by a fragment of shell. “Sandy” did not die, but the skill and care of the surgeons were powerless to save his eyesight. After many days he had recovered sufficiently to be placed on a returning transport, and arrived in Australia. Many thousands of horses have been sent to the war from Australia, but “Sandy” is the only one that has been returned.