Tourist AND Traveller

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1519, 5 June 1919, Page 36

Tourist AND Traveller

HERE AND THERE. ♦ Mr. Harold Beauchamp, chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, and Miss Beauchamp, are expected to leave for London, via Panama, on June 17.

Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Cruickshank, New Plymouth, have left on a trip to England.

Mr. J. B. Storey, of South Canterbury, and his sister Nurse Storey are making a trip to England.

Mr. Geo. Spence, of the Steel Co., of Canada, is paying his first visit to the Dominion.

Mr. Edmund Goodbehere, of Feilding, left by the lonic on a trip to Great Britain.

Mr. Maurice Cohen has returned to Palmerston North after a healthrecruiting trip of some five weeks at Rotorua.

Mr. R. H. Ellis, managing director of Messrs. Ellis and Manton, is leaving New Zealand by the Niagara for the United States and London.

Mr. G. F. Dixon, assistant-private secretary to the Minister for Defence, has, been appointed to act as official reporter during the Governor-General’s visit to Samoa and the Pacific Islands. ♦ ‘ * * 9

Mr. and Mrs. T. J. Ledingham, of “Montacute,” St. Kilda, Melbourne, have returned from a holiday trip to New Zealand. Mr. Ledingham had some good fishing.

.Amongst the soldiers who returned -by the Rimutaka was Major Wilson, D. 5.0., of the New Zealand Artillery, son of Sir James Wilson, of Bulls.

The estate of the late Sir James Reading Fairfax, senior proprietor of the, “Sydney Morning Herald,” has for probate purposes been sworn at £558,306. t • * » •

jMr. Charles Hawson, who has been accountant for the Wellington branch of Messrs. Murray, Roberts, and Co., Ltd., for the past 17 years, has been appointed secretary to the firm.

Mr. G. Checkley (Christchurch) and his two daughters, accompanied by Miss Bruce, are leaving for England and the Continent by the Paparoa on June. 16.

Mr. Philip Gibbs, the famous war correspondent, is likely to visit Australia and New Zealand before the end of the present year. Mr. Gibbs is,now lecturing in the United States.

'Charles Glidden, a member of the Aurora Antarctica Expedition, was presented with the King’s Admiralty medal by the Hon. T. M. Wilford at Wellington.

Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Le Lievre. “Qinako,” Akaroa, and their four daughters, leave by the Paparoa on Juine 16th on an extended tour of England and the Continent. They expect to be away about two years.

The Hon. T. M. Wilford, Minister for - Marine and Justice, has been spending a couple of days in Auckland at the Grand Hotel. He was accompanied by Mrs. Wilford, Miss Wilford, his son. Captain G. McLean Wilford, who recently returned from active . service, and by his private secretary, Mr. E. N. G. Poulton.

The Fernhill Hotel, Omahu, on the road between Napier and Hastings, is now under the management of Mr. W. Everett. Travellers and motorists can rely upon obtaining the best attention at this hostel, as Mr. Everett has been thirty years in the trade, twonty-five of which have been spent in'the Hawke’s Bay district.

At St. Dunstan’s 7939 disabled soldiers, including 669 blinded, are now being trained.

Mr. W. E. Caldow, secretary of the Wellington Choral Union, is leaving shortly on a business trip to England by the Remuera. During his absence, which will extend into next year, Mr E. A. Tanner will perform the secretarial duties.

Mr. Harold Court, third son of Mr. John Court, Auckland, is in an English hospital suffering with congestion of the lungs. He has been on active service for three and a-half years. He enlisted in Auckland, but being rejected by the Medical Board he proceeded to England and offered his services there, and was accepted.

Mr. and Mrs. James L. Hay returned to Wellington by the Rimutaka last week. Mr. Hay was the pioneer New Zealand Y.M.C.A. secretary, leaving with the Fourth Reinforcement by the Willochra in April of 1915. He organised the Y.M.C.A. work in the Esbekia Gardens, Cairo, where he made a host of friends.

Included in the spoil secured by a thief who recently raided the home of Mrs. Caroline White at Clifton Hill, Melbourne, was the V.C. won by Lieutenant Ruthven.

Mr. A. Browning, son of Mr. W. A. Browning, who is leaving Palmerston North to take up farming in the Waikato, was the recipient of parting presents from the firm and staff of Messrs. W. A. Browning and Co.

A shag shot on one of the Waitaki islands recently was found to contain 11 young trout. Perhaps this is where the missing millions of salmon fry have gone (says the “Oamaru Mail”). It certainly seems to account partially for the poor trout fishing last year, as the river is dotted here and there all up its course by clumps of shags.

Mr. A. Campbell chief of the Wellington Scottish Society, on receipt of the news of the knighthood recently conferred on Harry Lauder, the famous Scottish comedian, forwarded to him the society’s congratulations. Mr. Campbell has now received the following reply from Sir Harry:—“Chief Campbell and my dear brother Scots.—Please let me say how much I appreciate your cabled congratulations. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.— Yours sincerely, Harry Lauder.”

At the conference of the Canterbury Farmer’s Union, it was decided to request the Government not to allow any person to land in New Zealand who could not prove their loyalty to the laws of the land and the British constitution.

An effort is to be made next season, states the annual report of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society, to induce deer-stalkers to adopt a form of measurement used in Scotland, Jn order that a fair, test of the improvement or otherwise of the quality of heads taken may be afforded. Stalkers, almost to a man, ignore the regulations as to the return of unused labels after the season is ended. At the close of the 1918 season a fine 21-pointer was shot on a closed area, and the offender being brought to book, the head was confiscated by the society, in whose office it now hangs. A good 19pointer was taken on country near Te Awaite.

Two R.A.F. lieutenants had an unpleasant experience recently in Dublin. They were being driven in a side-car by a sergeant of the R.A.F. when they came into conflict with a crowd watching a funeral cortege. Misunderstanding the instructions of a constable on point duty, the sergeant did not stop, and the onlookers expressed themselves very strongly

on what they considered to be an intrusion among the mourners. The sergeant was dragged from the machine, and sticks were brandished over the heads of the officers. Some members of the crowd took the machine to the quay wall and dropped it into the Liffey.

“Personally, I look upon the next twelve months as probably the most difficult and dangerous time that we have to go through, even including the last five years,” remarked Mr. T. Shailer Weston, chairman of the Wellington Repatriation Board, at a dinner to the delegates to the conference of the Provincial Farmers’ Union. “To a great extent the future of this Dominion is going to be decided in those twelve months. You are going to decide then whether the liberties and security won for you on the Western front are going to be preserved to yourselves forever. I think there is only one test that each man ought to subject himself to in this matter, and that is this: that he should subordinate everything, even the interests of self, even the interests of party, to the interests of this great country.” (Applause.)

The Eltham Dairy Company has decided to send its factory manager (Mr. R. H. C. Boyle) to America to obtain information regarding the latest methods concerning the manufacture of cheese and the machinery in use.

When serious consideration is given to the vital subject of the lack of housing accommodation in many centres of New Zealand it is not difficult to realise the increased problems in this particular direction that would have been presented had the people not rejected Prohibition. There is no mistaking the fact that not only is housing accommodation at a distinct premium, but in many of the leading centres there also exists an urgent need for far more accommodation being provided the travelling public than can be obtained at the present. Especially at certain periods of the year, such as when a race meeting is in progress or some other holiday attraction is this need particularly obvious, and were it not for the fact that we have throughout New Zealand large and up-to-date hotels the position would be far worse; in fact, would become intolerable. Yet with a total disregard for the consequences, many people in their blind persistence for fads and reforms would have all the hotels closed under the fallacy that they would serve a more useful purpose as places of business. Were they allowed to have their own sweet will a climax would have been reached at holiday and carnival times when visitors, unable to secure accommodation, would be placed in the unwelcome predicament of walking the streets all night. This is not taking an exaggerated view of the situation, as there are times now even under existing conditions when hotel and boardinghouse accommodation is taxed to its utmost. There are far too few hotels in New Zealand, and despite a greatly increased population during the past 15 years a considerable reduction has been made in the number of hotels throughout the Dominion. Faulty legislation is in a large measure responsib’e for this unprogressive policy, while until a more definite form of security is introduced in regard to the licensing question little or no encouragement is held out to owners of hotel property to make the necessary extensions to meet the increasing demands of the travelling public. No business firm would entertain the idea of making extensions to its premises if subjected to the uncertain restrictions and false security with which owners of hotel property are fettered under present legislation. Meanwhile little can be expected but stagnation, whereas under a more definite policy expenditure would not be spared in improving and enlarging the hotels in many parts of the Dominion. A useless waste of money is the only conclusion that can be drawn from the recent referendum on the licensing question, and not many months hence further useless expenditure is to be made in again placing the issue before electors, though in a slightly modified form. Once every ten years would suffice to appeal to public opinion on the licensing question, as at a time when efficiency and avoidance of waste are being consistently advocated as the best and quickest means of reconstruction of business and industry, the Dominion can ill afford to have its advancement harassed by licensing laws which allow of little prospect of action being taken to more fully cope with the large volume of tourist traffic which must be expected during the next few years. Hotei owners should certainly be given a definite decision, which would enable them to extend and improve their buildings with the assurance that no pecuniary loss would result, in the shape of a guaranteed term of license, extending at least not less than five years.

“If we have prepared and published a black list of those who have hidden away and shirked their duty of 'fighting for their country,” said Mr. J. P. Luke, Mayor of Wellington, speaking at the farmers’ banquet, “we should also get out a black list of those employers who are failing to take back into employment the soldiers who are returning from the war. When a man who left his job to fight for you and me returns from the front, the job he left ought to be open for him to step into.”

Many a silvei’ wristlet watch valued by the owner was exchanged for a loaf of bread by New Zealand prisoners of war in Germany. Lance-Cor-poral Henderson, of Wellington, was for many months in the hands of the Germans, and during the whole time he, as well as many other prisoners, were practically starved. Conditions were so bad in one place, “The Black Hole of Lille,” that the prisoners were forced to barter for food many valuable articles, keepsakes, clothing, etc., being given to members of the German garrison there in exchange 'for bread to relieve the pangs of hunger. Even then the bread was hardly fit for consumption.

“With reference to a recent article in the London ‘Daily Mail,’ in which Major Evelyn Wrench inquires who is the loneliest Briton, I should say he dwells on isolated Macquarie Island, which is situated some hundreds of miles to the southward of New „ Zealand,” writes a correspondent. “Very little sunshine there, no harbours, trees, or shrubs, bitterly cold and most desolate, no natives whatever. • Two men are there manipulating a wireless service to Australia, supplying data to forecast weather conditions, their small habitation being the only one on the island. Before this wireless installation was made I, with two others, spent six dreary months on this lonely spot, amid penguins and sea elephants, and the continuous roar of the ocean as it hurled itself on the heavily rock-bound coast added to the intense loneliness of a Briton’s most southern abode in the world.”