TOURIST AND TRAVELLER.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1522, 26 June 1919, Page 4

TOURIST AND TRAVELLER.

The Prince of Wales has accepted the office of president of King Edward VII. Hospital, Windsor.

Seven heavy-draught Army horses averaged £9B each at Tattersall’s, London, and one fetched £llO. General Sir lan Hamilton recently unveiled a medallion in Rugby School Chapel in memory of Rupert Brooke, the poet, who died at Lemnos on April 23, 1915.

Colonel Thomas Sadell, V.C., of Cockenzie, Haddingtonshire,. England, whose death is reported at the age of 83, won his V.C. at Delhi in 1857. Major-General H. C. Borrett, an Abyssinian war veteran, has died, aged 77, at Reading.

A portrait model of the Kaiser at* Madame Tussaud’s famous galleryj London, was - recently smashed by an indignant sailor, who rushed at the figure and threw it off the pedestal.

News has been received of the death, from pneumonic influenza, of Mr. Norman Macleod, manager of the “Bulletin” Newspaper Co., Ltd., Sydney. Mr. Macleod, who was 35 years of age, was the eldest son of Mr. Wm. Macleod, managing editor of the “Bulletin.”

A cable message from Sydney announces the death of Mr. George Williamson, solicitor, a noted Rugby footballer. He toured New Zealand in the ’eighties with a New South Wales amateur athletic team.

Draped in black, a goat, the regimental mascot, was in the procession at the funeral of Lieut.-Colonel E. A. Pope, commanding the 3rd Battalion Welsh Regiment, at Golder’s Green, England.

“San Francisco is easily the worst port in the world for thieving,” said Captain Anderson, of the Juteopolis, which vessel recently arrived in Sydney. “There is more cargo lost there than in any other that I know of. One sailing vessel which loaded there recently lost £6OOO worth of cargo. In fact, almost every ship which comes out of San Francisco has heavy liabilities to meet after the thieving gang, which is organised, has finished sending out the goods.”

At a time when the pillaging of cargo from ships is receiving considerable attention it is Interesting to recall one of the biggest robberies on record, namely, the loss of a full shipment of silk from one of the E. and A. Company’s boats in Hongkong harbour before the war. The vessel had as cargo £30,000 worth of silk. The stuff, when jt went aboard, was carefully locked away, as is always done with silk, but one night pirates raided the ship unseen, and got away with the whole of the consignment. At that time Hongkong, with its bands of pirates, provided many stories of ® big robberies.

The King and Queen at Buckingham Palace inspected a ‘'Victory” carpet, specially woven to commemorate the triumph of the Allies. It was made by Messrs. H. and M. Southwell, of Bridgnorth, who made the “Jubilee” carpet presented to Queen Victoria. The carpet, which is a remarkable production, was spread out at the north end of the picture gallery, and was greatly admired by their Majesties. • • • • A new type of miner is being evolved at Atherton, Lancashire, through the growing popularity of the baths at Messrs. Fletcher, Burrows, and Company’s collieries. At first only 10 per cent, of the men used them; now the figure is 50 per cent. The miner now goes to -work in tweeds and brown boots instead of his oldest clothes and clogs. He no longer besmirches the seats of tramway cars and railway carriages with the grime of his calling. Nor does he drive his wife to despair with the amount of work he brings into the house each day. He goes home spruce and well groomed, with no signs of the weariness so characteristic of the men “coming up.” “All the yoking men use the baths,” said the keeper of the bath house to a representative 1 of the “Daily Mail.” “Some of the older men don’t.” "They are learning sense,” volunteered an old miner? 1 “And I wonder the women didn’t * teach it to some of them a bit sooner.” 1 Fifteen minutes suffice for a miner’s bath. Men in a hurry take a little 1 less, dandies a little more. They find < their own soap and towels.

Mr. Churchill stated in the House of Commons recently that up to March 28, 187,539 horses and 56,044 mules belonging to the Army had been sold for £9,500,000.

“Many men can hang on, but it is not given to everyone to have the power of initiative,” said MajorGeneral Newton Moore, M.P., when a £lOO War Bond, a silver salver, and a cheque were given to Lance-Cor-poral J. A. Christie, Islington’s (Eng.) second V.C.

On Peace Day, the flag, St. Cuthbert’s Cross, will be flown from Durham Cathedral for the first time for 800 years.

“Next to the Scotch, the Japanese are the nation most passionately fond of education in the world,” said Professor J. Macmillan Brown at a meeting in Christchurch of the Royal Colonial Institute. “That fact makes the Eastern menace all the greater, because a well-educated country, as the Germans have shown us, has the most capacity for making it warm for its enemies.”

By a large majority the Institution of Naval Architects has decided to admit women members. Sir Alfred Yarrow, at a meeting in London of the institution, said a woman was eminently adapted to settle the graceful lines of a ship. He mentioned the case of women joiners employed recently on work in a destroyer who “made a magnificent job of it.” A recent vessel attained a speed of 39.6 knots. “That,” he said, “is the best speed attained, and the lines of that ship were determined partly by a young woman named Keary.” The first three women associates of the Institution are Miss Emily M. L. Keary, referred to above, Miss R. M. Parsons, chairman of the Women’s Engineering Society, and Miss B. O. Thorneycroft.

Merchant fleets the world over were the right arm of the Allies throughout the war in their close co-opera-tion with naval and military activities, and among the prominent transAtlantic lines thus engaged the White Star has made an enviable record of ceaseless and untiring patriotic effort. Out of its fleet, nine large steamers, totalling 148,145 tons, were sunk bj r enemy fire, including the new Britannic, 48,158 tons; the favourite Oceanic, 17,274 tons; the Arabic, 15,801 tons; and the Laurentic, 14,892 tons. At the outbreak of the war, the British Admiralty requisitioned the Oceanic, Teutonic, Cedric, Celtic and Laurentic as fast armed cruisers, and all of them found well-earned glory in their long services. In fact, before the Laurentic was sunk by a torpedo off the Irish Coast, she was for 21 months continually at work for the Admiralty without returning to her home port. The Olympic, 46,359 tons, the largest British steamer, was also in almost continuous .service during the war.

Recently in the Imperial Legislative Council for India, the Hon. Rao Bahadur N. Sarma moved a resolution recommending that the Government should accept and declare total prohibition of the use of all alcoholic and intoxicating liquors and drugs to be the aim and object of its policy, and so direct its administrative methods as to achieve the end in view at an early date. When Mr. Sarma rose to speak on the resolution, a ntfmber of the European members left the chamber, and those remaining are said to have appeared plainly bored. When the balloting was finished, the resolution was declared defeated by 33 votes to 20. Thirty-one of the hostile majority were Britons. >•* • ■ At. a conference of representatives of the South Island Acclimatisation Societies, the following remits were carried: —“That Government be asked to instruct the police to take a more active part in the suppression of game and fish poaching; and, further, that rabbit and county inspectors be appointed rangers under the Animals Protection and Fisheries Act.” “That the Government be requested to prohibit all netting at the mouths of rivers except for piscicultural purposes.” It was agreed that the Government be asked to arrange with the Australian Government to protect the banded dotterel with a view to arranging open and close seasons concurrently in both countries. The conference decided to draw the attention of the Government to the indiscriminate use of the pea rifle, and that an endeavour be made to import one or more species of plover from Australia.

At the annual meeting of the Sumner Volunteer Lifeboat Brigade, a welcome home was extended to Driver F. Lindroos, who had been away on active service for over four years. The chairman,' Mr. H. J. Marriner, in welcoming Driver Lindoos, referred to the excellent response the life-boat members had made. There were twelve original members, and nine of these had volunteered, while three had made the supreme sacrifice. Three of the members were still away, viz., Lieutenant C. I. Denham, Lieutenant J. Hines, and Ser-geant-Major A. Kerr.

Sir Gilbert Claughton, Bart., chairman of the London and North-Western Railway Company, in an address at Birmingham Parish Church, said a very heavy industrial black cloud was dispersing which might easily have become a thunderstorm. Economic laws were being broken in chunks at present. Once we ceased to be a hard-working, thrifty, exporting nation, the writing on the wall would be pronounced on our little island.

Another romance of the war will shortly be published by the War Office, remarks an English paper. It concerns a z man who before the war was an officer but deserted and lost his rank. Early in the war he enlisted as a private under an assumed name and performed deeds of great gallantry. His rise iiL non-commis-sioned rank was rapid, and lately his real identity came to light. In recognition of his great bravery and ability it is understood that the King was petitioned by the War Office to restore his old rank and that this has been granted.

When ten men recently appeared in the police court at Liverpool charged with a series of thefts from various Atlantic liners, Mr. George Telfer, of the White Star Line, told the stipendiary that last year claims amounting to £50,000 were received by the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company in respect of damaged and stolen goods. The property taken by the accused men included cameras, sigars, books, blankets, scissors, clocks, and furs. Sentences were passed on nine of the prisoners varying from five months to two months, with hard labour. The tenth man was fined £5.

During his recent visit to Liverpool, where he received the Freedom of the City, Sir David Beatty attended the- Liverpool Seamen’s Orphanage and addressed the boys and girls. To the girls he said: “Although you can’t join either the Navy or the mercantile marine you can marry sailors; that is the best thing you can do.” To the boys he said: “If you join the mercantile marine or the Navy the day is not far distant when you will be commanding ships and possibly fleets, as I have done.”

“When a man is ashamed of his own career, it is easy and comforting to brag and bluster about the greatness of one’s country,” said the Rev. W. P. Stewart, a returned soldier, in the course of a recent address at Bathurst (N.S.W.). “The patriotism that brings wild cheering at some song of jingoism is worthless as a national asset. ‘Our Country, Right or Wrong,’ is not patriotism. Patriotism must have moral justification. It is a mean, sordid patriotism that invoked the hatred of the other races, and places the interest of one’s own country above all moral considerations.”

The question of providing an extra ranger was discussed at a meeting of the council of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society. The chairman (Mr. L. O. H. Tripp) said that the services of an extra ranger undoubtedly were required, but the amount of money at the disposal of the society was limited. The council realised that the present ranger was not paid an adequate salary, and that he ought to be provided with a motor cycle or motor car as a means of moving about the country. Members were agreed that the present ranger ought to be better paid and that an additional ranger was needed in both the shooting season and the fishing season. But the annual cost of one ranger at present was over £250 a year, including £156 salary, and the society’s surplus last year was only £2OO. After discussion the possibility of increase ing the society’s revenue, by raising fees or securing the assitance of well-to-do sportsmen, the council decided to increase the present ranger’s salary by £5O a year at once, and referred the other points to the executive.

A new and perhaps undreamed-of industry is being opened up for returned soldiers —the destruction of shags in a methodical manner. The council of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society received such a proposal from a returned soldier. The applicant, it was explained, had been wounded, and was not able to undertake hard work. He made a hobby of shag shooting, using a .22 rifle with a silencer. The council decided to offer to pay 2s. per pair of feet up to 100 birds on condition that all the shags were shot on inland waters. Members stated that the ravages of the shags among the young trout was very serious. It was mentioned that only three varieties of shags out of 80 were in the habit of taking freshwater fish.

• * a « Viscount Jellicoe, Admiral of the Fleet, who is at present visiting Australia, where he recently arrived during his world tour on H.M.S. New Zealand, has been extended a remarkable welcome at the different ports he has visited in the Commonwealth. Viscount Jellicoe is expected to make his appearance in the Dominion shortly, where active preparations are being made to give him an enthusiastic welcome. Rather below the average height, but with a trim figure and alert movements, Lord Jellicoe carries his 59 years wonderfully well. His keen, clean-shaven face, with its prominent nose, is somewhat pale, but eager eyes bespeak vital personality, and the Jellicoe smile explains at once his tremendous popularity with the men of the Grand Fleet. “Silent John” he was nicknamed by the navy. Silent he may be, but the owner of that smile —a faint, humorous twitching of the corners of the mouth—must be essentially a lovable man, one who’ would be scrupulously fair to his subordinates and a humane and kindly leader. • ♦ ♦ * Lieutenant-Colonel Walker, Housing Commissioner, who is to administer the War Service Homes Act .in Australia, has recently been in conference in Melbourne with the Deputy Commissioners for the States with regard to arrangements for starting a big scheme. Colonel Walker announces that it is possible ’ 100,000 houses will be erected in the Commonwealth in from 10 to 12 years. He would prefer to use bricks for the walls of the houses, which might each take in the course of erection 25,000 bricks. He had grave doubts about the capability of existing plants to supply the requirements of the Housing Commission in addition to the public requirements; and it might become necessary to erect brick-making works in various centres of the Commonwealth. It was probable that he would also require 200,000,000 feet of timber each year for five years. He was making arrangements to secure supplies of timber at the lowest prices. While not prohibiting the purchase of houses already bliilt, he had directed the Deputy Commissioners to discourage applicants for houses already erected. The extent to which Australianbound ships are pillaged at San Francisco is extraordinary. During the past 12 months many vessels, steam and sail, have, on arrival at Sydney, discharged cases of rubbish, which, according to the manifest, should have Ifeen goods. The case of one vessel, the Juteopolis, is a typical one. Captain Atkinson shipped aboard the Juteopolis at Sau Francisco what were supposed to be cases of revolvers and pistols. The cases came intact from the warehouse, and from the time they reached the loading berth until they were tallied into the hold of the Juteopolis there was no sign of them having been tampered with. The cases were stowed right in the bottom of the ship, in such a way that it would have been impossible for anyone on the barque to have reached them. On arrival at Sydney, when the unloading operations had been commenced, it was found that some of the cases were light, and the master and consignees thereupon made an investigation. The cases which should have contained the firearms were first opened. To the surprise of the captain it was discovered that the cases were empty, thieves having evidently completed their job before the cargo went to the Juteopolis.

The Bishop of London, preaching at a memorial service at St. Martin’s-in-the Fields, said that he wanted to see people free from that superstition of perpetually visiting mediums for tile purpose of getting into communication with the other world. He had never seen any information which had given them the slightest help, and such proceedings, in his opinion, were a waste of time and made persons restless and unhappy.

Sir Thomas Mitchell, builder of the first Dreadnought, recently died at Southsea, England, aged 75. He was asked to build the ship in the record period of 18 months, and did it in 12. He was knighted at the launching of the sister vessel Bellerophon. Practically the whole of Sir Thomas’ life was spent in dockyards. He began at Chatham as an ordinary apprentice. His son, Lieutenant Alexander G. Mitchell, 21, was killed in a German air raid on a French hospital, Where he was lying after an operation.

The war record of the Cunard Steamship Company, states that of their original fleet of 26 steamships, 15 were lost. Of the ships acquired subsequently, eight were also sunk, making an aggregate loss of 56 per cent, of the fleet’s total tonnage. In addition, seven chartered vessels went down. Altogether, 650 seamen were drowned. Serving as armed cruisers, transports and hospital ships, the fleet steamed 3,500,000 miles, nearly a million soldiers and sailors, and ten million tons of foodstuffs and cargoes were transported, in addition to a hundred thousand tons of fuel oil for the Navy, which was carried in the double bottoms. In two years, the company managed nearly 400 ships other than their own, and nearly 500,000 American soldiers were brought to Europe, the Aquitania being responsible for 60,000 in nine trips.

During the course of his visit to Liverpool, Sir David Beatty, in reply to a question as to what he thought the' odds were against Jutland proving to be the last naval battle in history, promptly said: “A thousand to one against.” This statement has since been challenged by several leading admirals, whose comments have appeared in “The Weekly Despatch.” Admiral Sir Hedworth Meux says: “It would seem an inevitable concomitant of human life that wars should occur. They have been taking place since the world was created, and there appears no ground for imagining that we have reached the millennium. Consequently, there will be battles, not entirely on the »sea, perhaps, but below and above it.” Admiral Sir William May: “I cannot believe there will be no more battles.” Admiral Sir George Callaghan: “Naval battles* will recur so long as the sea flows and human ambitions exist.”

Any person who is at all superstitious would' have had ah anxious time if he had been on board the troopship Athenic, which left New Zealand in June last with the 39th Reinforcements. Bishop Sadlier mentioned in his address to the Nelson Senior Cadets recently that before the vessel left Wellington the ship’s cat went ashore, which was considered a bad omen, but it was captured by the crew and taken aboard again. The vessel left on the 13th of the month, and in the Panama Canal the cat fell overboard, and to prevent it from drowning it was shot by a soldier —another ominous happening. During the voyage it transpired that there were 13 officers on board and there were 13 boats on the ship. At Jamaica the Athenic went ashore, and the troops -vyere transferred to a Dutch cargo tramp and called at New York. The voyage across the Atlantic occupied 13 days, and the convoy consisted of 13 destroyers, and they arrived at Liverpool on 31st August (the figures reversed). Incidentally, Bishop Sadlier mentioned that the O.C. celebrated his 39th birthday on board (three times 13), and they were the 39th Reinforcements!

A supplement to the “London Gazette” recently contained a complete list of Victoria Crosses awarded between August, 1915, and the Armistice, and for the first time dis-

closes the locality in which the Crosses were won. In all there are 346 awards, 139 being to officers, 111 to N.C.O.’s, and 96 to men. Crosses were won near London and as far afield as Hafiz Kor, India, where there was serious fighting. All the “bad places” on the Western front, which to thousands of men will be a dreadful memory for years, are in the list, including Ypres, more than a dozen times; Thiepval, Hamel Wood, Passchendaele Ridge, Le Transloy, Vil-lers-Bretonneux, Trones and Delville Woods, the Yser Canal, Arras, Poelcapelle, Martinpuich, and Gievenchy. The battlefields of East Africa, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Dardanelles also figure, while records of brave flying are found in the awards to Captains Ball, McCudden, and Bishop. Men from almost every part of the British Empire are in the roll —Canadians, South Africans, Australians, New Zealanders, and men of the Indian Empire. Among the V.C.’s are three clergymen and five doctors, including the late Captain N. G. Chavasse, who won his V.C. in 1916 and a bar to it a year later.

The death recently occurred at Pretoria, South Africa, of Jack Hindon, the Boer scout, known as the “Trainwrecker,” who was largely responsible for Lord Kitchener’s difficulties on the Delagoa Railway in the later stages of the South African War. He was born in Scotland, but, going to South Africa at an early age, afterwards sided with the Boer population. Many stories were told about Hindon’s strange career. He . was said to have been a British private who fought with Sir George Colley at Majuba, but he always denied that he served in any British force. During the South African War he saved a British officer whom the Boers had captured and decided to shoot, by smuggling him away in a waggon. During his successes as a trainwrecker several expeditions were told off to capture him, but he proved as elusive as de Wet. He surrendered at Balmoral in May, 1902.