TOURIST AND TRAVELLER

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1544, 27 November 1919, Page 36

TOURIST AND TRAVELLER

HERE AND THERE.

Mr. and Mrs. Poynter, Eltliam, have left for Australia en route to South Africa.

Mr. and Mrs. T. E. Moorhouse, of Melbourne, well-known in Canterbury, are on a visit to New Zealand.

Dean Fitchett and Mrs. Fitchett, of Dunedin, left Wellington for England by the Argyllshire last week.

Mr. D-' 'C. Bates, Government Meteorologist, accompanied by Mrs. Bates, left England by the Port Pirie. They atte returning via Suez.

Mr. W. A. Phillips, manager of J. J. Craig, Ltd., arrived from Sydney by the Makura, accompanied by Mrs. Phillips.

Mr. L. M. Dixon, of Christchurch, has been appointed organiser for the Wellington district for the Returned Soldiers’ Association.

Mrs. M. A. Perry has been elected vice-patron of the Napier Swimming Club in place of the late Mr. Frank Moeller.

Mr. J. S. Harrison, manager of the Wanganui branch of Messrs. Wright, Stephenson and Co., Ltd., has left on a trip to Sydney.

Major Arnold W. Izard returned to Wellington last week after a lengthy absence on war service. He served in France, and was later at Medical Headquarters in London.

Mr. Alister McGregor ’ Frame, of Messrs. Frame, .Laycroft and Co., New York and’San Francisco, is in New Zealand at present, accompanied by Mrs. Frame. After touring the Dominion Mr. and Mrs. Frame intend to visit Australia, China, Japan and Great Britain before returning to America next July.

The death is reported at Melbourne of Mr. Sali Cleve, who arrived in Australia in the early 'fifties with 50,000 sovereigns, as the representative of the late Baron Rothschild. He established the firm of Cleve Brothers, which also carried on business in London and Dunedin. He subsequently became well-known as a mercantile broker in Melbourne. He was in his 89th year.

Mr. T. L. Maclean, vice-president of the Gaelic Society, London, and hon. secretary of’ the London Invernessshire Association, is at present in Wellington. He is on a six months’ visit to New.’Zealand for the purpose of investigating the prospects of obtaining suitable - farming land for a number of Scots farmers who propose to emigrate.

Captain F. Ford, speaking at the reception to the soldier athletes in Wellington, said the British public was specially appreciative of the New Zealanders’ sporting prowess. At one gathering in England the New Zealanders won every event, with the result that when they competed again all the New Zealanders were scratched. The members of the New Zealand team competed all over England and Scotland, and distinguished themselves by always being able to take a licking smilingly. In May of last year the New Zealanders created a sensation by winning the International Relay Race against eleven ifirst-class teams, and lowering the English record by two seconds for the mile. The team gave New Zealand a wonderful advertisement at Home. They had met the top-notchers of the world at Paris, where Mason put up the record for the half-mile. (Applause.) The impression the New Zealand athletes had left behind, he was glad to be able to say, was a good one.

A voice at the Prime Minister’s meeting at Eltliam: Excuse me calling you Bill, but you’re all right. Mr. Massey: You don’t need to apologise. You are not the first to call me that by a long way.”

Mr. Donald McLean, who was manager for the Maoriland Steamship Company, left for Melbourne by the Riverina, to take up an important appointment in shipping circles at that port.

“Judging by my experience in staying the other night at Taihape, it is not a. prohibition district,” remarked his Honour Mr. Justice Stringer, with a smile, in the Arbitration Court, at Wellington.

In coal strikes between November, 1916, and February,. 1919, said Sir Janies Allen in a speech at Milton, a total of 427 days were lost in addition to the loss occasioned by the “go-slow” policy. The West Coast mines were chiefly affected, 1359 men being concerned, and the loss of days being 345. In the State mines 69 days were lost.

The hero in “The Man Who Came Back” is a much-travelled man. In the five acts of the play, in which Miss Muriel Starr is to appear during her season here, he covers 20,000 miles, his travelling taking him from New York to San Francisco, then to Shanghai in China, to Honolulu, then back to New York. This provides a good deal of varied interest in the play, by the introduction of such scenes as a millionaire’s home in New York, a cabaret in San Francisco, an opium den in Shanghai, and a pineapple plantation near Honolulu.

A civic reception was tendered by the Mayor of Wellington (Mr. J. P. Luke, C.M.G.) at the Town Hall to three New Zealand soldier athletes who have won distinction abroad, and who returned by the Arawa. They were Sergeant H. E. Wilson, the holder of the English 120yds. championship: Sergeant J. Wilton, the New Zealand 440yds. champion, who won several big events in England; and Sergeant J. Lindsay, who won an international event in Paris, and is the holder of the English 220yds championship. Captain F. Ford, the manager of the New Zealand team in England, was also present.

The population of New Zealand, exclusive of Maoris, is estimated by the Government statistician as at September 30, at 1,152,602.

A team of bowlers from Sydney is to tour New Zealand, leaving Sydney in the middle of January next.

The fishing in the Rotorua district continues to be satisfactory. Some exceptionally good catches have been made at Ngongotaha.

“The cost of living in England is scandalous,” said Mr, .A. M. L ew i s > of Gisborne, who. has just returned from visiting England, America, and France. “Sometimes you get butter, sugar, etc., and sometimes you don’t. You pay extortionate prices for meals both in England and America. In London a suit of clothes costs up to £lB, while small toilet requisites were 25' per cent, dearer than you can buy them out here —25 per cent, dearer in the country they are made than in this place after paying all charges. Someone is making a good thing out of it.”

“Are you entitled to be called ‘honourable’ now that you are not a Minister?” was a question asked of Mr. G. W. Russell at his meeting in Christchurch. “The answer to that,” said the candidate, “is that if a man has been a member of the Cabinet for three years he is entitled to retain the title of ‘honourable’ for life, but certain formalities have to be gone through.”

Mr. G. B. Shaw, a Californian pastoralist, who arrived in New Zealand recently, is visiting the big sheep stations of Canterbury. He predicts that during the next three years there would be most active business relations between American breeders and New Zealand. Americans, he says, are fully alive to the necessity of increasing their sheep flocks considerably, and they are setting about the business by securing the best stud sheep procurable. New Zealand has a great name throughout the United States for mutton and wool, and Australia also in certain breeds. It is Mr. Shaw’s intention to display his New Zealand purchases at the big show to be held in San Francisco next June.

Dr. Lapraik, who is leaving Thames after 20 years’ residence to take up practice in Auckland, was farewelled at a large gathering at Thames. The Mayor made a presentation and expressed regret that the district was losing the services of the doctor.

It is notified in the Gazette that six Sambur deer (five hinds and one stag) have been turned at large in the Rotorua acclimatisation district, and that the property in such deer and their offspring is vested in the Department of Tourists and Health Resorts for a period of three years:

Dealing with Samoa in his speech at Eltham, the Prime Minister said that no one could doubt its value to New Zealand from a strategic point. Concerning the question of industrial labour in these islands, it was impossible for Europeans to do the hard manual labour in such a climate, but he did not think it necessary to continue indentured labour. He believed that plenty of frfee labour would be available to work the plantations of Samoa.

It has been decided to revive the Rotorua Tourist League for advertising the attractions of the place, arranging entertainments, and obtaining travelling concessions on the railway.

Interviewed in London on the eve of his departure, Mr. Hurley, the official photographer with the Australian Army, emphasised the great loss to Australian interests when Mr. W. M. Hughes departed. His personality and oratory had kept the Commonwealth’s interests well to the fore. Australia was now sorely in need of someone to keep its name in front of the public. The London Press continuously gives publicity to Canada, South Africa, and New .Zealand, and other parts of the Empire, but not to Australia, which is mostly represented by very brief and clearly inspired cablegrams, stating that either droughts, strikes, floods or fires are I’aging, and suggesting that Australia is absolutely the last place for a Britisher. It would be interesting to know who provides the information conveying such impressions—certainly it is no one who has regard for Australian interests.

“The farmer is not only the backbone of the country,” said Mr. E. Macdonald at the Upper Hutt, “but he is the flesh that clothes the backbone.”

! Lieutenant Eric Rhodes, youngest son of Mr. C. Rhodes, of Remuera, who has been serving abroad with tjie Australian Imperial Forces since 1915, returned by the Maheno. A record bullock, tipping the beam at 11981 b. dressed weight, was handled last week at a Pahiatua butchery. The animal is believed to be the biggest known in the district.

Some interesting history with reference to the appointment of Marshal Foch as Generalissimo of the Allied Forces was related to the members of the Royal Colonial Institute by the Hon. W. H. Triggs (says the Christchurch “Press”). It was Sir Henry Wilson, he was told, who first laid down the proposition that it was absolutely necessary to appoint a Generalissimo in supreme command of the Allied Forces. He soon converted Mr. Lloyd George to that view, but great difficulties were met with, some of them in unexpected quarters. The credit of finally bringing about the appointment of General Foch, Mr. Triggs believed, belonged to Lord Milner, a still, strong man in public life, of whom very little was heard. Lord Milner not only brought the English Government as a whole to see that the appointment of a Generalissimo was necessary, but he it was, Mr. Triggs was assured, who convinced the French Government that General Foch was the right man for the position. “I think you will agree with me,” said the speaker, “that the work he did in connection with .the appointment of General Foch entitles him to undying gratitude. We in the Dominion have every reason to be proud and grateful for the fact that he is Secretary of State for the Colonies.”

Mr. L. B. Campbell, A.M.1.C.E., of the Public Works Department, who lately returned from a six months’ tour through Canada and the United States, has been appointed district engineer at Stratford.

While speaking at the Wellington Garrison Officers’ Club regarding the reorganisation of the New Zealand territorial force, Brigadier-General Richardson stated that the scheme of reorganisation must provide for ample equipment and ammunition, a complete and highly-trained staff, ample supply of well-trained officers with adequate reserves to replace wastages, and well-trained non-com-missioned officers. He also stated that the' small force to be mobilised must be ready trained and properly equipped to take the field at once. If the remainder of the manhood of the nation were properly classified, and had passed through a short intensive course of training as cadets and learnt to use a rifle, they could be quickly trained and. made efficient as reinforcements.