TOURIST AND TRAVELLER

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1540, 30 October 1919, Page 38

TOURIST AND TRAVELLER

HERE AND THERE.

Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Luxford, of Hastings, left Wellington by the Moana, en route to America.

Mr. Charles Hemingway has returned to Wellington after 12 months’ residence in Australia.

Mr. J. Marsden Caughey returned to Auckland last week after a business and health trip to America.

Mr. J. B. Paterson, shipping manager for A. H. Nathan, Ltd., left for Sydney by the Ayrshire on holiday. He is accompanied by Paterson.

The Hon. W. H. Triggs, M.L.C.. accompanied by Mrs. Triggs, returned to New Zealand by the Niagara, after a visit to England, Canada and the United States.

“The war has made more men than it has married,” said the Hon. J. B. Hine recently. “One saw good,” he declared, “in' men where one had not been sifife it before. The war. in fact, broadened the vision of life in a great; many, and nearly all who had gdne through the war were better men than when they left New Zealand.”

“The. besitting sin of the British people,” said Canon Wilford at the Diocesan . Synod in Christchurch, “you may call it what .you like, is the love of money. It is fully time that our eyes were turned from the German people, and home to ourselves. An end must come tb this great British Empire as long as we go on worshipping money as we do. We have now broken the power of force, but we have to break the idol of money.”

• Speaking at the welcome home social. in., the Y.M.C.A..HaII, Wellington, when 1 the trophies were presented to the Y.M.C.A., winners of the senior championship and the Charity Cup in Association football, Mr. Richard Brown (the president) remarked that it was 35 years since he played Rugby as quarter-back for the Wellington Club. Rugby was then the premier game, and he ..still preferred it to Soccer. Quoting a verse of “On the Ball,” he said it was his good fortune to publish the song for Mr. Seeker, who was a representative player for Manawatu. The words had been sung for over 30 years all over Great Britain, Erance, ’and the Dominions of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and he thought it was up to the followers of Soccer to produce a . song equal to the one which Mr. Seeker had produced.

■ Mr. and Mrs. E. Anderson, Auckland, have returned from a six months’ visit to the States.

Mr. C. W. Jones, general manager in New Zealand for the Huddart Parker Company, returned to Wellington from Sydney by the Riverina last week.

Admiral Jellicoe’s report recommends the expenditure of £7,000,000 to place Australia in a reasonable state of naval defence.

Mr. James Carlaw, Auckland city waterworks engineer, left for Sydney by the Niagara, having been granted six months’ leave on account of the state of his health.

During the interval at the Dunedin Male Choir concert, Mr. W. E. McKinlay was presented with the gold bar for 10 years’ continuous membership. During four of those years he served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

, Dr. X, D. Campbell Duncan, who has for the past nine and a-half years been medical officer in charge of Hanmer Springs Sanatorium and baths, has been Appointed Government balneologist at. Rotorua, in succession to Dr. A. S. Herbert, resigned.

Mr. and. Mrs. A. M. Farquhar, of Fiji, arrived in Auckland by. the Atua, and are at the Grand Hotel.

“What is the ’worth of this land?” asked a member when Mr. 'Forbes (Hurunui) was making' a speech about pumice lands. “It is valued at ss. an acre,” replied the Prime Minister. “And the sovereign is worth 13s. 6d„” said Mr. Wilford. “Now, what is the value of the land?— quick!” Mr. Wilford did not say whether he wanted to. buy four acres with an old sovereign or 2 7-10th acres with a new one.

A new theatre to meet the visits of travelling companies, is to be built in Dunedin. It will occupy a prominent place in Princes Street, ?md will be named the Savoy Opera House. It wilf be finished in white Oamaru stone, and will have a handsome and imposing facade, rising, three stories in height and surmounted by a cupola. It will provide individual seating for approximately 2000 persons. The dress circle will be the largest in Australasia, His Majesty’s, Sydney coming second. The plans have been prepared on the basis of a capital of £40,000. The project is being floated into a company, and the largest proportion of the capital is already promised.

“We want immigration,” said Mr. G. Mitchell when ■ the R.S.A. deputation was interviewing the Prime Minister. “We don’t want Chows or Hindus. If we must have foreigners, let them be Scotsmen.”

The New Zealand champion soldierathletes, Messrs. H. E. Wilson, D. L. Mason, Lindsay and J. Wilton, who have put up many line performances against the world’s best at Home, are passengers by the steamer Arawa, which is due to arrive in Wellington on November 19.

According to the “Daily Mail,” tradesmen, fearful of the Profiteering Act, have begun to put their house in order. A spontaneous decrease of prices has set in. Good suits for £4 4s. and £5 ss. are now to be seen in tailors’ windows in the West End, where a few weeks ago nothing of the sort was displayed at less than £8 Bs. Morning coats and vests are offered at £4 17s. 6d. It is now possible to buy woollen half hose at 2s. 6d. and 3s. the pair, silk ties, of excellent quality for 3s. 6d., men’s underwear of medium weight for 6s. lid. and 7s. lid, the garment, and for 30s. boots of good quality, marked at 355. at the beginning of summer.

Among the passengers from Sydney by the Riverina, which arrived in Wellington last week, were Mr. G. D. Greenwood, the well-known sportsman, and Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Mason.

Staff-Sergeant M. Naughton, of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, who recently returned to. the Dominion, rendered splendid service in the matter of arranging various athletic contests. In connection with football and other branches of athletics, it is said, he displayed an energy only possessed by an enthusiast, and travelled many thousands of miles in England and France in connection with the arrangement of many fixtures.

Mr. J. C. Neill, of Levin, speaking at the Returned Soldiers’ Association Conference at Wellington, said that much had been said about farmers and profiteering, and as a small farmer he did not entirely agree with the remarks made. He had come to the conclusion that much of the “profiteering” was not real profiteering, but simply the cost of faulty organisation in the food supplies. On the other hand, he had noticed that the cost of materials was constantly creeping higher without any apparent reason.

Many inquiries are being made at the Government Tourist Office, Auckland, for accommodation' at Mt. Cook, the Cold Lakes district, and other well-known scenic resorts. Tourist traffic to Rotorua is very brisk.

, General Sir William Birdwood confesses to a London journalist that one of the compliments which has touched him most in a week of great tributes was the presentation to him by the Australian Government of thecharger which carried him in hiscampaigning right through the war, except at Anzac, where even generals needed no horses. The beautiful animal was allotted to him when betook command of the Australian andNew Zealand Corps in Egypt.

Asked in Christchurch what bethought of Admiral Jellicoe’s report,. Sir James Allen (Minister for Defence) said it was what he had been advocating for some time, that New Zealand must carry her share of naval defence. The rate of pay our men would receive might have to besomewhat higher than the men in the British Navy were receiving, and. if New Zealanders were ■ serving in the British Navy they would receive the same pay as the British sailors, and an addition in the shape of a. superannuation allowance.

Mr. Matthew Carr, president of theWellington Chamber ofCommerce, returned from Sydney by the Riverina last. week.

Among visitors to Fiji is Dr. Adams, the Government astronomer ■from New Zealand, who is getting first impressions of Fiji. He says he is delighted- ; with all he has seen.

Mr. S. W. B.> McGregor, H.M. Senior Trade Commissioner in Australia, who has been touring in the South Island, is returning to Australia by the Maheno.

The anti-shouting regulation was the subject of, a question asked in the .House, of .Representatives, by Mr; G. Witty (Riccarton), who suggested that it should be withdrawn. Antishouting, he said, had been a war measure and was now unnecessary. The Prime Minister said he did not think it would be possible to amend the licensing legislation this session. Hon. W. H. Herries: It can be done by regulation. Mr. Massey: I will have the matter looked into. I have heard from all over New Zealand that the rule referred to is simply a farce and is unworkable. I will have the whole matter looked into by the Crown law officers.

Mr. and Mrs. L. R. Eady, who have been on a ten-months’ trip to England and the United States, returned to Auckland last week.

The Hon. E. Mitchelson and Mrs. Mitchelson left Auckland by the Niagara on a trip to Australia.

Mr. Walter Labone, of Wellington, has been appointed house steward of the Wellington Hospital, vice Mr. H. Fox, resigned. There were 67 applications.

A message from Melbourne states that the .Australian-owned steel barque Warthara has been sold to British buyers for £lB,OOO, or at the rate of £lB a ton:

As showing the keen demand. for dwellings in Wellington, it mentioned in the Supreme Court recently by a land agent in a compensation claim, that he sold a property at Hataitai for £lBOO, and the purchaser resold the property within a week at an advance of £3OO.-

Advice has been received that Captain J. D. Holmes, D. 5.0., of the Tunnelling. Company, who is arriving by the Arawa on November 19, has been mentioned in dispatches.

In about two years—unless unexpected difficulties arise—Melbourne, it is stated, will have one of the largest and most elaborate picture theatres in the world. It will have a seating accommodation of 3000, and room for an orchestra of 40, and will be equipped with all the newest features from America. It is stated that the total cost of the building and land will be something like £500,000. Mr. “Sol” Green and a number of others intend to erect the theatre on a block 160 ft. by 132 ft. at the Tourist Bureau corner of Collins and Swanston streets,, which they bought in 1915. The building will include a cafe, possibly a cabaret, and some seven stories of offices. There will be eight or ten stories altogether, the total height of the building be’ng about 132 ft. It is understood that an equally elaborate picture theatre is to be built by another syndicate on the west side of Swanston Street.

One of the principal undertakings in connection with the opening up of the Far North is the bridging of the Great Northern .Wairoa 1 River at Dargaville. Mr. R. E. Hornblow, Mayor of Dargaville, who has made several visits tq Wellington in connection with this and other matters, informed a “Post” reporter that the plans, etc., have now been approved by the Public Works Department, and within a week or so tenders will be called for the work, which, it is estimated, will cost about £30,000. The bridge will be three-quarters' of a mile in length, and will be built across the river -opposite the township, thereby opening up some tens of thousands of acres of the richest country north -of Auckland. Provision has been made in the plans for a navigable opening to allow the passage- of vessels of considerable size.