Tourist AND Traveller

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1600, 23 December 1920, Page 36

Tourist AND Traveller

The first Davis Cup match in New Zealand was played in Christchurch in 1911.

No newspapers whatever will be published in England on .December 25, 26, or 27.

The Bishop of Nelson and Mrs. Sadlier, Nelson, returned from Australia by the Moeraki.

: Mr. and Mrs. Robert Fenwick returned to Auckland by the Dorset last week from a visit to Britain.

Mr. G. F. Pearce, a director of the firm of Levin and Co., Ltd., returned to Wellington by the Moeraki.

“Christchurch promises to be the engineerin gcentre of New Zealand,” stated the director, Dr. D. E. Hansen, at the. prize-giving ceremony of the Technical College in that city.

Mr. Theo. Dewar, representative of the New Zealand Government Tourist Department in Queensland, arrived from Sydney last week, accompanied by Mrs.. Dewar and daughters.

A record of the recent tour of the Prince of Wales is to be published in January. It will contain many illustrations. The profits are to be devoted to St. Dunstan’s Home for the Blind. ” “ '

The death rook "place at Opotiki recently of Mr. Alfred B. Buckland, who formerly lived at Thames and was the .first secretary of the Bowling Club in that town.

Mr Sneddon, of Auckland, who .left Wme months ago. for Honohilu.'for .tlte.-t enelt of his health, has bene?ted greatly- by the change, and is exposed-back- early next January.

The death- is' reported from New South Wales of Mr. Henry Wyse, who formerly was an athlete, and held the two mites" walking, and .running championships of New Zealand.

Mr. .and Mrs. P. W. Peters, of Napier, who have been on a visit to America, England and the Continent, returned home last week.

Mr. Tom Roberts, the well-known Australian artist, who, after an absence of 17 years in England, has spent the last twelve months in Australia, arrived from Sydney by the Moeraki last week. Mr. Roberts will join the _Remuera for London, via Panama.

An ex-Imperial soldier, discussing the conditions under which he and his comrades arrived in the Dominion, said that efforts should be made to have the men placed all over the Dominion. He said that if they were concentrated in one or two of the cities, as the scheme developed, unemployment might , easily result. This would breed discontent, - and an undesirable state of affairs generally. He suggested an organisation among the men themselves to assist them in settling under the conditions best suited to them;

Sir Conan Doyle was asked in Wellington what he thought of the Maori for literary treatment. He was much impressed with the idea. “I am reading this book,” he said, lifting a work from the table. “It is poorly written, but contains fine material. I don’t think the Maoris have been properly done yet. I know something about them, and they are a most interesting people. If anybody could handle them with the skill of a Fennimore Cooper, there is no doubt that there would be an opening for stories about them; but the work would have to be especially well done. It is splendid material. Oh, and the language should be perfectly simple, and —oh, the avoidance of terribly long words.”

Mr. J. H. Kingston, manager of the Auckland branch of the South British Insurance Company, has returned from a visit to Sydney. * * * *

Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Napier, Auckland, are leaving for a trip to England next month. They will be passengers by the Ormonde from Sydney.

Mr. B. M. Wilson, manager of the Government tourist and health resorts, who has been on the sick list for the last two months, has left for Te Aroha with Mrs .Wilson. Mr. Wilson intends to undergo treatment. Some two or three months ago Mr. Wilson was picking narcissi in his garden at Lower Hutt, when the exudation from the freshly-cut stems came in contact with a scratch on his arm, causing acute blood-poison-ing.

“One of the greatest evils has been the way in which people have been compelled to do away with their garden spaces,” said Councillor M. F. Luckie at the last meeting of the Wellington City Council.

A party of 18 British tourists, under the guidance of Mr. Edward Grey, arrived in Dunedin last week, and proceeded to Invercargill, from which place they will go on to Queenstown, then travel to Lake Te Anau and “do” the Milford track. After returning to Dunedin these tpurists are to visit Mount Cook and the West Coast and then journey through the North Island. Mr. Grey, who is well acquainted with New Zealand, organised this tour at the High Commissioner’s office in London by permission of Sir Thomas Mackenzie, and after he has shown the tourists now with him what New Zealand is like, Mr. Grey will take charge of another English party.

Mr. C. Maxwell-Hibberd, formerly Postmaster-General of Natal, South Africa, arrived in Auckland by the Riverina on a visit to his daughter, Mrs. Carrick Robertson.

Mr. and Mrs. Davis (Fernside, Avonside) returned to New Zealand by the Niagara, after spending some months in Canada and America.

The late J. A. Tole, K.C., Crown Prosecutor, whose death occurred in Auckland last week, was one of the best-known barristers in the Dominion, and was elected a member of Parliament in 1875, and was Minister of Justice in the Stout-Vogel Government from 1884 to 1887. After his retirement from politics he was appointed Crown Prosecutor in 1893, and K.C. in 1907.

“We are all horticulturists by instinct, because we are descendants of Adam. But Adam did not manage his garden properly, and he got turned out in consequence,” said Mr. Massey in opening the Rongotea Horticultural Show.

The growth of a great daily when it succeeds is very well illustrated by the success that has attended the “Melbourne Herald” of recent years. At the annual meeting a week or two back the chairman of directors (Mr. Theodore Fink) was able to announce that the latest, figures showed a sale of over a million a week, which was probably the greatest circulation of any daily newspaper in Australia. Mr. Fink also spoke of the increasing cost of conducting a daily journal on modern lines. He said that the present cost —apart from that of paper —of running a newspaper was as great per day as it was for a whole week comparatively a few years ago.

Six years ago a bottle was thrown over from the Australasian Antarctic expedition’s vessel Aurora, which was then making an oceanographical cruise in southern waters. On November 23 (says the Melbourne “Argus”) the Commonwealth director of navigation (Captain Davis), who was in command of the Aurora at the time, was advised that the bottle had been picked up on the West Coast of New Zealand. It was thrown overboard to the south of Cape Leeuwin, about latitude 40deg. south, and in the intervening six. years had drifted nearly 3000 miles to the eastward.

When he landed at Auckland (the Prince of Wales told a crowded assemblage at the Guildhall, London) the New Zealanders made him feel at home at once. Within five ■ days

he visited the Maori people at Rotorua, a gallant and remarkable race who were not unkown in London. He was grateful to them for gathering in such large numbers to greet him. “I worked my way down the North Island to Wellington, the capital city,” he said, “where I was specially entertained by Mr. Massey and his Government. I spent a week in the South Island, touring, and finally crossed the Otira Pass to the Canterbury Plains and Christchurch, thence going to Dunedin and Invercargill, where I almost felt back in Scotland. Auckland’s kindness and enthusiasm were carried on everywhere. What impressed me was the intensely Old Country character of the people. You have a pretty sound and powerful patriotism here in the City of London, my Lord Mayor, but I assure you you have your work cut out to show it more thoroughly than they do in New Zealand. It was with regret that I sailed from Lyttelton. A month in New Zealand was far too

The American and Australian tennis teams left on a trip to Rotorua on Saturday, and after a day’s sightseeing returned on Monday. • * ♦ *

The Hon. Mark Cohen, M.L.C., who has retired from the editorship of the Dunedin “Evening Star” after years in the employ , of the company, was bidden farewell by the directors and the employees of all departments, and presented with a gold “star” medal, a writing wallet, a gold fountain pen, and an album with the signatures of all the employees.

Touching on his impressions of New Zealand, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said that the book he proposed writing after the present tour would deal with his whole travels entirely from a psychic point of view. The book would be called “The Wanderings of a Spiritualist,” and would record also any material facts which came under his notice ’as he passed along.

The shortage of newsprint paper has resulted in two companies having been organised in Florida to manufacture pulp from native saw grass. There are millions of acres of this grass in Florida, which were regarded as useless for agricultural purposes. The grass, it is stated, grows as rapidly as seaweed, and cutting only seems to stimulate its progress.

Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice, made reference in the Supreme Court, Hamilton, to the death of the Hon. J. A. Tole, Crown Prosecutor at Auckland. He had personally known him for over 45 years, as a colleague as Minister for Justice when he (Sir Robert) was in the Government, and he had known him ever since in connection with the university and as a personal friend. The Dominion hadsuffered by Mr. Tole’s death the loss of a very able and upright citizen. Only those who came into personal contact with him knew the uprightness of his character and his scrupu-/ lous desire to do what, was right.

The .team which represented New Zealand at the 1920 Olympic Games, held in Antwerp, returned last. week. It consisted of Miss Violet Walrond(swimmer)', and Messrs. Harry E. Wilson -(hurdler), Darcy Hgdfield (sculler), and George Davidson (sprinter),.’as; well aA Mr. Walrond, who accompanied his daughter,' and acted as hon. trainer. The manager (Mr. Wilson) said tiley "were very satisfied with the results, considering the fact that each member got into a final at the Games. This, he said, placed each of New Zealand’s representatives as one of the sixth best in the world, • and that alone was sufficient to show that the council was justified in sending the team. Although their late arrival had left them little time for training, all members of the team did their best. In the. swimming, Miss Walrond equalled the time in which the race was swum at the previous Games, and H. E. Wilson, in the hurdles, did 15sec.. which stood as the . Olympic record until this year. Davidson showed great form, his running greatly impressing American critics—in fact, all critics. Hadfield rowed excellently, and would probably not have been beaten had there been more time for training.