A TRIP TO THE TASMAN GLACIER REGION.
[The series of pictures illustrating the work of glaciers should be studied 
in connection with this article.]
Some years ago it was a matter of no small difficulty to make the journey 
to the Tasman Glacier, but in these days of
improved roads, motor-cars, and Government accommodation-houses the task is 
easy. Fairlie, the terminus of a
branch line of railway from Timaru, is reached in one day from Christchurch 
or Dunedin. Thence the traveller proceeds by motor-car over the inland tussock plains of the 
Mackenzie country, 
past the two beautiful glacier-led lakes,
Tekapo and Pukaki, and then on from the head of the latter up the valley of 
the Tasman River. The last portion of the
journey is by coach over a somewhat rough road.
On a fine day the view from either of the lakes is indeed beautiful. 
Beyond, the turquoise-green waters of Lake Tekapo
are the fine snow-clad ranges that surround the Godley Glacier. The view from 
Lake Pukaki is still finer. Far up the
valley towers the great mass of Mount Cook, its tent-shaped, snowy summit, 
gleaming in the sunlight, being reflected in the lake at our feet - here distinctly, and yonder, where the 
calm waters are ruffled by a passing 
breeze, but faintly in quivering outline.
From this point until the Government accommodation-house known as the Hermitage is reached we get 
glorious views of the higher Alps that flank and feed the great
Tasman Glacier. Mount Cook, 12,349 feet high, dominates the scene, rising vast to heaven above his 
vassal peaks. We have come into the heart of the Southern Alps.

Photo by Tourist Department.]
THE HERMITAGE.

From the drawing-room window of the Hermitage buildings a magnificent view of Mount Sefton is 
obtainable, and occasionally masses of ice can be seen to break off
from the glaciers, to hurl themselves over grim precipices, and to crash with thunderous roar into 
the valley thousands of feet below. To the inexperienced, the mountain,
which is over 10,000 feet high, seems absolutely unscalable, but it has nevertheless been climbed. 
With its summit snows emerging from the breaking storm-clouds or gleaming in the blazing sunshine 
above the grim and 
ghastly precipices, Mount Sefton must ever be ranked as one of
the finest sights in the Southern Alps.
Farther northward along the main range, but jutting off from it, rises the giant form of Mount Cook. 
Its triple peaks are eleven miles distant as the crow flies, but its long
spur descends to the plain scarce a mile away. On the western side of this great ridge is the deep, 
narrow valley in which lies the Hooker Glacier, and on the eastern
side is a longer and broader valley the floor of which is filled by the great Tasman Glacier.
This glacier, which is the largest ice-stream in the Southern Alps, is easily accessible from the 
Hermitage. After the Hooker River has been crossed, there is a good path
that skirts the southern end of the spur of Mount Cook, and then stretches up the western side of the 
valley between the lateral moraine of the glacier and the massive
lower ridge of Mount Cook. The walls of the valley are covered
with stunted scrub and alpine plants, and the ridge itself is clothed with similar vegetation to a 
height of four or five thousand feet. Above this the vegetation dwindles away
until the altitude of perpetual snow is reached. The plants that will most interest the ordinary traveller 
are the New Zealand edelweiss (Helichrysum grandiceps) the celmisia or mountain daisy, and the so-
called mountain lily (Ranunculus Lyallii), which is not a lily at all but
buttercup. This beautiful plant, with its pure-white flowers, and its thick dark -green, saucer-shaped 
leaves that are often half-filled with water, is
 a constant source of wonder and delight to the
sub-alpine traveller.
After journeying for fourteen miles from the Hermitage the traveller reaches the Ball Hut, situated 
near the Ball Glacier, which is named after the famous alpinist. The
lower portion of this glacier is so covered with rocky debris that travelling is extremely arduous, 
so the path to the hut is made between the great wall of lateral moraine
and the steep lower spur of Mount Cook itself. The moraine is well described by the Rev. W. S. Green 
as " standing up like some great battlement, shattered in the war
of the Titans, composed of huge cubes of sandstone and jagged slabs of slate, some over twenty feet a 
side, and ready at any moment to topple over and crush our
limbs."
For several miles on the lower portion of the Tasman Glacier there is no sign of clear ice; but a little 
way beyond the Ball Hut the traveller, after crossing a considerable
extent of moraine, at length finds himself on white hummocky ice. From this point a magnificent view 
meets the eye, and one gets a fair idea of the size of the ice-stream, which is eighteen miles in length, 
and has an average width of one mile and fifteen chains. 
Into this grand stream of ice flow many other large glaciers, the finest
of them all being the Hochstetter, which, descending  from the shoulder of Mount Cook, pours its 
masses of broken ice in one huge cascade from a height of about four
thousand feet, and, bending round to the southward, flows on with the main stream.
Beyond and above this beautifully tinted cascade of broken ice, with its great cubes, and spires, and 
pinnacles, the eye wanders to where the tent-shaped summit of Aorangi* towers into the clear blue of 
heaven. 

* Mount Cook.

Every few minutes the air vibrates with the loud roar of avalanches falling from the heights. Away to 
the right, beyond the Hochstetter 
Ice-fall and the great plateau that feeds it, are the spotless snows of
Mount Tasman - the second highest mountain in New Zealand. The range goes northward, peak after 
peak 
rising to heights of ten thousand feet and more, while other
glaciers descend into the main stream that fills the bottom of the valley.
A mile beyond the Hochstetter Ice-fall the glorious mass of the Haast Glacier gleams in the sunshine, 
and just above it towers the square-topped Mount Haidinger,
robed in white glaciers. The Kaufmann, the Forrest Ross, and the Kron Prinz Rudolf glaciers, all 
splendid ice-streams, pour down from great altitudes, with Glacier Peak,
Mount Spencer, and Mount Jervois serving as a background. Above the Rudolf Glacier are the pure-
white 
snows of the Minaret Peaks and the glaciers of that beautiful
mountain, de la Beche. Beyond that the Tasman Glacier bends round with a splendid sweep towards 
the 
right, and from the shoulders of other first-class peaks, such as
Mount Green, Mount Walter, and Elie de Beaumont, descend other unnamed glaciers that help to swell 
the Tasman. At the head of it all is the rounded summit of the
Hochstetter Dom, rising to a height of 9,258 feet on the main divide. On our right, bounding the 
valley on the east and overlooking the glacier, rise the rocky peaks of
Malte Brun - the Matterhorn of New Zealand.
The view as seen from the top of Mount Cook by those who have been fortunate enough and hardy 
enough 
to make the ascent is so magnificent as to be almost
indescribable. New Zealand is seen from sea to sea. Eastward beyond the Tasman Glacier, almost nine 
thousand feet below, across the Liebig Range, the larger foothills, and the plains of Canterbury, is 
distinguishable the dim haze of the eastern sea. South and north along the main chain of the Alps rises 
a wilderness of peaks, passes, and 
glaciers, many of them as yet unexplored and even unnamed. The
giant Tasman and all the lesser mountains are dwarfed, and the whole surrounding country is spread 
out like a map in relief. Hector, 11,287 feet, the third highest peak
in New Zealand, seems a pimple; St. David's Dome becomes a low ridge; but Elie de Beaumont, near 
the 
head of the Tasman, still appears a grand mountain, distance
in his case seeming only to lend enchantment to the view. Through rents in the clouds far below on 
the west patches of sea appear like distant dark lagoons. As the
clouds gather in the valleys and upon the mountain slopes, only the summits of the higher peaks are 
seen rising like pointed islands from a wondrous sea of snow-white, fleecy wool.

THE ROMANCE OF THE NORTH POLE.
1. THE EARLIEST EXPLORERS.
In the whole range of geographical discovery and romantic adventure there is perhaps no story that 
appeals so strongly to the imagination as the search for the poles.
The story of the efforts to reach the South Pole has been already told in the School Journal, and, as 
news was received some little time ago that the North Pole has
actually been reached, let us turn our attention to its story.
It is no modern idea, this search for the North Pole. The earliest northern navigator of whom 
there is any record was a Greek mariner named Pytheas, who about 300
B.C. sailed north till he came to an island which he named the Land of Thule.* This may or may not 
have been Iceland, as has 
been thought by some, and it may have been the Shetlands.
But, whatever it may have been, it was by no means pleasing to this ancient mariner, in spite of the 
fact that the sun never set while he was there. This strange
behaviour of the sun caused him great uneasiness, and he hastened away farther to the north ; but 
the farther he went, the more strangely did the sun behave.
Though at first it refused to set, it afterwards refused to rise, and Pytheas found himself in a 
region of continuous night. More than that, he tells how he came to a great
dark wall rising out of the sea, beyond which he could see nothing. He was convinced he had come to 
the wall which the ancients believed was built along the edge of
the world, and returned home to tell the strange and marvellous story of his adventures.
Over a thousand years later than the time of Pytheas, Alfred the Great dispatched one of his captains, 
Othere, on a roving expedition to the north. You have been already told how he was the first to sail 
round the North Cape, and how on his return he taxed to the utmost the belief of the royal " Lover of 
Truth " with his tale that -
Four days I steered to eastward,
 Four days without a night: Round in a fiery ring
Went the great sun, O King! With red and lurid light.

* Pytheas undoubtedly reached Britain and sailed up the east coast. Our information is so imperfect, 
however, that it is impossible to say whether he actually crossed the Arctic Circle, or, as is more 
probable, only heard of the continuous day and continuous night from the people he met. The text must 
therefore be read in light of this explanation.

The ninth century saw also the daring sea-rovers of Norway sweeping the seas in their " dragons," and 
braving the storms of the North Atlantic to escape the despotic
rule of their king. From the Orkneys these Vikings discovered the Faroe Islands, and thence passed on 
to Iceland, where an independent republic was set up which
soon established a busy trade in wool, butter, hides, and oil with the British Isles and Norway. In 878, 
one of the settlers, Gunniborn (or Gunbiorn) by name, was driven
westward by fierce gales to an unknown country, where he and his crew wintered.

ERIC THE RED REDISCOVERS GREENLAND.

The story lingered round the firesides of Iceland for many a 
long year. After a century had passed, Eric the Red, who had
been outlawed for killing a neighbour in a brawl, resolved to spend the years of his banishment in 
searching for the western land. In this he was successful, and,
finding its summer foliage more luxuriant and verdant than that on the wind-swept slopes of Iceland, 
or, as some say, with a view to inducing friends to settle near him,
he gave the land the attractive name " Greenland."
What the Arctic regions were to those early navigators they are to-day. But we can understand and 
explain by means of simple, natural laws what was to them
mysterious and incomprehensible. At the North Pole the sun rises when he passes the Equator 
northwards, and does not set until he recrosses it on his way
southwards. For six months he is visible all the time; for six months he is below the horizon. The 
moon, too, may remain above the horizon, chasing the sun round and
round the sky, and may be surrounded by strange bands of light, in which mock moons are visible. 
How 
all this, combined with the glorious blaze of the northern lights
(aurora borealis) and with the weird sounds of the moving ice, filled the old-time sailors with feelings 
of awe and dread! Nor is it to be wondered at that they brought
back incredible stories of uncanny and gruesome monsters, when they saw the white bear with its 
shaggy coat and ungainly body, the walrus with its gleaming tusks,
the seal with its great round, staring eyes, and, above all, huge whales spouting and floundering in the 
sea.
(To be continued.)

ASIA: A GENERAL VIEW.
Asia has well been called the mother-continent of the world. There it was that man first learned to 
till the soil, build cities, marshal armies, make laws, tame animals to
suit his needs, record his thoughts and history in writing, work in gold and silver, paint, 
sculpture, weave, and do the hundred and one things that are marks of a
civilised people.

A REPRESENTATION OF ANCIENT BABYLON IN THE DAYS OF ITS SPLENDOUR.

While the rest of the world was sunk in barbarism Asia was the seat of mighty empires, which rose and 
fell just as empires have risen and fallen since. Assyria,
Babylonia, Persia sent conquering armies far and wide, and even now the deserted ruins of their noble 
cities remain as witnesses of their ancient grandeur. Over a
thousand years before Julius Caesar landed in Britain the civilisation of India was established, and 
long before the foundations of Greece were laid China boasted an
advanced civilisation whose history extended back thousands of years before the Christian era.
Asia, too, gave birth to the religions of mankind. Buddhism, a doctrine originally taught by a Hindoo 
sage six centuries before Christ, is adopted by the greater part of the
inhabitants of central and eastern Asia and the Indian Isles; Confucianism, the code of morality of 
the Chinese, was founded by Confucius, who was born in 551 B.C.;
Mohammedanism, so named after Mohammed, who was born at Mecca in 570 A.D., is adopted by the 
people of northern Africa, western Asia, and Turkey; and Christ, the founder of Christianity, lived, 
taught, and suffered death in western Asia.
Yet, while other continents have advanced in knowledge, skill, and wealth, until recently Asia stood 
still or fell back. Most of its older kingdoms have fallen into decay or
are under the influence of other nations, and at the present day only China and Japan can be regarded 
as at all independent. But there are signs that Asia is awakening -
Russia has opened up Siberia by the great transcontinental railway, Japan has risen to be a nation 
that can make her influence felt in the Courts and council-halls of
Europe, and China is sending her students to western colleges and universities, and her representatives 
to all important parts of the earth.
The population of Asia is estimated at 825,000,000, which is more than one-half the entire population 
of the globe. It is, however, very unequally distributed. One-tenth of the surface of the
continent is almost uninhabited, in seven-tenths there is a comparatively small population, while in 
some of the provinces of China and India the population is over 500 per square mile.* As a rule,
the densest population is found in those parts most favoured by rains, and hence the closest-settled 
portions are found south and south-east of the great central plateau, where the monsoons
bring periodical copious showers.
Owing to the numerous migrations that have taken place since time immemorial, Asia has but few 
races 
free from mixture with other races. Yet the races are not so mixed as in Europe, for the great barriers 
formed by the mountain chains, and still more by the high plateaus and deserts, prevented the free 
intercourse that was so easy in the more favoured western lands. But the great
mountain chains were not the only barriers to intercourse, for in China a stupendous work, which may 
be called the eighth wonder of the world,* was built - the great wall of China  - and there it stands to-
day, though the Roman walls in Britain have crumbled in decay.

* The population of New Zealand is 91 per square mile.

It was in 214 B.C. that the great Chinese Emperor, Shih Hwang Ti, determined to erect a barrier along 
the north of his vast empire to keep back the hordes of 
the northern plains. The wall extends from the Gulf of Pe-chi-li westward for 1,255 miles as the
crow flies, but, if it is followed in its windings as it scales precipices and tops craggy hills, it 
cannot be less than 1,500 miles in length.
Though, as we have said, the races of Asia are very mixed, attention may be drawn to three types of 
people.
1.	CAUCASIAN.
2.	MONGOLIAN.
3.	MALAY.
(1.) There is the fair type - the Caucasian - which is found in western Asia and in India. The Caucasian 
has an oval face, eyes set horizontally, a high upright forehead, shapely features, and wavy hair.
 (2.) There is the yellow race, or Mongolian, found in central and eastern Asia, and also in the Indo-
Chinese Peninsula. Of this race the Chinese may be taken as the type. 

* The seven wonders of the world, according to the ancients, were (1) The pyramids of Egypt, (2) the 
hanging gardens at Babylon, shown in the illustration on page 10, (3) the temple of Diana at Ephesus, 
(4) the statue of Jupiter at Athens, (5) the mausoleum erected to Mausolus, an ancient king in Asia 
Minor, (6) the Colossus at Rhodes, and (7) the lighthouse on the island of Pharos near Alexandria.

The cheek-bones are prominent, the eyes are set obliquely, and the hair is straight and lank.
(3.) The Malays are found in Malacca and the Indian Archipelago. These are probably of Mongolic 
origin, but their skin is browner than that of the true Mongol, the
nose is straighter, and the eyes are less oblique.
Most of the continent lies in the Temperate Zone, only a small portion of northern Siberia being 
within the Arctic Circle, and only a portion of the great southern
peninsulas being within the tropics. Yet Asia exhibits greater extremes of heat and cold than one 
would expect, for, as the land slopes north and south from the great
central plateau, the south is hotter and the north colder than would be caused by latitude alone. 
Owing to the vast size of the continent, too, the interior suffers great
extremes of heat and cold at various seasons. On the great central table-land the climate is very 
cold. Up the east coast flows a great warm ocean-current, the Kuro
Siwo, which gives to Japan a mild and genial climate, while places on the mainland opposite have 
winters of arctic severity. The Kuro Siwo thus favours Japan just as
the Gulf Stream favours England.
As we have already indicated, the rainfall is most plentiful in the south and east. The warm winds 
from the Indian Ocean are charged with moisture, and the high
mountains crossing their path cause a heavy rainfall. Deprived of its fertilising moisture, the winds 
pass to the interior yielding no refreshing showers and producing no
rich verdure.  Hence it is that in India we have the rank vegetation of a tropical jungle, and in 
Burma the dense forests of teak, while most of the continents is devoid of
the forest-growth which is so widespread in Africa and America.

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.

As Asia is of such vast size, it is only to be expected that its products would be great in quantity 
and varied in kind. Its chief industries arise from the land. In the less
fertile regions the people generally lead a wandering life, and attend to herds of horses, sheep, 
goats, and camels. In the more populous portions agriculture is the chief
occupation. Wheat is grown in India, but the chief cereal is rice, which is cultivated in China, 
India, Japan, and Ceylon. Coffee is a native of Arabia, but is now grown in
other countries also. Tea came originally from China, but is now largely produced in India, Ceylon, and 
Assam.
The mineral wealth of Asia is very great, and is widely distributed; but it is imperfectly worked. 
Immense coalfields exist in China, India, Siberia, and elsewhere. Gold
has been found in India since the earliest times. It is still worked there, and also in Siberia, and in the 
Ural and Caucasus Mountains. Asia long supplied the world with
gems ---diamonds from India, rubies from Burma, emeralds, sapphires, and other gems from Ceylon.

DATES FOR THE MONTH (February).-1st-Settlement founded at Nelson, 1842 ; 4th-Funeral of 
Queen Victoria, 1901 ; 5th-Treaty of Waitangi signed, 1840; 6th-Tasman discovered the Fiji Islands, 
1643; 14th-Captain Cook killed at Hawaii, 1779; 15th-Kimberley relieved, 1900; 21st-First cable 
between New Zealand and Australia  opened, 1876; 22nd-George Washington born, 1732; 26th-Loss of 
the " Birkenhead," 1852; 28th- Ladysmith relieved, 1900. On appropriate days the school flag might be 
hoisted.

A NEW ZEALAND NATURE CALENDAR.
MARCH.
March is perhaps the best month of the year for collecting ferns, for nearly all kinds are then to be 
found in spore. Spores are not seeds, though they represent one of
the reproductive stages of the plant. Let me try to make this clear. In an ordinary flowering-plant, 
such as the poppy, two kinds of reproductive cells are within the same
flower - pollen - grains produced by the stamens, and the little ovules, or seeds, which are enclosed 
in the pistil. By the action of the pollen the ovules are fertilised, and,
to a certain extent, the seed is developed within the parent plant.
In the case of some seeds, like peas or beans, the embryo, as this young plant is called, is 
developed to a very large extent, so that within the mature seed may be
observed a little stem, two leaves, and a rudimentary root. In other seeds, like those of the 
buttercups, the embryo grows to a very small extent. With every embryo,
however, there is laid up a little store of food-material for it to feed upon. In this condition it 
is cast adrift to enter upon a separate and independent existence.
But in flowerless plants like ferns an altogether different mode of reproduction is met with. On the 
fronds of the plant there are small growths which are known as spore-cases, and, inside of these, very  
small cells known as spores are produced. When the spores are 
placed in favourable conditions of moisture and warmth they send
out shoots which grow into minute green plants of very simple structure. These bear two kinds of 
cells which in their functions are similar to the pollen-grains and ovule of flowering-plants. These two 
kinds of cells act on each other, and there is developed an embryo out of which grows a new fern-plant. 
These little 
rudimentary plants may be found in abundance in damp spots in spring-time; but at this season of year 
the only thing to be found is the mature fern-plant with its brown 
clusters of spore-cases.
 When the spore-ease is ripe it bursts open and gives forth numerous little spores. Where ferns 
(especially the bracken, which is so common on our hills) are very
abundant, this scattering of the spores occasionally produces curious effects. The fine dust is
so difficult to wet that it gathers on the surface of ponds and lakes, and remains in a thin film 
which listens in the sunlight like a sheet of burnished copper, and in the
shadows gives a deep red-brown hue to the water.
But flowering -plants and flowerless plants like ferns are alike in this respect : both seem to 
strive
not  so much for the preservation of the individual as for the perpetuation of the race. The 
individual certainly struggles for its own existence, but what stands out most
prominently is the sacrificing of self for the benefit of the kind. The deeper we look into Nature's 
workings, the more forcibly will this truth appeal to us.
It has been often pointed out that there are born
into the world more individuals of all kinds, plants and animals alike, than can possibly come to 
maturity. If everything born on a given day lived and multiplied freely,
human life would become impossible in a very short time - possibly  in a few hours. The air would 
become a solid mass of things that fly, so that the world would be
plunged into darkness; animal life on the earth would be destroyed for want of air and a chance to feed 
properly; 
and the waters of the earth would soon be solid with the forms of
things that live in them.
Every rose - grower knows what fearful damage may be done by the pests of his garden. I wonder how 
many rose-growers imagine what would be the result if only one
of these pests multiplied unchecked! Take, for instance, the aphis. On a given day one 
might produce twenty-five, two days later there would be twenty-five
times twenty-five, and two days later again twenty-five times twenty-five times twenty-five, and so on. 

Pearson's Magazine.]
If a couple of blackbirds and a couple of pigeons and their offspring were allowed to breed unmolested, 
and all their young to breed, in seven years they would total over
10,000,000.

Professor Huxley computed  that if the increase of a single aphis were not checked, twenty-nine figures 
would be required to represent the numbers of the tenth generation. 
Again, if a poppy increased at the rate of fifty seeds yearly, the
unchecked result would be that in a few years the entire globe would be covered with poppies, leaving 
no room for other plants. The crocodile lays from twenty to sixty
eggs at a sitting. If two crocodiles were placed in a river - say, the Thames - and permitted to breed 
unmolested, and if all their young lived, in fifty years the river would be rendered unnavigable by the 
countless millions of crocodiles. The common garden-spider thinks 
nothing of producing seven hundred eggs at a sitting, and if Nature
allowed all spiders to live the world would soon be one creeping, heaving mass of common garden - 
spiders. The codfish lays some
millions of eggs, and therefore, if its offspring were undisturbed and unmolested, the sea would soon 
be a solid mass of codfish.
Fortunately for us, everything that is born does not live. Birds, insects, and other creatures 
assist the rose-grower in destroying his enemies; seeds such as those of
the poppy can grow only where the soil, heat, moisture, and other conditions are favourable, and 
even then they struggle for life and starve out of existence their weaker
brethren; the eggs of the crocodile are destroyed in great numbers by birds, and thousands of the 
young that happen to be born fall victims to the rapacity of turtles and fishes, and even to the cannibal 
instincts of the parents themselves; spiders' eggs are destroyed in 
thousands before they are hatched, and equally large numbers of
the young are destroyed at an early stage by flies, birds, and other creatures of the garden and 
field; hundreds of thousands of the eggs of the codfish are devoured
before they are hatched, and hundreds of thousands of young fry are swallowed alive by their marine 
enemies. We thus see that to preserve its kind and to maintain its
place in Nature a plant  -in common with most of the creatures of the animal-world - must struggle and 
undergo self-sacrifice to produce more offspring than can possibly
 survive.
And wonderful indeed it is how plants provide that their seeds shall be placed in conditions favourable 
to their growth. In the course of your walks
in the country you must have heard the pods of the broom and the gorse cracking sharply and 
scattering the seed some distance from the parent plant. It would not be of
much use if the seeds dropped straight down - they would have to struggle for life in ground already 
occupied by the parent, and they would starve each other. Some
plants, such as the well-known bid-a-bid, provide their seed with hooks, which, fastening themselves 
in the coats of passing animals such as sheep, scatter the seeds
far and wide.

Pearson's Magazine.]
In Florida, hyacinths stretch for miles across river-mouths, and any ship enmeshed in them has, with 
great difficulty, to be tugged out: an example of what might happen
if all seeds grew.

Other seeds, again, such as those of the thistle, are winged, and are borne for miles on the passing 
breeze.
Other similar provisions for the scattering of seeds you yourselves will no doubt know, but space 
will here allow us to refer only to the seeds contained in what are
commonly known as fruits. Just as most flowers produce gorgeous petals, nectar, and pollen to attract 
insects to them so also many plants inclose their seeds inside a mass of pulp in order 
that birds may be thus tempted to swallow them. The blackberry which
in many parts of New Zealand has overgrown thousands of acres of valuable land,
has been spread by this means. In other cases the seeds are not swallowed by the birds, but are 
carried away to some quiet place to be eaten, the fleshy portion
alone being taken and the stone or seed left.
-Adapted from Mr. G. M. Thomson's " A New Zealand Naturalist's Calendar." The editor is indebted 
also to Pearson's Magazine for some of the points in the article and
for the illustrations.

ESSAY COMPETITION.
The Secretary of the British and Foreign Sailors' Society has forwarded the results of the Essay 
Competition on " Captain James Cook, his Voyages and Discoveries,
and their Value to the Nation, Commerce, and Christianity," to which attention was drawn in the 
School Journal last year. The successful competitors are, (a) for the
North Island - Patrick Neville, District High School, Onehunga, and Alice K. Wilson, Girls' Grammar 
School, Auckland; (b) for the South Island - Douglas W. McClurg,
Waitaki Boys' High School, Oamaru, and Johanna M. Brosnan, District High School, Lawrence.
Four more plaques are offered for competition this year, the subject of the essay being " Arctic 
Explorers, and the Benefits arising from their Discoveries," with a map of
the regions surrounding he North Pole.
A plaque will be awarded to a boy and a girl in each Island, and the Minister of Education has 
prescribed the following conditions for the competition: -  
(l.) Competitors must be under sixteen years of age on the 31st May next.
(2.) The essays, which must not exceed one thousand words in length, must be forwarded to the 
Education Board of
the district on or before the 31st May next. The envelope is to bear the words " Arctic Essay."
(3.) The essay must be written in school without notes, text - books, or assistance from the teacher. 
The map may
be prepared at home.
(4.) The number of essays from the boys of any one school, or from the girls of the same school, is 
limited to two or,
at the most, three.
(5.) On the last page of each essay must be shown the full name of the writer, his or her age, the 
name of the school,
the Island in which the school is situated, and a certification by the head teacher that the 
conditions imposed have
been fully complied with.

KITCHENER OF KHARTUM.

LORD KITCHENER AT KHARTUM.
Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, or, as he is frequently called, Kitchener of Khartum, was born in the 
county of Kerry, 
Ireland, in the year 1850. After studying at Woolwich he joined the Engineers,
and at the age of thirty-two was placed in command of the Egyptian cavalry. In the year 1890 he was 
made Sirdar, or chief 
commander, of the Egyptian forces. While in Egypt Lord Kitchener built up
the Egyptian army, carried a railway into the desert, and made preparations for an attack on the fierce 
dervishes of the 
upper Nile, who were always a menace to the peace and prosperity of Egypt.
These he defeated with terrific slaughter at Atbara, and by a final victory at Omdurman won back the 
whole of the vast 
territory of the Sudan for Egypt. After occupying Omdurman he proceeded to
Khartum to hold a solemn religious service in memory of General Gordon, who had been murdered 
there fourteen years before.
For his services in the Sudan Lord Kitchener was knighted, and received the thanks of both Houses of 
Parliament. Next year 
he accompanied Lord Roberts to South Africa as chief of the staff, and
was afterwards appointed Commander-in-Chief of the forces in India. His present office is that of High 
Commissioner and 
Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean. He has control not only
over the British troops at Malta and Gibraltar, and in Egypt, Mauritius, and South Africa, but also over 
the native forces 
employed in east, central, and western Africa. At intervals he will also inspect
the forces of the self-governing States of South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, a duty he is 
carrying out at the 
present time.
The following extract from a book called " With Kitchener to Khartum," written by Mr. G. W. 
Steevens, describes in touching 
words the ceremony that took place at Khartum:
The steamers - screws, paddles, stern-wheelers - plug-plugged their steady way up the full Nile - past 
the northern fringe of Omdurman, past the reach where we went in to the Khalifa's* stronghold, past 
the choked embrasures 
and the torn tomb of the Mahdi, past the swamp-rooted palms of Tuti Island.

GENERAL GORDON.

* Khalifa (Kha-lee-fah). - He succeeded to the chief Command of the Arabs of the Sudan after the 
death of the Mahdi. He was overthrown at Omdurman. The Mahdi was the leader of the Arab revolt 
against the Khedive (Kay-deev) or Viceroy of Egypt.

It was Sunday morning, and that furious Friday* seemed already half a lifetime behind us. The volleys 
had dwindled out of our ears, and the smoke out of our nostrils;
and to-day we were going to the funeral of Gordon. After nearly fourteen years the Christian soldier 
was to have Christian burial.
On the steamers there was a detachment of every corps, white or black or yellow, that had taken part in 
the vengeance. Every white officer that could be spared from duty was there, fifty men 
picked from each British battalion, one or two from each unit of the
Egyptian army. That  we were going up to Khartum at all was evidence of our triumph; yet, if you 
looked about you, triumph was not the note. The most reckless
young officer, the most barbarous black, was touched with gravity.

* The day on which the Battle of Omdurman was fought.

We were going to perform a necessary duty, which had been put off far, far too long.
Fourteen years next January - yet even through that humiliating thought there ran a whisper of triumph. 
We may be slow; but in that very slowness we show that we do
not forget. Soon or late, we give our own their due. Here were men that fought for Gordon's life 
while he lived; and here, too, were boys who could hardly lisp when their
mothers told them that Gordon was dead, grown up now and appearing in the fullness of time to exact 
eleven thousand lives for one. Gordon may die - other Gordons may
die in the future - but the same clean-limbed brood will grow up and avenge them.
The boats stopped plugging, and there was silence. We were tying up opposite a grove of tall palms; on 
the bank was a crowd of natives.
They stared at us; but we looked beyond them to
 a large building rising from a crumbling quay.
 You could see that it had once been a handsome
Edifice - all stone and stucco, two-storied, faced with tall, regular windows. Now the upper story was 
clean gone; the blind windows were filled up
 with bricks; the stucco was all scars, and you
could walk up to the roof on rubble. In front was an acacia, all unpruned, deep luscious green,
only drooping like a weeping willow.  At that
most ordinary sight everybody grew very solemn.
For it was a piece of a new world - or, rather, of an old world - utterly different from the squalid
mud, the baking barrenness of Omdurman. A facade with tall windows, a tree with green leaves - the 
facade battered and blind, the tree drooping to earth -there was no need to tell us we were at a grave. In 
that forlorn ruin and that disconsolate acacia, the bones of murdered civilisation  lay before us.
The troops formed up before the palace in three sides of a rectangle - Egyptians to our left as we 
looked from the
river, British to the right. The Sirdar, the generals, and the staff stood in the open space facing 
the palace. Then on
the roof - almost on the very spot where Gordon fell, though the steps by which the butchers 
mounted have long
since vanished - we were aware of two flag-staves, and by each stood two officers of the conquering 
army.
The Sirdar raised his hand. A pull on the halyards: up ran, out flew, the Union Jack, tugging eagerly at 
his reins, dazzling
gloriously
the sun, rejoicing in his strength and his freedom. " Bang! " went the " Melik's " 12 1/2-pounder, 
and the boat quivered
to her backbone. " God save our Gracious Queen " hymned the Guards' band -"bang!" from the " 
Melik"-and Sirdar and private stood stiff -  " bang! " - to attention, every hand at the helmet-peak in - " 
bang! " – salute. 
The Egyptian flag had
gone up at the same instant; and now, the same ear-smashing, soul uplifting bangs marking time, the 
band of the
11th Sudanese was playing the Egyptian National Hymn.
" Three cheers for the Queen!" cried the Sirdar: helmets leaped in the air, and the melancholy 
ruins woke to the
first wholesome shout of all these years. Then the same for the Khedive. The comrade flags stretched 
themselves
lustily, enjoying their own again; the bands pealed forth the pride of country; the twenty-one guns 
banged forth the
strength of war. Thus, white men and black, Christian and Moslem, Anglo-Egypt set her seal once 
more, 
for ever, on
Khartum.
Before we had time to think such thoughts over to ourselves, the Guards were playing the Dead March 
in " Saul."
From the " Illustrated London News."]
THE COMRADE FLAGS STRETCHED THEMSELVES LUSTILY.

Then the black band was playing the march from Handel's "Scipio,"
which in England generally goes with " Toll for the Brave": this was in memory of those loyal men 
among the Khedive's subjects who could have saved themselves by treachery, but preferred to die 
with Gordon. Next fell a deeper hush than ever, except for the
solemn minute-guns that had followed the fierce salute.
Four chaplains - Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist - came slowly forward and ranged 
themselves, with their backs to the palace, just before the Sirdar. One
read the Fifteenth Psalm; another led the rustling whisper of the Lord's Prayer; another laid his 
helmet at his feet, and read a memorial prayer bare-headed in the Sun.
Then came forward the pipers and wailed a dirge, and the Sudanese played " Abide with me." And 
there were those who said the cold Sirdar himself could hardly
speak or see, as General Hunter and the rest stepped out according to their rank and shook his hand. 
What wonder? He had trodden this road to Khartum for fourteen
years, and he stood at the goal at last.
Thus with Maxim-Nordenfeldt* and Bible we buried Gordon after the manner of his race. The parade 
was 
over, the troops were dismissed, and for a short space we
walked in Gordon's garden.
Gordon has become a legend with his countrymen, and they all but made a god of him dead who would 
never have heard of him had he lived . But in this garden you
somehow came to know Gordon the man, not the myth, and to feel near to him. Here was an 
Englishman 
doing his duty, alone and at the instant peril of his life; yet still
he loved his garden. The garden was a yet sadder ruin than the palace. The palace accepted its doom 
mutely; the garden strove against it. 

* A quick-firing gun.

Untrimmed, unwatered, the oranges and citrons still struggled to bear their little, hard, green knobs as if 
they had been full ripe fruit. The 
pomegranates put out their vermilion star-flowers, but the fruit was small and
woody and juiceless. The figs bore better, but they, too, were small and without vigour. A vine still 
trailed over a low roof its pale leaves and limp tendrils, but yielded not a
sign of grapes. It was all green, and, so far, vivid and refreshing after Omdurman. But it was the 
green of nature, not of cultivation: leaves grew large and fruit grew small,
and dwindled away. Reluctantly, despairingly, Gordon's garden was dropping back to wilderness.
The bugle broke in upon us; we went back to the boats. We were quicker steaming back than steaming 
up. We were not a whit less chastened, but every man felt
lighter. We came with a sigh of shame; we went away with a sigh of relief. The long-delayed duty was 
done. The bones of our countryman were shattered and scattered
abroad, and no man knows their place; none the less Gordon had his due burial at last. So we steamed 
away to the roaring camp, and left him alone again. Yet not one
nor two looked back at the mouldering palace and the tangled garden with a new and a great 
contentment. We left Gordon alone again - but alone in majesty under the conquering ensign of his 
own people.

THE PLANETS DURING MARCH: Saturn and Mars are "evening stars " during the month of 
March, being visible in the west after sunset. Saturn sets about 
8 p.m. and Mars about three-quarters of an hour later. The new moon
will be near Saturn on the 14th and near Mars on the 16th. Jupiter rises about 7 p.m. in the 
middle of the month, and can be seen in the north-east between 8 and
10 p.m. He will be near the full moon on the 26th. Venus is a morning star, rising about 3 a.m.
 
A NEW ZEALAND NATURE CALENDAR.
APRIL.
Autumn brings with it the fall of the leaves of deciduous trees, and by the end of April many of the 
introduced trees and a few of the native species will be bare, or nearly
so. Oaks and some beech-trees may carry dead leaves into the spring, but most of the leaves will be 
on the ground by the beginning of winter.
The fall of the leaf is so often seen and is so common and so familiar that we seldom stop to look 
into it, and yet it is full of interest and instruction. And what is it that
causes the leaf to fall ? Well, while it is yet green a thin plate of cells is formed right across 
the base of the leaf-stalk. As the season advances some of these cells
break down into a thin gum-like fluid, thus weakening the stalk at its base, while other cells harden 
and form a protective covering for the exposed surface of the plant.
When this process has gone on sufficiently far the leaf is quietly separated and drops by its own 
weight. Sometimes on a still night frost causes a rapid fall of leaves on
account of the freezing and consequent expansion of the fluid at the weak spot.
Before a leaf falls, its colouring-matter (chlorophyll) has begun to alter in chemical composition, 
turning the leaf yellow, red, brown, or purple, and producing all those
beautiful tints which richly deck most of the introduced deciduous trees in autumn. This is caused by 
the stoppage of the supply of food-material to the leaf. These
alterations in colour are not very marked in our New Zealand flora, nor are they, as a general rule, 
very noticeable in evergreen plants. But the leaves of our mountain ribbonwood turn yellow, those of 
the fuchsia purplish or brown, while the 
large leaves of the rangiora become beautifully veined with red or purple.
It is in the North Temperate Zone, and especially among the North American and Japanese plants, that 
the brilliant autumn tints are so conspicuous.
This separation of the leaves when their work is done serves more purposes than one. If they remained 
on the branch they would subject the plant to strains during gales
and high winds at a time when the new rootlets are beginning to develop. Only deciduous plants with 
extremely tough stems, like oaks, seem able to hold leaves which
are dead and functionless. Again, the dead leaves falling quietly around the parent plant help to enrich 
the surface soil.

THE PERIPATUS.

Then worms carry the decaying vegetable-matter into the ground, 
where it tends still further to render available the insoluble minerals
contained in the soil.
Under and among the dead leaves is an abundance of animal life which helps the decaying process. 
Millipedes, centipedes, spiders, larvae of many insects, snails,
beetles, and other animals all help in this work. One of the most remarkable of these animals to be 
found among decayed wood in the bush, or in localities where bush formerly existed, is known as 
Peripatus. It is not an insect, though somewhat like one in general 
appearance. It looks like a velvety caterpillar of a brown or purplish colour, but differs in possessing 
about a score of pairs of feet, and carries 
a pair of short, stout feelers (antennae) in front of the head. During the daytime it
is a very sluggish-looking animal, but in the dark it moves about more freely. When the Peripatus is 
irritated it ejects from the front part of the body small jets of a very sticky
material, so that, if any fly, spider, or other small animal were to attack it, the aggressor would 
be immediately glued up by threads of this sticky substance. Though it can thus
defend itself, we do not know exactly whether the material ejected is for defence purposes or for 
catching prey. I have often kept these little creatures in confinement, and could
make them fire off their artillery by a little judicious poking with a twig. If I held a fly to one 
of them, a discharge was immediately poured on it. Later, when the victim was dead or
motionless, the Peripatus would return at its leisure, and eat it up. When the creatures were well 
supplied with flies I found that they increased rapidly; but if they were ill
provided with food their numbers diminished mysteriously - the big ones had evidently dined upon the 
little ones.
The honey-bees are especially engaged in laying up their winter store of food. They always mean 
business, and go about the flowers as if they were in a hurry. There is no such
thing as ease and leisure among bees: they work for work's sake, and take life seriously. Every now 
and then a humble-bee comes bustling along: at this season of the year it is
chiefly the small males that are out; their term of life is short, as all will die when the cold 
weather comes, and only the queen will be left to rear next year's brood.
An insect which is often seen during hot days is the butterfly known as the Red Admiral, though it 
is not of the same species as the insect of that name so well known in
England. As I sit in my garden one comes sailing along in that peculiar jerky, hovering flight that 
is so characteristic of this fine group of butterflies. It lights upon a flower-head,
folds up its gorgeously coloured wings so as to display the large eye-spots on the underside, while 
it moves awkwardly about as if its body and wings were too heavy for its
slender legs. Watching it for a space of five minutes, I am surprised at the number of blossoms it 
has visited in so short a time. It has not only tried several marigolds and dahlias,
displacing a humble-bee from one of the latter but has, three different times visited the same bunch 
of stockflowers. This is a thing which a bee seldom does. It visits a flower
once, but seldom comes back to it again. Bees work with more system and intelligence than do other 
kinds of honey-gathering insects.
April is thus seen to furnish much of interest to the naturalist. Vegetation is largely in a state of 
rest, but the animal world is still vigorous, not yet having been lulled to dormancy
or perpetual sleep by the cold of winter.
-Adapted from Mr. G. M. Thomson's " A New Zealand Naturalist's Calendar."

DATES FOR THE MONTH (March) : 7th-Sir George Grey assumed duty as Governor of New 
Zealand, 1873; 17th-St. Patrick's Day; 25th-Cook paid his second visit to New Zealand, 1773 - Good 
Friday; 31st-Arrival of first New Plymouth settlers, 1841-Cook left Cape Farewell, 1770, after his first 
visit to New Zealand. On appropriate days the school flag might be hoisted.
  
THE ROMANCE OF THE NORTH POLE.
II. FROM THE CABOTS TO JOHN DAVIS.
Seamen of old, true-hearted and bold,
Honour to you for aye !
'Gainst shoal and floe, in the realm of snow,
Ye fought for an ocean way.
Ye fought and died, and the ravening tide  Hath ta'en your bones in fee,
And buried them deep in the icy sweep
Of the pitiless Polar Sea.  
Grim heroes all, your voices call  While ever the waves leap high,
Inspiring the creed of an island breed
That has learned to dare and die.
From the earliest adventurers let us now turn to the time when, during the period immediately 
following the discovery of America by Columbus, merchant-venturers sought for passages north-east 
and north-west from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The discoveries of Columbus had opened the eyes of 
Europe to the possibility of a western route to India, and John Cabot, a Venetian who had settled in 
Bristol, obtained from Henry VII a charter to sail to the westward in the hope of discovering it. Setting 
sail in 1497, accompanied by his son Sebastian, he discovered the coast of Labrador, and thus saw the 
mainland of America about eighteen months before it was seen by Columbus.*
In 1499 Sebastian Cabot seems to have sailed with two ships in search of a north-west passage, and to 
have followed the American coast from 60' to 30' north. Says
Sebastian, " I began, therefore, to sail north-west, not thinking to find any other land than that of 
Cathay, and from thence to turn towards India; but after certain days I found that
the land ran towards the north, which was to me a great displeasure sure.

* On his earlier voyages Columbus saw only the West India Islands.

Nevertheless, sailing along by the coast to see if I could find any gulf that turned, I found the land still
continued. And, seeing that the coast turned towards the east, despairing to find the passage, I turned 
back again, and sailed down by the coast of that land towards the equinoctial (ever with intent to find 
the said passage to India), and came to that part which is now called Florida, where, my victuals 
failing, I departed and returned to England. "

From the "Alternative History Reader," by Wm. Collins, Sons, and Co.]
THE DEPARTURE OF THE CABOTS.

In 1553 Sir Hugh Willoughby was placed in charge of three ships, which set sail from the Thames on 
the 10th May for the purpose of opening up trade with the north of
Russia and the regions beyond. The largest vessel was only 160 tons burden, and with their broad bows 
and lofty poops they were such poor sailers that the Arctic
Circle was not crossed till nearly the end of July, when the ships were among the Lofoden Isles, off 
the coast of Norway. Steering to the north-east, they were
separated by a storm and never met again.
Richard Chancellor, who was second in command, rode out the storm, and put back to a rendezvous 
that 
had been agreed upon in case they were separated. Neither
of the other vessels appearing, he again put to sea and " sailed so far that he came at last to a 
place where he found no night at all, but a continual light and
brightness of the sun shining clearly upon the huge and mighty sea. And, having the benefit of this 
perpetual light for certain days, at length it pleased God to bring
them into a certain great bay, which was a hundred miles, or thereabouts, over. Whereinto they 
entered, and, somewhat far within it, cast anchor; and, looking every
way about them, it happened that they espied afar off a fisher-boat, which Master Chancellor, 
accompanied with a few of his men, went towards to commune with the
fishermen that were in it, and to know of them what country it was." The unknown water which they 
had 
entered was the White Sea,, and they were near the port of
Archangel, then only a castle. Chancellor undertook a journey to Moscow, made arrangements for 
trading with the Russians, and then returned in safety.
In the spring of 1554 some Russian fishermen found the unfortunate Sir Hugh Willoughby and his 
crew 
all frozen to death on the coast of Lapland. The commander had
written a journal which showed
that he had seen Nova Zembla, but, owing to the
drift-ice and the shallowness of the water, had been unable to land. He tells how, when he reached 
the mainland, he sent out parties to search for inhabitants; but they
returned without finding men or any signs of habitation. There the journal ends, leaving forever untold 
the story of their sad struggles against cold and their grim fights with death.
The voyages of Willoughby and Chancellor showed that the Arctic Ocean could be successfully sailed, 
and 
after a time the idea of a north-west passage
was revived, and new attempts were made to discover it. In 1576 Martin Frobisher, an experienced
English seaman, having received the good wishes of Elizabeth, set sail with two small ships - mere
cockle-shells of about 20 tons each. He sighted Greenland " rising like pinnacles of steeples, all 
covered with snow," and, after being delayed by fogs and ice, reached
the coast of Labrador with only one ship, the other having deserted. Passing Cape Chudleigh, the 
explorers crossed the eastern
entrance of the strait afterwards explored by Hudson, without knowing how near they were to the 
passage they sought so eagerly. Resolution Island was 
discovered, and they then entered what for more than two
centuries and a half was known as Frobisher Strait, but which modern explorers have
proved to be a gulf.
Sailing up the supposed strait, they came to an island to which the name Butcher Island was given. 
"Going to the top of the island," says Christopher Hall, one of the
explorers, " we had sight of seven boats which came rowing from the east side towards that island, 
whereupon we returned aboard again. At length we sent our boat,
with five men in her, to see whither they rowed, and so with a white
cloth brought one of their boats, with their men,
along the shore, rowing after our boat, until such time as they saw our ship, and then they rowed 
ashore. Then I went ashore myself, and gave every one 
of them a present, and brought one of them aboard, where he did
eat and drink, and then carried him on shore again; whereon all the rest came aboard with their 
boats, being nineteen persons, and they spake, but we understood them
not. They be like to Tartars, with long black hair, broad faces, and flat noses, and tawny in colour, 
wearing seal skins; and so do the women, not differing in the fashion,
but the women are marked in the face with blue streaks down the cheeks and round about the eyes. "
On the following day a party landed on another part of the island, and found many canoes and houses 
of the fur-clad natives. One of the natives was induced to go on
board the ship, and was presented with a little bell. When he was being landed, an officer and the 
crew of the boat, five men in all, were seized by the Eskimos and
dragged away. Frobisher lay off the island for some time, and, finding that his men were not allowed 
to return, he seized one of the Eskimos and sailed eastward, to reach
England in the autumn.
 Among the things that were brought away was a
quantity of " black earth," and it afterwards became rumoured that it was rich in gold. This caused
great excitement, and, though the ore was quite
valueless, expeditions were fitted out in the two
following years. Of these the only point worthy of
note was that during one Frobisher sailed some
distance up Hudson Strait without discovering the
noble gulf to which it led, and by turning back to
seek for the worthless ore lost a glorious opportunity
to make his name still more famous.
John Davis, one of the most scientific sailors of that age, was the last of the Elizabethan seamen to 
explore the Arctic, making in three successive years three voyages, the first of which took place in 
1585. He was the first to visit the west coast of Greenland since the Norse 
colonies were abandoned, and called it the "Land of Desolation." He explored both sides of the strait
that now bears his name, and in his third voyage he advanced as far north as 72' 41" N., where he 
reported " no ice towards the north, but a great sea, free, large, very salt
and blue, and of an unsearchable depth.''
Davis called a Greenland cape which marked his farthest north Sanderson His Hope," in honour of
 his patron, for from  here it seemed that there was every hope of discovering a passage. No 
ice-floes  covered the bright  blue sea, but here  and there a few majestic icebergs raised their glistening 
peaks to the sunshine.

SANDERSON'S HOPE.

To the eastward were the granite mountains of Greenland, and beyond them the white
line of the greatest glacier in the world. Under the beetling walls of the bluff lay the tiny 
vessel, and, as the great navigator stood on her deck and gazed around at the fairy
scene, so utterly unlike any
thing that is ever beheld in more genial climes, his heart filled with the hope that the future would 
bring success to himself and honour to his patron, and he gave for all
time the name of Sanderson's Hope to the bird-swept crags.*

* Davis did not afterwards return to the north. He explored in the southern seas, and in 1605 was killed 
by pirates off the coast of Malacca.

COMETS.
 As most of you are no doubt aware, a
comet, known as " Halley's comet," is approaching the sun, and will soon be a conspicuous object
in the evening sky. The diagram on the next page
shows the earth's orbit and also the path of the comet as it approaches the sun, with the date on
which each body is at different points. During
its present visit the comet was first observed by Dr.
Wolf of the Heidelberg Observatory, Germany, on 
the 12th September last year. It will pass round
the sun on the 19th May next, during an eclipse
of the sun that will be total in the Antarctic 
regions and will be partly visible in Tasmania
To observe the comet during the eclipse an English expedition is going to Tasmania and an American 
one to Honolulu. The diagram shows
also the relative positions of the sun, the comet,
and the earth on the 19th May.
You may ask what comets are. But it is easier
to ask the question than to answer it, for, although a great deal has been learned about their movements 
and the substances that enter into their
composition, we must admit that nothing in the 
whole range of astronomy is more puzzling than the behaviour of comets. 
 To begin with their paths, or orbits - these have
in many cases been calculated very exactly, so that
astronomers can now say when certain comets will  
return to the sun. This was made possible by 
Sir Isaac Newton's discovery of the law of gravitation in the seventeenth century. He applied the
law to the orbits of several comets that, unlike
the planets, which move in orbits nearly circular
were found to move in very elongated ellipses.

RELATIVE MOTIONS OF HALLEY'S COMET AND THE EARTH.
(The comet is approaching the sun at the rate of over a million miles and hour, a speed which increases 
as it gets nearer and nearer.)


Other comets move in a curve termed a " parabola," which is not closed like the ellipse. A parabola 
is exactly the curve formed by the path of a stone when thrown into the air. The
two branches of this curve stretch away and away for ever, always getting further and further apart. 
Most of the comets that visit us move in orbits that are parabolas, and
consequently they disappear into space and never return.
Newton, assisted by Halley, another astronomer, calculated the orbits of several comets. But it was 
left to Halley to bring this particular branch of astronomy into working-order. In
1682 the comet which is now approaching the sun became visible in the skies. Halley observed it, and, 
applying his methods to its positions on certain dates, determined the
shape of its orbit. He was at once struck by the similarity of its orbit to that of another comet 
which had appeared in 1607, seventy-five years earlier. He was surprised to find two
comets moving in apparently the same orbit, and soon came to the conclusion that it was a case of the 
same body returning after a period of seventy-five years. He argued that, if
his theory were correct, the comet should have been visible in the past at intervals of about every 
seventy-five years. If we subtract 75 from 1607 we have 1532, and he found that a
comet had actually appeared in 1531. Again subtracting 75, he found that another great comet had been 
recorded in 1456.
Halley was now confident that this comet was moving in a closed curve - an ellipse - and for the first 
time in the history of astronomy the return of a comet was predicted. He
somewhat quaintly says, " Wherefore, if it should return according to our prediction about the year 
1758, -impartial :posterity will not refuse to acknowledge that thiswas first discovered by an 
Englishman."
Halley did not live to see his prediction fulfilled, but, as the time for the comet's return
drew near, great interest was aroused in all European  countries. Many telescopes were employed
 scanning the heavens about the region in which
 it was expected to appear. It was first seen, as
 so many comets have been,  by an amateur astronomer.
 It became visible on the night of Christmas Day, 1758. It passed round the sun on the 12th March, 
1759, and was then seen to the greatest advantage, having a tail 47 degrees in
length. It next returned in 1835, and appears again this year.
Comets, like most of the celestial bodies, have been subjected to spectroscopic analysis. The 
spectroscope* reveals the presence of so heavy a material as iron, and of so light a
substance as hydrogen. In the bright star-like head we have what may be looked upon as the true 
comet, the tail 
being but emanations from this portion. The head is generally supposed to be
made up of an immense number of small particles of solid meteoric matter.
When first seen at a great distance from the sun, in the telescope a comet generally appears like a 
faint star surrounded by a luminous haze. As it approaches the sun the tail is
developed, and rapidly increases in size: strange to say, however, the tail always points away from 
the sun, as is shown by the diagram on page 53.
Comets have been known to pass close to some of the smaller bodies of the solar system without 
apparently exerting any attractive force upon them; hence we assume that they have very little  mass or 
weight as compared with their enormous size.

* Spectroscope - An instrument that enables us to tell the composition of self-luminous heavenly 
bodies.

Some comets pass round the sun at a distance of many millions of miles; others almost skim its  
surface. A comet of 1843 actually passed through the corona, or outer
luminous atmosphere, of the Sun.
In 1835 Halley's comet came within four and a half million miles of the earth, thus enabling 
astronomers to make a close study of the remarkable able changes taking  place in it.
For ages the approach of a comet was observed with awe and apprehension by the people of the earth, 
and was held to portend some terrible disaster or other
event of great importance. About 134 B.C., at the birth of the great Mithradates,  King of Pontus 
(a portion of Asia Minor), two large comets are said to have appeared with a
brilliancy greater than that of the sun.
Halley's comet was supposed to have played a part in moulding the history of nations. It appeared  at 
the time of the Norman Conquest, and of it was said, " Here thou art again,
thou cause of the tears of many mothers! It is long since I have seen thee, but I see thee now, more 
terrible than ever; thou threatenest my country with complete ruin." 

HALLEY'S COMET AS IT APPEARED IN 1835

It hung in the sky in 1456, when Constaninople, then a Christian city, was captured by the Turks. It 
terrified the inhabitants as much as did the swords 
of the conquerors, and
they prayed, "Lord, save us from the Devil, the Turks, and the Comet."
Thus also Shakespeare in " Julius Caesar ":
When beggars die there are no comets
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
And again, Milton, in " Paradise Lost":
Satan stood Unterrified, and like a Comet burned, That fires the length of Ophiuchus* huge In th' 
Arctic sky, and from its horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war.
In New Zealand, too, comets have been accepted as portents, the comet which appeared in 1843 being 
in 
the Maori mind associated with the bloodshed of that year.
But the dread of comets arose from ignorance
of the laws which control their  appearances and movements. As knowledge advances, error flees
away, and often carries fear in its train. Ignorant people still fancy that if the tail of a comet
were to " strike " (as they call it) the earth, the human race would be utterly destroyed. But let
us consider for a moment. A cloud a few feet thick will obscure the sun on the brightest day,
and a mere wisp of mist or cloud will prevent our seeing the brightest stars. No one fears a cloud, 
and, though it often rests on the earth's surface in the form of mist or fog, no
alarm is felt. Now, the tail of a comet is thousands and thousands of miles thick, yet the faintest 
stars
may be seen through it, and even through the denser nucleus itself. 

* Of-i-u-kus - "The Serpent Bearer," one of the northern constellations.

How little matter, then, must there be in a comet, and how little damage it could do to us even if it did " 
strike" us!
 Comets will always inspire wonder, and their
sudden comings will always partake of the
mysterious. But, as Sir Robert Ball says, we
must no longer regard a comet " as a sign of impending calamity; we may rather look upon it as an 
interesting and a beautiful visitor which comes to please us and to instruct us, but never to threaten or 
destroy."

SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE.
 We generally imagine that the researches of scientific
men are directed to very profound and serious matters,
which have nothing to do with our nursery amusements.
One such learned scientist, however, has occupied himself
of late in discovering the history and the inner meaning
of some of our dear old nursery rhymes, and you would
be surprised to know how much " inner meaning " has
been discovered in " Sing a Song of Sixpence."
We are told that the four-and-twenty blackbirds stand for the four-and-twenty hours of a day and 
night ; that the bottom of the pie represents the world, and the top crust the sky;
the opening of the pie is daybreak, when the birds begin to sing; and the " dainty dish" is the 
fresh, fair, newly wakened world; the King in his chamber is the sun, counting out his
golden coins, the sunbeams ; the Queen in her parlour is the moon ; the maid in the garden is the 
peep of day, hanging out clouds of every form and hue, until the big blackbird,
Nightfall, comes down and takes her by surprise.
" Sing a Song of Sixpence " dates back to the sixteenth century, so the little folk who sing it to-day are 
following what has been the custom of children, generation after
generation, from Tudor times.
WATER, AND WHAT IT DOES FOR US.
Who has not felt at some time or another on a
hot day as if he would give all he possessed for a glass of water? So strong is this desire for water 
that unquenchable thirst is the chief terror of shipwrecked people - they can think
of hunger with comparative calmness of mind, but the idea of thirst terrifies them, and even drives 
them to madness. They must have fresh water, too: sea-water does no good - it
only makes them more thirsty, and the salts dissolved in it have a very harmful
action upon the body itself.
Why is the desire for water so strong? Two
thirds of the total weight of the body consists of water. This single statement shows the importance 
of water, apart from its necessary presence where any building-up or breaking-
down is taking place in the tissues. The body with all the water dried out of it is practically 
mummified, and consists of very little more than bone covered with a parchment-like
skin.
About four and a half pints of water are given
off from the body daily. It is being given off constantly by the lungs and skin, as well as by other 
organs. Some of this water is actually made in the 
body itself - that is, the elements of which water is composed are brought
together and made to unite in the tissues. We take in most of it, however, in the fluid and food that 
we take. It travels
to the tissues carrying good nutritious substances which it gives up, taking away in exchange the 
broken-down and useless substances.
No tissue-change - as, for example the contraction of a muscle or the digestion of a piece of food - can 
go on without the presence of water. Water is the principal part of blood, and is not only the great food-
carrier of the body, but also the great cleanser of the body.
A surprisingly large proportion of our food is water. If all the water were crushed or dried out of 
bananas they would be
about only one quarter of their ordinary size. In potatoes there is still more water - rather less than one-
quarter of their
bulk would be left if we subjected them to crushing or drying. If bread were put through this process 
two-fifths of it would
disappear. This is one of the reasons why bread is better nourishment than potatoes. Oatmeal contains 
still less water.
Thus the Scotchman in his staple article of diet (oatmeal) gets a better bargain as regards nutrition 
value than the
Englishman in his bread; and the Englishman gets better value than the Irishman in his potato, 
three-quarters of which
consists of water. The diagrams on page 61 show the amount of water contained in many of our 
foodstuffs.
And what becomes of a glass of water we take when we are thirsty? It goes straight to the stomach, 
but it does not
become absorbed there. It causes the lower end of the stomach to open, and passes almost at once into 
the large
intestine, where it is absorbed.
The rapidity with which this happens is good in one way, but bad in another. The water washes out the 
stomach
excellently, and if there is any catarrhal secretion it can be washed away from the lining of the 
stomach before food is
taken in. This lining of the stomach plays a very important part in the digestion of food. It, like 
the skin, is full of tiny
"glands" (organs which separate out some particular substance from the blood), which have pores or 
openings on the surface. When the stomach is beginning to digest food, a drop of digestive fluid makes 
its appearance from each of these pores, and the wall looks as if it were "sweating," just as the skin 
sweats.

PERCENTAGE OF WATER CONTAINED IN SOME COMMON FOODS.
MILK		BREAD	EGG		MEAT		FISH		APPLE	BANANA
	POTATO	CUCUMBER		CABBAGE		TURNIP
	WALNUT

These drops cannot escape to mingle with the food if the wall is covered with the
slimy substance that collects as the result of catarrh. Catarrh of the stomach is thus a frequent 
cause of " indigestion," and consequently a glass of hot water taken twenty minutes or so before a meal 
is often of great help to people who are the victims of that tiresome 
trouble.
 This rapid passage of water through the stomach 
has also some disadvantages. It makes water a
ready carrier of germs, for the water is not in
the stomach long enough to be subjected to the
antiseptic - that is, germ-killing -  action of the
stomach-juices. The germs may be carried alive
right into the intestine. This is what actually happens when typhoid-fever germs are contained in the 
water, so that drinking bad water, especially
without eating at the same time, is an easy channel
for the invasion of the typhoid germ.
 In exactly the same way we are invaded by the embryos of the terrible hydatid disease, which
is so common in this country. These little embryos live in dogs, sheep, and cattle, and we ought
never to drink water to which they have had access without first boiling it. Boiling is such a
simple thing, and so easily done, and yet is such
a great protection in itself, that no sensible man
in the country will drink water taken from streams,
unless it has first been boiled.
Most of you may know that people who pay a great deal of attention to what they eat insist upon 
beginning a big meal with clear soup. You can now see the reason for this.
Clear soup is water with the flavouring substances of meat in it. It has the same effect as hot 
water - it cleanses the stomach-wall and prepares it for the digestion of the meal
that is to follow. In addition to this cleansing action of the soup, the "meat-extractives" (as these 
flavouring substances are called) 
strongly stimulate the glands of the stomach  and set all the digestive
processes vigorously in action.
Now, why does a glass of water refresh us so when we feel tired, and why should hot water, or tea, or 
beef-tea, or other similar drinks, prove
still more refreshing? As I have told you, no process in the body - whether it be thinking, or
digestion, or motion, or respiration - goes on without the help of water. The more vigorously we are 
engaged, the more water is used up in washing away the broken-down
substances which have become useless to the body. When a great deal of water is thus used up, the 
blood 
has to give up some of its watery part. The result of this is that the
general pressure in the blood-vessels is somewhat lessened (not very much, however, because you will 
remember that the whole system of the blood-vessels is a system of "self-adjusting pipes," and they 
adjust themselves to the
amount of fluid they contain). This slightly
lowered pressure makes itself felt in the sensation
we call "thirst," and also partly in the sensation we call "fatigue.'' These sensations are experienced 
in an intense form when any one has lost great quantities of blood, as in an accident where a large 
vessel is injured. Insatiable thirst and 
extreme fatigue are felt. Drinks help to relieve
both sensations, because the readily absorbed water soon reaches the blood-vessels and helps to 
restore the pressure.
Hot drinks refresh us better and more quickly than cold drinks, for, if taken in sips, the hot fluid 
is itself a stimulant. It acts on the heart,
making it beat more strongly, and thus stimulates everything in the body to work more vigorously.
Much the best thing to take, then, when we come in tired and exhausted from a long walk or hard 
exercise of any kind
is a glass of hot milk-and-water. This has a third advantage added to its supplying the loss of fluid 
and being an actual
stimulant - it contains in itself a certain amount of easily digested nourishment which helps to 
restore the waste
of the tissues caused by the vigorous action of the body. Next best to hot milk-and-water is a cup 
of a hot meat-extract preparation.
It used to be thought that alcoholic drinks such as whisky or brandy were the best restoratives for a 
fatigued body.
Nowadays we know that this is not true. Along with the stimulating action upon the heart comes a 
subsequent
enlargement of all the vessels of the skin. Not only does this tend to lower the blood-pressure 
again, but it also
allows the heat of the body to escape rapidly. The final result of the use of alcohol  therefore, is 
not nearly so
beneficial as if other refreshing drinks were used.
What we require is a stimulant that will first of all set in action the tired functions of the body 
and that will then
maintain their healthy regular action. Brandy or whisky gives a mere "flash in the pan." It makes us 
feel well and
vigorous for a short time; then the effect passes off, and the body is left more exhausted than it 
was before. The next
time you go home tired after a long walk or a race, try for yourself how refreshing is a glass of hot 
milk-and-water; or,
if you do not happen to have milk, or dislike it, try very hot water and some meat extract - so hot 
that you have to drink
it in sips. I am sure you will come to the conclusion that there is no restorative like it.

 LORD KITCHENER'S VISIT AND MESSAGE
On the 3rd of March Lord Kitchener completed the inspection of the Defence Forces of New Zealand. 
At Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland the Volunteers and cadets were
gathered together to manoeuvre and pass before him in review. In all, over 13,000 boy scouts, public-
school cadets, and Defence cadets came under the Field-Marshal's notice.

LORD KITCHENER SALUTING THE CADETS AS THEY MARCHED PAST
AT CHRISTCHURCH.
(Sir Joseph Ward, Minister of Defence, also shown in the picture, accompanied Lord Kitchener during 
the inspections.)

 In an official communication to Sir Joseph
Ward, Minister of Defence, Lord Kitchener said, "I shall be glad if you will, in your general
orders, express to the Defence Forces of the Dominion including the cadets, my appreciation of
the opportunity given me to inspect these forces in each district. It gave me great pleasure to be 
associated with the field forces on manoeuvre days, and to notice the keenness played by all ranks."

CADETS MARCHING PAST AT DUNEDIN.
Education Department photo.]
SOME CADETS WHO WERE NOT INSPECTED BY LORD KITCHENER (On the outlying 
Chatham Islands, 466 nautical miles east of Lyttelton, the cadets are as keen at drill as those reviewed 
by Lord Kitchener.)

But Lord Kitchener did more. For publication in the School Journal he specially forwarded to the Hon. 
 George
Fowlds, Minister of Education, the autograph message to the children of New Zealand which is 
reproduced in
facsimile on the first two pages of this number. Amidst all the stress of his great public duties, 
this hero of the Empire
found time to write a kindly message to the school-children of the Dominion.

ASIA: EARLY EXPLORATION.
The story of Asia cannot be said to have begun at any particular time. We may look upon the story of 
Britain as beginning with the Roman invasion, the story of
America with the discovery of the West India Isles by Columbus, and the story of New Zealand with 
the 
discoveries of Tasman and Cook. Not so with Asia. For
centuries the story of Asia was the story of the world. It was there that man was first conscious of 
himself, and it was along the banks of the great rivers - the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Ganges, and the 
Yang-tse-kiang - that he first put his knowledge on 
record and told his story. Many of these records were lost in the
gradual decay of the ancient empires, or were ruthlessly destroyed during invasions which laid waste 
flourishing cities and swept away in one ruin both inhabitants and
records.
From the Scriptures much was known about Asia Minor, but it was only by a slow process that
the nations of Europe learned anything of the rest of Asia. The spread of Christianity westward and 
the spread of the Roman Empire eastward brought south-eastern
Europe and south-western Asia together, and during the Crusades we find the finest troops of Christian 
Europe meeting the chivalry of Mohammedanism. But of the
lands beyond the home of their religion the peoples of Europe knew nothing, and therefore drew on 
their imagination. They peopled great tracts of these unknown lands
with monstrous men - strange, weird, and grotesque They even went so far as to fill blank spaces in the 
maps of Asia with drawings of them. Some of these peoples had
feet so large that on hot days   they could lie on their backs in the shade of the their
feet; some had only one eye - in the centre of the forehead; some had heads growing beneath their 
shoulders; and others were all sorts of strange combinations of man
and beast.
In those early days religion was the all-impelling force and all religions have their pilgrims. The 
same spirit which carried Christians to Palestine, to-day takes the
Moslem to Mecca and the Hindu to the holy waters of the Ganges. Even in the earliest centuries of our 
era we find accounts of pilgrimages made to the Holy Land by Christians of western Europe.

MYTHICAL MONSTERS. 

China, too, had her pilgrims, and one of these, Hwen Tsang, is well worthy of mention.
Hwen Tsang was born about A.D. 605, and was the youngest of a family of four sons. All received a 
good education, but Hwen soon outstripped his brothers in religious
learning, and at the early age of twenty years became a priest of Buddhism, the faith of his people. 
He grew dissatisfied, however, with the religious books of the time,
and at the age of twenty-six resolved to realise a dream which came to his mother just before his birth.
She saw her son, robed in white, journeying westward in search of the Law; and westward he 
determined to journey - through the Himalayas to India, in search of places
made holy by their connection with the life of Buddha, the founder of his religion.
Travelling westward, he reached the edge of the great desert of Gobi. Here he was deserted by his 
guide, and had to make his way alone along a road marked only by
the bones and footprints of animals. Presently the desert was filled with horsemen, well armed and 
well mounted. As he watched and wondered, the horsemen charged,
formed, re-formed, and then vanished, leaving nothing but the empty desert. This mirage he naturally 
put down to the work of demons; but, still undaunted, he pressed on.
After many trials and hardships, due to the way and to the fierce people among whom he journeyed, he 
reached Samarkand, the 
great trading depot of central Asia . Here the people, though highly
civilised, were fire-worshippers; but Hwen's stay in the town resulted in the conversion of the king 
and many of his subjects. Hwen next visited the upper valley of the
River Oxus, and finally made his way to India by the Cabul route. 

Underwood and Underwood.]
THE GREAT BRONZE STATUE OF BUDDHA NEAR YOKOHAMA.
It is 50ft. high. The eyes are of solid gold, and on the brow is a lump of solid silver.

In the story of his travels he tells how, among people of his own religion, he was received with much 
honour, and shown monuments, relics, and places sacred to Buddha. He
describes how districts, now waste and desert, were thickly peopled, and were covered with orchards 
full of pears, plums, peaches, grapes, oranges, and
pomegranates.
Once in India, Hwen set himself to the serious study of the Law. He visited many shrines, stopped at 
many monasteries, and even copied out religious books. At the
end of sixteen years' wandering he had amassed 520 volumes, and had collected many statues and 
relics 
of Buddha. But on one occasion the whole of his life's work
was nearly lost. While he was sailing down the Ganges his boat was captured by pirates, and Hwen was 
selected from among the passengers to be offered up as the
yearly sacrifice to their goddess. But a sudden storm destroyed the pirates' boats, and so terrified 
the pirates themselves that they restored to Hwen his goods, asked
his forgiveness, and became converted to Buddhism.
Hwen returned to China by much the same route as he had come, and, at the request of the Emperor,
wrote the story of his travels.   He was loaded with every honour his country could confer upon him, 
and died in 664, after dividing his goods and possessions among the poor. Not unworthily did future 
generations of Buddhists call him the "Master of the Law."
 One of the most striking episodes in the early story of Asia was the rise of the Tartar or Mongolian 
Empire during the thirteenth century. Zenghis* Khan, one of the
greatest conquerors the world has ever seen, was born in Upper Mongolia in 1162.

* Or Chenghiz.
 
His father, who was the chief of a small tribe, died when Zenghis was but thirteen years of age, and his 
mother educated him for leadership. Her 
teachings were
soon to bear fruit, for he subdued all the neighbouring tribes, and made himself Emperor of Upper 
Mongolia. In
1206 he swooped down on China, and overran it with fire and sword. Turning westward with his 
hordes of 
savage
warriors, he swept resistlessly across Asia to the Volga, marking his course by ruin and devastation. 
 India was next
invaded, and ravaged as far as Delhi; and at  the time of his death, in 1227, practically the whole 
of Asia north of the
Himalayas recognised him as sovereign.
Four of Zenghis Khan's sons divided the Tartar kingdom among them. The principal of these had his 
capital 
at what is now
known as Pekin. He issued orders for a second invasion of western Asia and eastern Europe. Two 
enormous Tartar
hosts swept westward. Russia was reduced, Cracow was burned, Pesth was sacked and its inhabitants 
massacred,
the best troops of Europe were scattered to the wind, Christendom itself was threatened and, had not 
the death of their
Emperor recalled the Tartars, the story of Europe and of mankind might have been very different from 
that we now read.
While the terrors of this invasion were fresh in the minds of the western nations, news was received 
that the Mongols were preparing to make another move westward. Pope Innocent the Ninth resolved, 
therefore, to send a 
mission to
Batu, Zenghis Khan's grandson, who had his headquarters on the Volga, and was one of the great 
Mongol leaders.
He accordingly selected two monks to form the embassy. The more important of these is generally 
known as 
Friar John,
the other being known as Benedict. Early in 1245 they started from Lyons. Their feelings may be 
gathered from the words of Friar John, " We personally dreaded from 
these Tartars
that we might be slain or reduced to perpetual slavery "; and his fears would not be lessened by the 
report of a man
who had been a prisoner among the Tartars, that his captors ate the flesh of their captives.
But Friar John did not find the Tartars so black as they had been painted. Across the steppes of 
Russia the monks
met many roving bands, who not only did not molest them, but helped them on their way, though, 
curiously enough, that way was often marked by dismal piles of skulls and bones of those killed during 
the invasions.

HORSEMEN OF CENTRAL ASIA.

At last John and Benedict reached Batu's court, where, after resting a while, they were passed on to the 
Great Khan's
camp at Karakorum, south of Lake Baikal, then a great city, but now in ruins. Day and night they 
travelled on
horseback, and, as neither was skilled in horsemanship or was accustomed to the swift and furious 
galloping of
the Tartars, who were born horsemen, the pains and tortures they suffered can be imagined. After 
three and a half months of forced marches they reached their
destination, where they found that many ambassadors from other parts of both Europe and Asia had 
already arrived, bearing rich presents.
The two monks were kindly received by the Great Khan, and were granted an audience. But the letter 
they bore from the Pope was not one that tended to gain them
the favour of a great and despotic ruler. It pointed out the sin and wickedness of the Khan in 
invading Christian countries, and finished by urging him to give up his
religion and accept Christianity. Many a Christian prince would have shown little consideration for 
the bearers of such a message, and would probably have subjected
them to torture, or have given them a quick dispatch from a bough of the nearest tree. But, the Khan 
contented himself by giving them a haughty reply, and with having
nothing more to do with them.
In the autumn of 1247 they reached Rome. As missionaries they had accomplished nothing; but Friar 
John had kept his eyes open, and, in the narrative he wrote, he gave a clear and interesting account of 
the Tartars, their customs, and their mode of life.

DATES FOR THE MONTH (APRIL). -  1st-Establishment of the Province of Southland, 1861 ; 2nd-
Nelson defeated the Danish fleets and batteries in the Battle of Copenhagen, 1801; 5th-Captain Cook 
started on his second voyage, 1772; 16th-The first Maori M.P. elected, 1878; 18th-The New Zealand 
Gazette, the first New Zealand 
newspaper, published at Port Nicholson, 1840; 19th-Cook sighted the Australian coast, 1770 ; 20th-
Charles Darwin, the great naturalist, died, 1882; 21st-Wellington first lighted with gas, 1871 ; 22nd-
Proclamation to the Rarotongan inhabitants
of appointment of British Resident to the Protectorate of the Cook Islands, 1888; 23rd - St. George's 
Day; 27th – John Ballance died, 1893 ; 28th - " Bounty " mutineers cast Bligh adrift off Tofoa, 
Friendly Islands, 1789. On appropriate days the school flag might be hoisted.

* Straik-Stroke.   Quaten-Quieten.
 Cark-Trouble. § Pows - Heads.
 
AN INTERESTING PHOTOGRAPH.
The illustration on this page shows a very clever and interesting photograph of a fantail sitting on 
its nest. The photograph was supplied by the head teacher of the Native School at Te Kerepehi, 
Thames, 
the pupils of which evidently take great interest in
nature-study. In forwarding the photograph the
teacher says, " The nest was discovered and carefully watched by one of the boys, till one day he 
came in to me with the news that there were two
fantails on the nest. I got out my camera, and the birds allowed me to bring the lens within a couple
 of feet of the nest. Whilst I was focussing, however, one bird flew away."
 Boys and girls who have cameras will find the
 photographing of birds and other creatures in their.
 natural surroundings a most fascinating and interesting hobby.

SMOKING.
A scout does not smoke. Any boy can smoke; it is not such a very wonderful thing to do. But a scout 
will not do it, because he is not such a fool. He knows that
when a lad smokes before he is fully grown up it is almost sure to make his heart feeble, and the 
heart is the most important organ in a lad's body. It pumps the
blood all over him to form flesh, bone, and muscle. If the heart does not do its work the body cannot 
grow to be healthy. Any scout knows that smoking spoils his
eyesight, and also his sense of smell, which is of greatest importance to him for scouting on active 
service.
Sir William Broadbent, the great doctor, and Professor Sims Woodhead, have both told us what bad 
effects tobacco-smoking has on the health of boys. Numerous
well-known sportsmen and others in all kinds of professions have given up the use of tobacco, as they 
find they can do better without it. Lord Roberts and Lord
Wolseley as soldiers, Lord Charles Beresford as a sailor, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Judge Sir 
William Grantham - all do not smoke; nor do Dr. Grace, the
cricketer; Mr. Noble and seven of the chief Australian cricketers; Mr. Eustace Miles, the champion 
tennis-player; Basset, the football-player ; Hanlan, the sculler :
Weston, the pedestrian; Taylor, the golf-player; Burnham, the scout, Selous, the hunter; and very 
many other celebrated men. They are all non-smokers.
So don't funk, but just make up your mind for yourself that you don't mean to smoke till you are grown 
up; and stick to it. That will show you to be a man much
more than any slobbering about with a half-smoked cigarette between your lips. The other fellows will 
in the end respect you much more, and will probably in many
cases secretly follow your lead.
-From "Scouting for Boys," by Lieut.-General Baden-Powell.
 
THE GOLDEN FLEECE.
On a recent Wednesday a man stood upon the wharf in Lyttelton. With keen interest he watched the 
steamers
working their various cargoes; with kindliest feelings of farewell he watched the preparations for 
the departure of the
great ocean liner, to sail in the failing light for London. 

Block by Tourist Department.]
PORT LYTTELTON.

As he watched the movements on or about her, he saw the present unroll its edges, to mingle with the 
past and the future.
In his physical eye there was a living picture of a huge steamer absorbing bale upon bale - hard-
dumped, steel-bound, many-branded bales. Thousands of them she swallowed up. Men slung them 
upon ropes, Rung the slings upon hooks,
hoisted them aboard, and lowered them down into the depths of the vessel's hold.
Men strained as they heaved the ponderous bales end over end and packed them into place, so that the 
stowage
should be safe, and so that, at the end, there should be room for an extra bale or two. He saw the 
trucks brought
down to the wharf full, and taken away empty; he heard the men counting, and saw the tally-clerks 
mark in their
books - and to all these men the bales were no more than cargo, to be fairly stowed and carefully 
accounted for, and
then forgotten.
Then he saw the last bales slung on board, the derricks stowed, the decks cleared of gear; he saw the 
mooring-lines
unfastened and taken in; he saw the tug come into position, the tow-line stretch, and the water swirl 
beneath the liner's stern. He saw the big steamer swing out between the moles, take a turn seawards, 
and dip 
gracefully into the
slight swell in the harbour. The ship was an argosy that would shortly roll and plunge her way 
Homeward to that great
world-market where, in one vast city, dwelt the population of a nation.
The beholder's thoughts left the picture immediately visible, and his mind ran quickly over the 
history, past and future,
of the golden cargo he had just seen.
In quiet pastures, very familiar, he saw countless sheep grazing, with great spaces of good grass to 
roam in, hills in
the background, and blue sky over all. He saw men, and horses, and dogs - shouting, galloping, 
barking; mobs of sweating creatures scurrying down from the mountains to join their more peaceful 
fellows on the plains; the larger mobs when all were mustered; and the sweltering yards and races 
packed with 
panting sheep, their minds filled with puzzled terror, and their sides and backs heavily laden with 
precious staple.
He saw, too, the long woolshed, and the bent backs of men; heard the buzz of the shears, the crisp 
conversation of
the shearers, the sharp commands of the "bosses." He saw fleece after fleece fall in a cascade from 
the sheep, its
creamy inner side, rich with yolk,* obliterating the memory of the weather-beaten exterior. He saw 
the fleeces
gathered up, baled, and pressed, and then taken to market. The naked sheep, bleating in the paddock, 
had given up
their wealth to the farmer; and thenceforward the fleece pursued  a world-encircling path, shedding 
riches as it went 
The man saw the baled fleeces stored, then opened and explored by cunning men who had come round 
the 
world to
do so; then he heard the shouting, frantic voices with which these men competed for the honour of 
paying the highest
price for the wool.  As he heard them shouting, he saw golden coins dropping into the farmers' hands, 
golden
commissions into the coffers of the auctioneers, golden salaries into the pockets of the travelled buyers.
Then the whole progress of the fleeces - over railways, through dumping-stores, over wharves, and into 
the ship's hold - he saw marked by driblets of money. The big liner, lurching through tempestuous seas, 
racing against 
time, forging
her way to London, was absorbing the wealth of the wool. The market processes of the great 
metropolis, the railway systems of England, the agents and labourers - to each the wool gave of its 
value.

Yolk - The oily secretion on the wool.
 See School Journal, Part III, February, 1909, page 27, "A Wool-sale."

Each humble boy and girl, each hardworked man and woman in the great 
woollen-factories, found wages dropping from the clinging fibres of the fleece; and - strangest of 
strange things - this marvellous fleece, shedding precious gifts as it travelled, became ever more and 
more precious.

Photo by Muir and MacKinlay.]
"OPENED AND EXPLORED BY CUNNING MEN."

Its greasy mass, leaving the woolshed, showed the grower his gain, and to him that was the value of the 
wool; but to each 
successive possessor it
became of greater
and greater worth, according to the wealth it had already distributed.
And in course of time he saw the wool returning from England, fleece no longer, but tweed for the 
wear of men and women - such tweed as he wore himself. There were more
barterings, more freights, more commissions, more labourers to pay, and ever more and more value in 
the wool. As it passed through warehouse, and paid duty to the
coffers of the State, and then passed into the hands of the tailor, the value mounted higher and 
higher.
 The man in the street was fitted into its smooth
folds, deft-fingered workers stitched it and clipped
it, and drew gold from amongst the fibres, and
the man in the street came forth arrayed in
summer finery, beautified by the dingy dress of
that most dingy animal, the sheep. As he paid
for  the suit, with gold to be distributed among
the tailors and many others, he ended the triumphal progress of the wool. It had provided food, shelter, 
and clothing for the poor, luxury for
the rich, public works for the State - it had helped to build up the wealth of nations.
As the man on the wharf watched the disappearing steamship, a golden haze surrounded her. She was 
bearing on its precious voyage  the Golden Fleece.
-From an article in the "Canterbury Times."

ARBOR DAY PICTURES - For the purposes of the Arbor Day number of the School Journal the 
Editor will be glad to receive photographs illustrating what schoolchildren
have done (1) to beautify school-grounds, (2) to beautify public domains, and (3) to preserve in 
becoming condition historic spots. Only good, strong prints should be
forwarded.

A NEW ZEALAND NATURE CALENDAR.
MAY.
Autumn laying here and there A fiery finger on the leaves.
-TENNYSON.
Our earliest tree-planters, more particularly in some parts of the South Island, had a great fancy 
for species of eucalyptus, especially the blue-gum. But this tree is not
much planted now, though the timber, even of young specimens, can be more readily utilised than is 
the case with many other trees. Then followed the age of the cone-bearing trees, when Pinus insignis 
and Cupressus macrocarpa were the general favourites. These trees 
have their place, and the macrocarpa, though often short-lived, is
very useful as a breakwind, as well as being a handsome tree when growing in an open space. Then 
came 
a taste for introduced deciduous trees, and it is these which at
this time of the year brighten a woodland landscape with their varied tints.
But of recent years, particularly in the North Island, there has grown a love for the native plants 
of our bush, and about many homes may be seen plantations of graceful
trees and shrubs which were formerly found growing only in the virgin bush or along its margin.
The fall of the leaf at the approach of winter is not widely noticeable in New Zealand. It is among 
the trees of the Northern Hemisphere that the fall all of the leaf is most
marked, and any one who has seen pictures of forests of deciduous trees in winter knows how great a 
difference there is between them and the forests of New Zealand.
It is apparent that plants that have to live through the cold of a severe winter must become dormant for 
a portion of each year. By the evaporation of water from the surface of the leaves a 
continuous flow of sap is made to ascend from the roots through the stems and
branches; but the less water there is in a plant that is to be subjected to a temperature far below 
the freezing-point of water, the safer it will be for the tissues of the plant. This is
probably one reason why the leaves are cast off on the approach of winter. Another reason is that if 
the plants were to keep their leaves they would carry more snow. If this were
moist and fell heavily, as is often the case at the beginning of winter, much damage might be done by 
the branches and stems being torn off or broken down.
As the deciduous trees lose their leaves they are more or less deserted by thrushes, blackbirds, and 
hedge-sparrows. It takes some time for the birds to become accustomed to
the bare branches, where all their goings-on are exposed. But, on the other hand, many native birds 
which are not seen near houses in the summer months begin to come about.
Korimakos may be heard tinkling out their curious bell-like notes in the garden; the little tits may 
be seen watching with curious eyes the operations of the gardener; and even grey
warblers may flit, about in the trees and hedgerows.
 But the cold night-breaths of May set a seal on
much of the year's growth, lulling to rest for the
winter many living things, and closing the lives of many more. By this time most of the wonderful 
insect-life of the summer has disappeared, the
mature insects perishing, while the younger forms are preserved either as eggs, larva, or pupae.
Flowers, too, have nearly disappeared, and the
house-dame who loves to have her rooms and tables made beautiful by flowers is driven well-nigh to 
despair to find suitable decorations. In the 
Northern Hemisphere many animals hibernate, or sleep during winter,
the squirrels, hedgehogs, and others curling themselves up for a time of sleep - a most enjoyable way 
of avoiding the cold and frost.
Our bats - which, alas! are now rare near the haunts of men - disappear for several months, to come out 
again when the warmth of spring returns. Lizards become torpid,
and hide away till warmer days come, lying hidden under bark or dead timber, or under boulders on the 
hillsides. Some insects remain late on the wing, the drone-flies
being common visitors of the flowers during May, while the red-admiral butterflies are sometimes 
tempted out on brilliant days.
Occasional humble-bees also may be met with. By this time of the year, however, only mature queens 
survive, each being destined to found a new colony during the
succeeding year.
-Adapted from Mr. G. M. Thomson's "A New  Zealand Naturalist's Calendar."

AN ENGLISH COUNTRY LANE IN WINTER.

QUEEN VICTORIA, WHOSE BIRTHDAY, THE 24TH OF MAY, IS CELEBRATED AS EMPIRE 
DAY.
 
THROUGH want of space, the Nature Calendar for June cannot be inserted this month. Next month, 
however, the Calendars for both June and July will appear.

HEROES OF THE NAVY IN PEACE.
The glory of the British Navy does not rest entirely on its exploits at the Nile, Trafalgar, and in all the 
splendid roll of 
famous battles. Besides the active courage of encounter
which springs fiery when the bugle screams, guns boom, steel flashes, and the blood burns with the 
excitement of war, there 
is a passive courage - the courage of self-control and
self-sacrifice - which is even nobler, since it receives no stimulus from accompanying circumstance. To 
rush among the enemy 
and meet death fighting is far easier than to stand
still on a ship's deck and meet it slowly, when the gradually sinking vessel is being sucked down by the 
waves. And that is 
what British sailors have been called on time and
again to do, and time and again they have done it without flinching.
A splendid example of calm heroism was shown when H.M.S. " Bombay," a two-decker of eighty-four 
guns, took fire on the 14th 
December, 1864, near Monte Video, in South America. The fire was the more alarming as it had 
broken out near
the spirit-room and the magazine. The fire-bell was rung, and calmly, steadily the men
fought the flames, knowing that a terrible explosion might send them all into eternity at any moment. 
All efforts to resist 
the progress of the fire were in vain, for it had obtained too strong a hold.
The order "Out boats!" was given, and nine boats were got out in eight minutes. But there were six 
hundred people to be saved. Even when the whole ship was wrapped in flames, and an explosion was 
imminent, the jolly-boat, with a volunteer crew, pulled to and from the vessel several times, bringing 
away 
those who, unable to swim, were clinging to the ship. Out of 650 officers and men 557 were saved.
The same noble courage and discipline were shown by the crew of the training-ship "Goliath," which 
was destroyed by fire, with the loss of twenty-one lives, on the 22nd
December, 1875.* The vessel was lying in the Thames, and most of those on board were boys from 
poor 
homes in London; but in the hour of peril they proved themselves as
calm and brave and heroic as war-worn veterans.
At the call of " Fire quarters ! " every man and boy sprang to his post, which was abandoned only at 
the captain's command. Captain Bourchier himself was the last to leave the
ship. While he was standing at the gangway one of the boys clung to him, saying, "You'll be burnt, 
captain." Another said, " Save yourself before the rest." The answer was,
"No, my boys; that's not the way at sea." The captain had not only learned the good old way himself, 
but he also knew how to teach it to the boys under his charge.
On the night of the 6th September, 1870, a new battleship, the " Captain," heeled over and sank in 
the midst of her consorts during a storm in the Bay of Biscay. A survivor told
how, after the disaster, the steam pinnace was found bottom uppermost, with Captain Burgoyne and 
seven other men clinging to her.
"He would not let us save him till the other men had been rescued. Five of them jumped, and we saved 
them, but the other two were so exhausted that we could not help them.
They remained clinging to the keel, and the captain would not leave them. Then a wave swept him and 
the other two off the boat, and we never saw them again."

* See illustration in Part II of the School Journal for this month page 59.

The story of the British cruiser " Calliope " has a special interest to New Zealand. In March, 1889, the " 
Calliope " was lying with three American and three German ships in the dangerous coral-locked 
harbour of Apia, in Samoa, when a terrific storm arose, hurling enormous waves through the narrow 
entrance to the harbour from the open sea, and tossing the warships to and fro, in imminent danger of 
destruction by collision or on the coral reefs.

WRECKS IN APIA HARBOUR AFTER THE HURRICANE.
From a photograph kindly lent by Wm. Doughty, Esq.]
THE GERMAN WARSHIP "ADLER " LYING ON THE REEF.

One German vessel had gone down with almost all her crew; a second lay, with her back broken, on the 
reef; and all the rest seemed doomed, when Captain
Kane, of the " Calliope," resolved to try a desperate chance and make for the raging open sea.
Would the engines stand? could they drive the ship at all against the fury of wind and wave? would she 
obey her helm? could she avoid the reef in the black storm? - these
and other questions could only be answered by the event. The captain signalled to the engineer to put 
on every pound of 
steam, though it is said that much of the machinery was already red-hot, as the ship had been steaming 
for some hours to ease the strain on her anchors.
Even under that tremendous pressure the ship stood stationary for a time; then she moved slowly 
forward. As she passed the dangers of the entrance the crew of the
American flagship " Trenton," threatened with immediate doom themselves, greeted the triumphant 
effort with a cheer. One knot an hour was the highest speed claimed for
the " Calliope " that day, but she withstood the raging onslaught of the elements, helped by the good 
New Zealand coal that filled her bunkers.
The disaster by which the flagship " Victoria " was sunk with four hundred men, in the calm waters of 
the Syrian coast, on the 22nd June, 1893, was more terrible, in a
sense, than those which have been described, because it was not the result of fire or storm, but of 
a brave man's error. Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, from the " Victoria,"
gave orders for manoeuvres by the Mediterranean fleet. The fleet was to steam forward in two 
straight lines, and at a certain point the leaders of each line were to perform a
right-about-face turn inwards, followed by the ships astern of them, each in succession, the fleet's 
course being thus inverted. The two divisions, before making the turn
inwards, were commanded to close in to six cables' length-1,200 yards. The distance between the two 
lines was insufficient for the movement, and when the " Victoria " and
the "' Camperdown," at the head of the two columns, turned together inwards the stern of the " 
Camperdown " crashed through the " Victoria's " starboard bow, breaking a hole in her side through 
which the water rushed at the rate of 3,000 tons a minute. The " Victoria " at once began to sink by 
the head, and heeled over rapidly to starboard.
Then again British sailors were true to their glorious traditions. " There was absolutely no panic, 
no shouting, no rushing aimlessly about," said an eye-witness. Officers
went quietly to their stations, and everything was prepared, and the men were all in their positions for 
hoisting out boats or performing any duty that they might be ordered to carry out.

From the " Illustrated London News."]
THE SINKING OF THE " VICTORIA."

The men on the forecastle worked with a will, until the water was up to 
their waists, and it was only when ordered that they left their work to "fall in" with the rest of the ship's 
company. Not until the ship gave the lurch which ended in her 
capsizing, and the crew were ordered to save themselves, did a single
man jump for safety. As in the case of the " Birkenhead," * - 
Inch by inch the drowning ship sank low, Still under steadfast men.

* See School Journal, Part II, for this month, page 54.

Such are only a few of the stories that could be told of deeds of self-control and self-sacrifice 
performed by the men of the Navy in time of peace. Even those that have
been told have been given in the merest outline, and many acts of individual heroism - each worthy of 
being recorded at length - have been passed by unnoticed. In the dull
round of the usual routine the bluejacket is taught to face danger and death with coolness and a 
smiling face. When the cry is " Fire-stations! " " Collision stations! " or "Close watertight doors! " he 
springs to his post with ready alacrity, not knowing, scarcely heeding, 
whether he is called to prove his efficiency, or whether the moment
has come when all his manhood, all that is noble in him, will be put to the severest test. And when 
the emergency has arisen he has proved, and proved over and again,
that he is not a mere fight fighting-machine , but that the training that fits him for the defence 
of the Empire makes him capable of performing deeds of heroism and self-control of which any nation 
might feel justly proud.
And it is well that deeds like these should be remembered. They are an example and an inspiration 
not only to members of the Navy, but to all the Empire's children. In
the last resort the greatness of a nation rests not so much upon its armaments - even a feeble nation 
can build "Dreadnoughts" - as upon the strength and fortitude and
manly character of the great mass of its people. The poet has well said, - 
Vain, mightiest fleets of iron framed; Vain, those all-shattering guns; Unless proud England keep 
untamed The strong heart of her sons.'

THE ROMANCE OF THE NORTH POLE.
The stories of Hudson and Franklin, men who sacrificed their lives in the endeavour to discover for 
merchantmen new tracks through the ice-fields of the north, have been
already told in some detail in Part II of the School Journal for this year. Here we can give only a 
brief account of the explorers who followed Hudson, and paved the way for the
great exploit of Sir John Franklin, the discoverer of the North-west Passage.
The voyages of Hudson led to the opening-up of the great whale-fisheries of the north, especially the 
Spitzbergen whale-fishery, which flourished from 1752 to 1820, and one
bold seaman after another, while in pursuit of wealth, added considerably to our knowledge of the 
Arctic.
The names of many skippers, such as Poole, Baffin, Fotherby, Edge, and especially Scoresby, may be 
mentioned among those of notable Arctic explorers. Captain Scoresby
was not only a successful whale-fisher, but a scientific observer, and his admirable account of the 
Arctic regions is still read by students of the subject. In 1806 he succeeded
in advancing his ship, the " Resolution," as far north as 81', and in 1822 he forced his way through 
the ice which bars the approach to the east coast of Greenland, and
surveyed that coast for a distance of four thousand miles.
In the north-west William Baffin made a great advance in Arctic discovery in the year 1616. Passing 
through Davis Strait, he found a great channel, which has ever since been
known as Baffin Bay,
 and upon this discovery the fame of Baffin mainly rests. In Lancaster Sound, which he also 
discovered, he had found, though he little knew it, the actual gate to the North-west
Passage.
The Hudson Bay Company, which was formed in 1670 for trade with the North American Indians in 
furs 
and skins, had received by charter the right to all the lands which might
be discovered through the Hudson Strait; but by this charter also the company was bound to continue 
the work of exploration, and particularly to search for the North-west
Passage to the South Seas. For this purpose, as well as to follow up the natives' report of  copper-mines, 
further expeditions were sent out, notably that of the " Albert " and "Discovery," which were 
dispatched in 1716 under Captain Knight, who was never heard of again.
In 1728 Captain Behring, a Dane, in the employ of Peter the Great of Russia, discovered Behring 
Strait, proving that the Continents of Asia and America are separated from
each other by a narrow strip of water only thirty-nine miles wide. Through this strait exactly fifty 
years afterwards Captain Cook sailed in the Arctic with his ships, the "Resolution " and the " 
Discovery," but being turned back by the ice he returned to winter in the 
Pacific, where he met his death at the hands of savage islanders.
The wars following on the French Revolution put an end to voyages of discovery till after the peace 
of 1815. Then once more north polar research renewed its attractions for the
hardy mariner. The central figure in this chapter of Arctic exploration will always be that of the 
gallant Sir John Franklin, who set out on his first north-west expedition in 1819 in
an attempt to reach the northern shores of America by land. But with Franklin must be named others.
Edward Parry had taken part in four Arctic expeditions before he sailed in 1827 in the " Hecla," 
with a view to travelling in sledge-boats through Spitzbergen to the Pole. Leaving his ship on the shore 
of Spitzbergen, he set out on 
Midsummer Day in two flat-bottomed boats on runners, each boat
having a crew of fourteen men. They travelled two hundred miles by water, and then dragged their 
boats for ninety-two miles over broken ice-floes, but they never reached the solid pack at all, and the 
drift of the ice made further progress impossible.

From " The Realm of the Ice King."]
THE "HECLA " IN THE ICE.

Then Parry realised that he had left his base far too late in the season, and was
compelled to return. But his farthest north, 82' 43" N., remained the farthest north for many years to 
come.
Nor must the name of Sir John Ross be overlooked. From 1818, when he went to the Arctic with Parry 
as 
his second in command, to 1850, when he made an
unsuccessful attempt to find Sir John Franklin, his heart always yearned towards the frozen north. 
His nephew, too, Sir James Ross, distinguished himself as an Arctic
navigator. He accompanied his uncle, Sir John, in two of his voyages, and also visited the same 
regions with Parry. In 1831 he had the honour of discovering the North
Magnetic Pole, and was rewarded on his return by being appointed post-captain in the navy. It was he 
also who was in command of the " Erebus " and " Terror," which
made the celebrated voyage to the Antarctic regions in 1839, and during this voyage he approached 
within 116 miles of the South Magnetic Pole.
The next great outstanding name is that of Sir John Franklin himself, to whom we have already made 
reference. Before his death he had completed the links of the
chain of discovery which proved a navigable passage from Davis Strait to Behring Strait, and the 
disaster to his expedition had afforded a warning that would render
future disasters inexcusable. Since his time all arrangements for a retreat are carefully made 
beforehand, and a depot ship is left within reach of the advance expedition
as well as of the outer world. If there is annual communication, and the rules made for depositing 
records are carried out, no such disaster, with complete absence of
information as to how it happened, can ever occur again. The catastrophe to Sir John Franklin's 
expedition led to the discovery of seven thousand miles of coastline, and
to the exploration of a vast extent of hitherto unknown country.

AN EMPIRE DAY MESSAGE.
TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, FROM THE EARL OF MEATH.
WATCHWORDS: RESPONSIBILITY, DUTY, SYMPATHY, SELF-SACRIFICE.
BOYS AND GIRLS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE,
May you realise more and more fully as you grow older your great indebtedness to the British Empire a 
majestic community of free nations, freely governing themselves, owing its
being to vast sacrifice, enterprise, and valour on the part of your fathers and predecessors, bound 
together by one King, one Flag, and one Navy, comprising more than a fifth part
of the human race, and occupying more than a fifth part of the earth's surface - a federation the 
like of which the world has never known before!
May you bear in mind that, of the allied peoples of this Empire, each one looks to the others for 
practical sympathy, protection, and co-operation; and that not only the State to
which you belong, but also the Empire itself, looks to you to be ready in time of need, to think, to 
labour, and to bear hardships in its behalf! May you excel in the practice of
Faith, Courage, Duty, Self-discipline, Fair-dealing, Even Justice, Good Citizenship, Loyalty, 
Patriotism, and Sympathy, and thus by your own individual action aid in elevating the
British character, strengthening the British Empire, and consolidating the British Race!

HEROES OF THE MERCHANT SERVICE
It is a noble tradition of officers and men of the merchant service that there shall be no flinching 
in the face of danger, and that it is their duty to save the lives of those under their
care before thinking of their own safety. A captain and his officers can never be sure that danger is 
not close at hand. They have always to be prepared. If anything serious
happens to a vessel carrying many passengers, the task of those in charge of the ship is very 
difficult; they have to prevent the passengers from becoming panic-stricken, and at
the same time take steps to get them away from the ship as quickly as possible. This is difficult and 
dangerous if the sea is at all rough, and all the time, perhaps, the vessel is
sinking. Officers and men feel that they have a poor chance of saving their own lives, but so long as 
there are other people to be saved it is their duty to go on with the work coolly
and resolutely, and not think of themselves.
As the School Journal is being sent to press the telegraph has flashed from Australia a graphic 
account of the sublime fortitude displayed on board the huge Aberdeen liner "Pericles" when she struck 
a rock off Cape Leeuwin. We can easily imagine the crash, the shriek of 
escaping steam, the settling-down of the bows as the water poured into the
doomed ship. Yet there was no panic, no confusion; and the secret lay in self-forgetfulness. A wife 
refused to go in the first boat - she would wait for her husband; every hand was stretched out to help 
the blind doctor as his valet led him on deck; one lady sang "Pull for the Shore" as the sea heaved the 
frail rowing-boat up and down. And what was the result
of all this heroism? Of that great company not one was
killed; not one even suffered injury. Such is the reward of discipline and self-sacrifice.
A form of heroism common at sea is the rescuing of men from sinking or dismasted vessels. A 
sailing-vesel, dismasted in a gale, lies at the mercy of the waves in mid-ocean. Great seas sweep
her decks, and every moment threaten to carry off the survivors of the crew - a little knot of men 
clinging to a bit of rigging.
A passing steamer sees them, and stands by to help. The steamer's captain calls for volunteers to man 
a boat, and though a great sea is running there is a ready response from his crew. In
charge of an officer, a boat makes its way from the steamer to the disabled vessel. Now it is 
balanced perilously on the top of a wave; now out of sight in a great hollow. The officer steering 
has the
lives of his men in his hand; a mistake, and all may be overwhelmed by the sea.
But the danger increases when the vessel is reached. The sea is so bad that the officer dare not go 
right alongside, lest a roll of the ship should upset his boat. The only thing to be done is to call
to the men to jump overboard, and take their chance of being picked up by the rescuers. This means 
that he must risk disaster by keeping fairly close to the rolling and tossing ship. One by one
the men on the ship jump overboard and are pulled into the boat, while the officer uses all his skill 
and nerve to prevent the boat from being swamped. Then the gallant rescuers fight their way back
to the steamer.
An engineer of a steamer, as well as the captain, officers, and deck hands, may have an opportunity 
to show himself a hero. Sometimes, indeed, his position is much more perilous than that of
the men on deck. It is his duty to stand by his engines until the captain tells him
he may leave them. In remaining at his post he may run the risk of being drowned like a rat in a 
hole, or scalded to death by steam.
A very fine action was that of the engineer of a coastal steamer, the " Kapanui," sunk in a New Zealand 
harbour a few years ago. His ship was rammed by another vessel, a great hole being made
near the engine-room. Frost, the chief engineer, was standing on deck by the engine-room door when 
the collision occurred, and his first thought was to cut off the steam from the engines, lest the main 
steam-pipe, which might have been injured in the collision, should burst. To do this he had 
to crawl over the boiler in a narrow space. Water was rushing into the engine-room, and had the
boat sunk while he was behind the boiler he must have been drowned. As it was, when he reached the 
deck the vessel was level with the water, and he had to jump overboard to prevent his being
carried under. While in the water he helped one or two people who were in difficulties, and swam 
about until he was picked up.
Every one working on a vessel may at some time or other have an opportunity of displaying heroism. It 
would be hard to find a more heroic act than that of a steward in a large steamer trading
between New Zealand and England, who jumped over in mid-ocean to rescue a woman who had 
thrown 
herself overboard. The risk was threefold: he might have been carried under by the struggling
woman; he might not be seen by the boat lowered from the steamer; and, lastly, there was danger from 
sharks. However, both the man and the woman were rescued. The man was hailed by all as a hero.
Here is another story which shows that many lives may depend upon the bravery of one man. One night 
last year, the " Republic," a great Atlantic liner, was feeling her way through a fog a hundred and 
seventy-five miles from New York. 
Suddenly, without any warning, another vessel loomed up out of the fog,
and struck her a terrible blow on the side, crashing through her iron plates. The strange vessel then 
backed away and disappeared.
Water rushed into the great hole in the " Republic's " side, and she seemed to be in great danger of 
sinking. Fortunately, she was fitted with what are called watertight
bulkheads. These are divisions across the ship, so built that they can be made quite watertight by 
the shutting of doors. If water enters the ship it can thus be confined to
the compartment it enters.
The passengers, who were in bed at the time of the collision, rushed up on deck very much alarmed. 
No one could be certain how long the ship would float, and she was
alone, far from land, in a thick fog. The water that poured into the engine-room stopped the 
machinery that supplied the electric light, and the ship was plunged in darkness.
However, captain, officers, and crew were all equal to the occasion. The discipline was perfect. The 
passengers were assured that there was no immediate danger, and were advised to go below and put on 
warm clothing.
Then arose the question of summoning help. The " Republic " was fitted with an apparatus for sending 
and receiving messages by means of telegraphy without the use of
wires. All vessels fitted with similar apparatus and within a certain distance of the "Republic " would 
receive messages sent out. Jack Binns, the young operator who was in
charge of the telegraphic apparatus, went to his office and began sending out the message " C.Q.D.," 
which means "want assistance." The iron room in which he worked
had been badly damaged by the collision, and threatened
to fall on him, and there was the danger that
the ship might suddenly sink; but Binns stayed
at his post tapping out the message that meant safety to so many.

From the Illustrated London News."]
JACK BINNS.

On the " Baltic " sat another operator sending messages home. Suddenly the signal "C.Q.D., C.Q.D., 
C.Q.D." 
comes from his instrument, and all other messages give place. But
the sinking " Republic " was sixty miles away, shrouded in a dense fog. From half past 7 in the 
morning till half 
past 6 at night the "Baltic" scoured the seas, zigzagging for two
hundred miles before she came close to the doomed vessel. Two other vessels picked up the signals, 
and hastened as fast as the fog would allow to render
assistance.
In the meantime the "Florida," the boat that had collided with the Republic," reappeared, and the 
passengers were transferred to her in boats. But it was doubtful if even
she was in a condition to reach the shore, and the safety of two thousand souls depended upon the 
quick arrival of the approaching vessels.
And what was young Jack Binns doing during that long day? Amid the ruins of his little room he sat at 
his instruments without food and without shelter, telling the story of the disaster, and 
directing as well as he could the approaching vessels.
" We are sinking rapidly," he signals, but still remains at his post. At last the captain of the "Republic " 
thinks he hears a whistle through the fog, and the signal to
hurry is sent.
" We are sinking fast,"' taps Binns.
Then from the " Republic " to the " Baltic he flashes, " You are very close now, right abeam. Come 
carefully; you are on our port side. Have just seen your rocket. You
are very close to us." Close indeed they were at last - only 100 ft. away - but in the dense fog they 
could see the " Republic's " lights but dimly. As quickly as possible all
the passengers were transferred from the "Florida" to the "Baltic."
Then, leaving his instruments, Jack Binns got down the companion-way, swam to the kitchen, and had 
his first food for fourteen hours - a couple of biscuits and some almonds.

THE VICTORIA CROSS IN THE NAVY.
It is impossible that noble courage such as has been shown by men of the Navy should be allowed to go 
unrecognised. The Admiralty and the nation have never failed
to appraise at its true value the dauntless bearing of the Navy's sons, in
moments  like that which saw
H.M.S. " Victoria's " gallant men face quickly coming death with unflinching eyes.
For acts of individual heroism the Navy, like the Army, has its reward. Sailors, as well as soldiers, 
can win the coveted Victoria Cross, and in a little over fifty years
close on fifty have been awarded to members of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines.
The very first man to win the Victoria Cross was a senior midshipman, now Rear-Admiral Charles 
Davis Lucas.

THE VICTORIA CROSS.

During the bombardment of a fortress in the Baltic Sea, on the 21st June, 1854, a live shell fell in the 
midst of a party of bluejackets, of whom young Lucas was
in command. Quick as thought the young officer sprang forward and seized it, and, with the fuse 
spluttering out sparks and hissing between his hands, ran to the ship's
side and hurled it overboard, where it burst before reaching the water.
The Victoria Cross has twice been gained by members of the Navy in New Zealand. In March, 1860, 
during the Maori war, Leading Seaman W. Odgers, of the " Niger," distinguished himself at the 
storming of the Waireka Pa, in Taranaki. He was the first man
inside the rampart, and hauled down the enemy's banner, contributing greatly by his courage to the 
success of the attack.
Four years later, during the same war, Seaman S. Mitchell, acting as captain's coxswain in H.M.S. 
"Harrier," refused to leave his captain, who was mortally wounded
at the Gate Pa, near Tauranga. The dying man ordered and entreated Mitchell to leave him, but though 
he was in immediate danger he waited, and afterwards carried
his commander's body into camp.

ESSAY COMPETITION-Teachers are reminded that all essays for the competition held by the British 
and Foreign Sailors' Society, London, must be in the hands of
the Secretary of the Education Board by the 31st of this month. See School Journal, Part III, for 
February, page 32.

THE PLANETS DURING MAY-Mars is still visible in the western sky just after sunset, setting a little 
after 7 o'clock ; he will be near the new moon on the 13th. Jupiter is a conspicuous object in the 
northern sky, being due north about 8.45 p.m. in the middle of the 
month ; he will be near the moon on the 19th. Venus is still a
morning star, rising about 3 a.m., and shining brilliantly in the east before sunrise; she will be 
near the moon in its last quarter on the 6th. Saturn is also a morning
star, rising about 5 p.m., but is too low down for observation.

THE series of pictures entitled " The Battleship 'New Zealand,'" being issued this month, should be 
studied in connection with the articles on the Navy appearing in this
issue.

THE BUILDING OF A BATTLESHIP.
The process of building a modern battleship is very similar to that of building a house. Any man who 
builds a house has certain ideas in his mind - there are to be bow-windows, and a conservatory, and a 
broad veranda. He mentions his requirements to the architect, who 
endeavours to embody them in his plan so far as money or
other circumstances admit.
Very similar, but very, very much more intricate, are the preparations for the building of a great 
battleship. First of all a general idea is thought out, the number and size
of the guns is debated, and the thickness and quality of the armour considered. Then a rough plan is 
prepared by the Admiralty, and handed round to naval experts for
criticism and advice. It almost always happens that the original idea must be much modified, because 
the ship could not possibly carry all that it was desired to put
into her. There is a humorous story of the beautiful, perfect battleship which a distinguished 
admiral had thought  out. In his zeal for the greatest possible power of
attack and defence he quite forgot to allow any space for the machinery.
In the actual construction the most important question to consider is that of weight. In constructing 
their airships aeronauts are still very busy considering how they
can obtain the greatest strength for the least weight. But for many a long day the naval architect 
has had to face a problem very nearly as difficult. Take, for instance,
the designs of the Italian naval constructor, Cuniberti, who first thought out the idea of the 
"Dreadnought " type of battleship. At first people said that it was impossible
for these vessels to carry such an amount of armour and yet attain the required speed. But the clever 
Italian succeeded by his ingenious methods of weight-saving, and 
managed to make his vessel almost 2,000 tons lighter than was
expected.
When at last the plans have been prepared and passed, the ship probably figures in the naval 
estimates of the next year as "to be built." Then one of the four Government
dockyards* receives the order to build her, or the big private yards are given the plans and asked to 
send in tenders for the construction. Let us suppose that our particular
battleship is to be built by one of the dockyards. The plans arrive, and are taken charge of by the 
chief constructor, who will henceforth have the full responsibility of seeing
that everything is done aright.
A great deal of work has still to be accomplished before the ship actually appears on the stocks. 
First comes the "laying-off" of the ship, from full-size chalk drawings on a
gigantic plank-floor. These having been carefully inspected and tested, patterns are prepared, from 
which later on all the necessary castings can be made. Orders are also
sent to the great iron and steel works in the United Kingdom, and even to those in America. Some 
build the engines, others the capstans, the pumps, and the great ram, and
others the immense guns, for these alone require two years to make, nearly as much time as the great 
vessel herself. In procuring the necessary particulars for all these gigantic fittings, what is known as the 
" experimental tank" plays an important part. In a secluded 
spot in England a professor and staff are busy making little models of ships
in paraffin-wax, and sailing them on a pond. Here countless little experiments are carried out, and the 
results carefully noted down. 

* Portsmouth, Devonport, Chatham, and Pembroke.

 And here it is that the necessary calculations are made to show what horsepower the engines must be 
which are to propel the "Dreadnought " at the required speed.
So far no word has been said of the actual
building. The truth is that the actual building of the "Dreadnought" is merely a "putting-together." 
Building rates vary, of course. The
original " Dreadnought " was put together inside a twelvemonth, but the Turks have a battleship that 
was begun twenty-three years ago, and has not yet reached the launching
stage.
The first part of the vessel to be actually " laid"
is the keel, made up of plates 12 ft. in length, strongly riveted together. The vessel soon takes
on the appearance of a vast skeleton. The various bulkheads are built in, the bow and stern are
laced in position, and presently the protective deck is laid. By this time a forest of scaffolding 
has arisen around the ship, which somewhat
resembles a huge cigar.
Now, however, it appears to the casual onlooker as if work were somewhat checked. No longer can one 
see from day to day the enormous advance on yesterday's work. But
the advance is just as great, nevertheless. Everything put into the vessel is carefully weighed, so 
that at any time it is an easy matter to give the total weight of the ship.
At last the day comes when the scaffolding is cleared away, and the great hull glistens in its coat 
of grey paint; platforms are being erected here and there for the convenience
of spectators; flags are flying everywhere. The great day of launching has come. The ship is, of 
course, a mere shell still, and will weigh three times as much when all is
finished.
Yesterday, far into the night, hundreds of labourers were at work hammering in wedges so as to lift the 
ship up ready for launching. Now
 the work is completed, and the ways down which
 the ship will slide into the water are being
 plentifully greased with tallow. At the agreed
 moment the vessel is named, an electric button is
 pressed, and the great bulk slides gently down
 into the water, sending up a great cloud of spray
 and hurling the waves high up the sides of the
 dock. At last she is " born."
 The ship is next placed in dry dock, where her propellers and rudders are fitted, and her armour-plates 
put in position. Then the ship is floated
 out and tugged alongside a jetty in the fitting-basin. Here the boilers are hoisted on board, the turrets 
and guns are fitted, the funnels placed in position, and finally the masts set up.
 Now at last the ship looks fairly complete, but
 there is still much to be done below decks. Before
 the ship is quite completed she must undergo her
 " trials " at sea. The engines will be tested, guns
 and torpedoes fired, the stopping and turning
 powers noted, and so on. The test being satisfactorily concluded, the vessel returns to the dock-yard to 
" complete for sea."
 At last there comes a day when, smart in her
 grey coat of paint, the mighty vessel is ready to
 be commissioned. Then, and not till then, is she
 handed over to the Navy and sent to take her
 place in the lines of the British fleet. And the
 average Britisher, as he notes with pride the
 tremendous strength and greatly increased speed of
the latest battleship, little thinks of the vast amount of money, labour, and thought that have been 
expended in the endeavour to gain for the vessel the honour of being the 
most up-to-date battleship in the world. 

THE BUILDING OF A BATTLESHIP.
1. The timber round the battleship. 2. The keel-plate. 3. The magazine bulkhead, the first portion to be 
erected upright. 4. The ship ready for 
launching. 5. Placing 11 tons of armour-plate in position. 6. Twelve-inch gun ready for hoisting aboard.

 [Much of the matter in this article, and, also the illustrations, are taken from F. T. Jane's article in the 
London Magazine.]

DATES FOR THE MONTH (MAY).- 1st-Death of the Hon. John Ballance, and appointment of new 
Ministry under the Premiership of the Hon. R. J. Seddon, 1893; 7th-Nelson's "Victory" launched at 
Chatham, 1765; 8th-Truganini, last of Tasmanian natives, died, 1876; 9th-General thanksgiving for 
recovery of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales (now King Edward VII), 1872; 12th-Departure of 
the preliminary expedition of the New Zealand Company from England, 1831 ; 24th - Empire Day 
proclaimed in New Zealand (anniversary of birth of the late Queen Victoria), 1903 ; 31st-Boer War 
terminated, 1902. On appropriate days the school flag might be hoisted.

On the 6th May, at 11.45 p.m., King Edward VII, the "Peacemaker" and the "First Gentleman of 
Europe," died at Buckingham Palace,* where he had been born on the 9th November over sixty-eight 
years before. Within an hour the sad news was known throughout the British Empire and in all parts of 
the world, and the deep and profound sorrow that was shown told in most unmistakable terms that men 
felt that not merely had Great Britain lost a King, but that the Empire had lost a great statesman, and 
the cause of humanity a stanch friend.

* See card No. 14 of the series "Geography of the British Isles."

During his nine years of monarchy King Edward had shown the most scrupulous respect for the British 
Constitution, had guided the ship of State through the shoals and shallows of
many an international complication, and had conscientiously fulfilled the trying and arduous duties 
of his high and responsible office, gaining the esteem and respect not only of the
British Empire, but of nations whose interests are not always identical with our own.
Never losing sight of his personal dignity, he was none the less regardful of the self-respect of 
those with whom he came into contact, and his charm of manner, his wide
sympathies, and his unfailing tact at once put at their ease those in whose company he happened to be.
Much of the work that he did to earn for himself the title of " Peacemaker " was done quietly, 
informally, and possibly without being recorded; but in the Royal councils of Europe he
was always listened to with the greatest respect, and it was not for nothing that he gained the name.
For good or for evil a King is a leader of men. As is the King, so are many of his subjects. He is 
the King, or " Can-ning," the knowing- or able-man. He is invested with dignity,
worship (worthship), royalty, and is the guide and counsellor of his subjects. The history of all 
rebellions is that of the unable-man at the head of affairs. The ignoble, the unvaliant,
the unable King will tend to depress and degrade the nation till a time comes when he is King no 
longer; the noble, the valiant, the able Sovereign will raise the nation, will purify the
court, will set a noble example of domestic life, and will lift politicians above selfish considerations, 
leading them to legislate for the common weal. Of this uplifting influence of a
Sovereign history records no nobler example than Queen Victoria the beloved mother of our late King. 
And well 
and truly did her son follow in her footsteps. He had the kingly attributes - 
royalty, dignity, ability - and, above all, he was filled with the deepest human sympathies. Indeed, he 
might with justice have said, " Write me as one that loves his fellow-men."

KING EDWARD VII IN HIS UNIFORM AS ADMIRAL OF THE BRITISH NAVY.

THE LIFE OF KING EDWARD VII.
On the 9th November, 1841, His Majesty Edward the Seventh, King of Great Britain and Ireland and of 
the British Dominions Beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India, was born
at Buckingham Palace. There, too, after a brief reign of nine years, he died, on the 6th May, 1910. 
The following is a brief account of his life:
 Before he was a month old, Edward was made
Prince of Wales, a title that since the time of
Edward I has been borne by the male heir-apparent
to the English throne, who also inherits the Duchy of Cornwall. But the title of Prince of Wales has
always to be conferred-it does not come merely by right of birth. Edward VII's son did not receive the 
title until after he had made his great
tour of the world in 1901.
The late King had for his first teacher a lady of very high rank, and as he grew older he was taught by 
two private tutors. Later he went to Edinburgh University, where he
studied practical chemistry under Lord Playfair, and then passed on to the great English 
Universities, residing in turn at Christ Church College, Oxford, and Trinity College,
Cambridge.
When he was eighteen years of age he went to Italy and Spain, and the next year he visited America, 
travelling under the name of " Lord Renfrew," though his Royal rank was known to many people.

QUEEN ALEXANDRA.
" The Queen Mother."

In the United States he was everywhere received most cordially, while in Canada he was welcomed 
with the greatest enthusiasm. On this tour his guide and travelling-companion was the Duke of 
Newcastle.
While the Prince was still a lad he was made colonel in the army, and, to obtain training in his 
military duties, in the year 1861 he joined the camp at Curragh, in Ireland.
He had not been there many months, however, when his first great sorrow entered into his life. In 
common with the whole nation, he was overwhelmed by the news of
the sudden and unexpected death of his father, the wise and good Prince Consort. For a time the young 
Prince did not appear at public functions, but in the following
year he fulfilled his father's wish by making a tour of the Holy Land under the guidance of the 
famous Dean Stanley.
You will see that up to this time the future King of England had been living a very busy life, but in 
the years that followed he was still more actively employed in the
discharge of public duties. In 1863 he married Alexandra, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, 
and from the time of her coming to England the beautiful young
Princess completely won the hearts of the people of her adopted country. As time went on, the 
widowed 
Queen Victoria retired more and more into seclusion, and the
share of the Royal duties falling upon the Prince and Princess of Wales was larger than had fallen to 
the lot of any who had previously held the titles.
In 1869 the Prince toured in Egypt with the Duke of Sutherland and Sir Samuel Baker, and two years 
later he revisited Ireland.
Towards the end of the same year the hearts of the English people were deeply moved by the news that 
their future Sovereign was dangerously ill with typhoid fever.
When some days passed and it was known that the Royal physicians had given up all hope of his 
recovery the whole nation was filled with anxiety for their Prince, and as mothers clasped their little 
ones tightly to them their 
hearts beat more quickly in sympathy with the deep sorrow of the Royal
mother. Day after day went by, and still the Prince lingered between life and death.
At last, with feelings of joyful relief the people learned that the crisis was past, and that the 
sufferer was making progress towards recovery. 

From "Queen Alexandra's Christmas Gift Book."
KING EDWARD VII AT BALMORAL.

By Christmas Day all danger was over, and the Queen was mercifully spared the pain of a second 
bereavement. In the following February, with the Prince and Princess, the
Queen drove through the cheering and rejoicing multitudes that thronged the streets of London to 
St. Paul's Cathedral,* where a National Thanksgiving Service was held.

See card No. 5 of the series "Geography of the British Isles." The bell referred to later in this article is 
in the "Clock Tower." 

Of the events in the next thirty years of the life of the Prince only a very brief summary can be 
given. In 1874 he visited Russia, and in the following year started on his
great Indian tour, during which he travelled 8,000 miles by land and 2,500 by sea, seeing more of the 
East than had been seen by any living Englishman of that day. In
1885, at a time of much political disturbance, he once more visited Ireland, and was everywhere 
welcomed with great enthusiasm. In 1892 another great sorrow came
upon him, when his eldest son, Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward, Duke of Clarence and Avondale 
and Earl of Athlone, died after an illness of only five days.
For several uneventful years the Prince was engaged mainly in the public work necessitated by his 
high position. At the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria he rode at
the Queen's right hand in the great procession, and he presided as Admiral of the Fleet at Spithead, 
where was held the grandest naval review the world had ever seen.
On the 22nd January, 1901, Queen Victoria died, and on the following day the Prince was proclaimed 
King as Edward VII. He had been christened Albert Edward, and
the following words he used at his accession are of considerable interest as showing not merely his 
reasons for choosing the title Edward VII, but also his deep sense of
the responsibilities imposed upon him by his new honours: "I need hardly say that my constant 
endeavour will be always to walk in her" [his mother's] " footsteps. In
undertaking the heavy load which now devolves upon me, I am fully determined to be a constitutional 
Sovereign in the strictest sense of the word, and as long as there
is breath in my body to work for the good and amelioration of my people. I have resolved to be known 
by the name of Edward, which has been borne by six of my ancestors. In doing so, I do not 
undervalue the name of Albert, which I inherit from my ever-to-be-lamented great and wise father, who 
by universal consent is, I think, deservedly known by the name of Albert the Good, and I desire that his 
name should stand alone.
I trust to Parliament and the nation to support me in the arduous duties which now devolve upon me by 
inheritance, to which I am determined to devote my whole
strength during the remainder of my life." From the time of the proclamation of his sovereignty till 
the time of his death well did the King fulfil his promise.
The King's coronation was fixed for the 26th June of the following year, and unprecedented 
preparations were made for the great celebration. When all arrangements
had been made and the event was only two days distant, the whole Empire learned with a great shock 
that the King was dangerously ill. Even in the farthest British
lands the keenest anxiety was felt, and when the message arrived that an operation had been 
successfully performed by Sir Frederick Treves, and that the Sovereign
was rapidly recovering, there was the deepest sense of thankfulness in the hearts of the whole people.
The coronation took place on the 9th August, in Westminster Abbey, and was accompanied by great 
rejoicings in all parts of the world.
On the 21st February last King Edward opened his last Parliament - a Parliament that had to discuss 
matters of the greatest importance to the nation. The incidence of
taxation, hereditary representation in the House of Lords, and Home Rule for Ireland were prominent 
in the minds of legislators, and there was evidence that the fight 
would be fierce and bitter. Not for many years had there been such pressing need for the King's 
tactful mediation to soften the bitterness of contending parties.

From the London " Graphic. "]
EDWARD VII OPENING HIS LAST PARLIAMENT: THE SPEECH  FROM THE THRONE.

For some days before the King's death it was known that his health had not been good, and that the 
most skilled physicians had been in attendance; yet word of his end came
as a surprise and
a shock. Even in New Zealand it was hard to believe that the news could be true; but how difficult 
must it have been for people at Home, who had been accustomed to see him
driving or walking about among them, to realise that their King was dead ! To many in London the sad 
news was announced by the tolling of the great bell of St. Paul's Cathedral,
which is rung only on the death of a Sovereign or an Archbishop; to others it came with the morning 
newspapers. In New Zealand the news was widely known while most people in
the Home-land were quietly asleep, unaware of the nation's loss. But in all parts of the world hearts 
were stirred with sorrow and sympathy, and many messages of condolence
were forwarded to the bereaved Queen. Yet probably one of the best and simplest tributes paid to the 
King was by Will Crooks, an ex-M.P., who recently visited New Zealand,
and who knows how much human sympathy is wanted among the poor at Home. After asking the 
audience he 
was addressing during the King's last illness to sing the National
Anthem, he said, " He " [the King] " is the father of us all."
It has been well said that the King died " in harness " - meaning that even to the last he carried 
out his public duties. Though the physicians had told him that he ought not to see
any one except his nearest relations, the day before he died he insisted upon seeing Baron Islington, 
Governor-elect of New Zealand, and also Mr. Robinson, the new
Agent-General for Queensland. Thus, despite his ill health and his sufferings, his oversea dominions 
claimed his interest and consideration to the very last.

Do noble things, not dream them.
-CHARLES KINGSLEY

KING GEORGE V.
THE " SAILOR PRINCE."
With the death of his father, George Frederick Ernest Albert, Prince of Wales - the "Sailor Prince," as 
he has well been called - became King as George V. As soon as
a Sovereign dies the heir becomes ruler, for the throne is never vacant.
The new ruler calls together the principal officers of State, receives their allegiance, and at once 
takes up the duties of kingship. Very soon afterwards he is proclaimed
King, though the ceremony of coronation does not take place for twelve months, as the court goes into 
mourning for that time.
George was born on the 3rd June, 1865, at Marlborough House. He was the second son of Edward VII 
and 
Queen Alexandra. His elder brother, the late Duke of
Clarence, died in 1892, and George became heir to the throne. In 1893 he married his cousin, Princess 
Victoria Mary of Teck, better known as " Princess May."
George V is undoubtedly the most travelled monarch in the world, and he is personally known to more 
of his subjects than was his august father. Not without reason
has he been called the " Sailor Prince," for he entered the navy when he was barely twelve years of 
age. Nor did he go to sea merely as a distinguished passenger,
watching the working of the ship without taking any part in it. The following anecdote will serve to 
illustrate this:
When George was a young officer the warship on which he was serving put in at Nova Scotia to coal. 
A 
prominent American was at Halifax when the vessel entered the
port, and in the hope of seeing the young Prince he obtained permission to inspect the ship. Coaling 
was in progress when he came on board, and the captain, who
was busy, turned him over to a young officer, who showed him all over the ship. The officer's face 
was begrimed with coaldust, and his uniform showed that he had been
called from superintending the trimming of the bunkers to act as guide to the visitor. The American 
questioned him about the Prince.
" Isn't he to be seen to-day ? " he asked.
" I'm afraid his features won't be visible," was the reply.
" Oh! I suppose you keep him wrapped up in cotton-wool when work like this is being done," said the 
American; but the young officer only laughed good-naturedly.

QUEEN MARY.

Finally, when he had been shown everything there was to see, the American went to say goodbye to the 
captain, who asked him if he had seen all he wanted.
"Well, the fact is, I haven't seen the man I wanted most to see - the Prince."
" The Prince! " said the captain. " Why, man, you have been with him for the last two hours."
" Was that the Prince? " the American shouted.
"Well, captain, you just give him my compliments, and tell him that I have gone ashore to kick 
myself."
With his elder brother, George was for some time educated at home, and then passed into the 
training-ship " Britannia," where they spent two years. They were taught to handle
boats, to work the ship, and to do all that was necessary to become skilful naval officers. Like the 
rest of those on board, they had to obey the discipline of the ship, and probably,
with the others, they found the rigid control at times somewhat irksome. The Princes had no 
indulgences except that they were allowed a cabin to themselves.
After two years' service in the " Britannia," George and his brother were sent on board H.M.S. 
"Bacchante," and there again they had to rough it. In all weathers and at all hazards
they had to take their share of duty like the other young men on board. In the course of two voyages 
they visited Teneriffe, the West Indies, Falkland Islands, Cape of Good Hope,
Australia, Fiji, Japan, China, and Singapore. This memorable cruise served to open the eyes of the 
Princes to the real value and importance of the British possessions beyond the
seas; and, young as they were, the loyalty shown to Her Majesty's throne and person in every colony 
and dependency made a deep and lasting impression upon 
their minds. On their departure from Queensland, the youngest of the Australian Colonies, the Princes 
were presented with an address, and it may be interesting to
quote their reply : " Our present is, it is true, but a passing visit, but we assuredly hope, as does 
our father the Prince of Wales, that opportunities may hereafter occur
both for himself and for us again to come amongst you and to further witness the development of this 
very extensive and promising portion of the Queen's dominions."
George next went to college, and afterwards became attached to several battleships. In 1889 he was 
presented with his first command, that of a torpedo-boat, for the
period of the naval manoeuvres, and while in charge of his little craft he displayed seamanship and 
skill that won the admiration of old and tried officers in the service.
It happened that another of these craft had disabled her screw off the coast of Ireland, and was in 
danger of drifting on to a lee shore. " The sea was running high, and
there was a stiff gale blowing. Prince George was sent to her assistance. The task was a most 
difficult one, owing to the delicate nature of the construction of such
boats. He showed, however, such skill, judgment, and nerve in approaching, securing with wire hawser 
after several hours' effort, and ultimately towing the disabled craft
into safety, as won him high praise to the Admiralty from Captain Fitzgerald and other senior 
officers who witnessed his conduct on that occasion. The achievement
was perhaps all the more noteworthy as Prince George (like Nelson and many another distinguished 
naval officer) suffers terribly from sea-sickness; and the behaviour
of a torpedo-boat in rough weather is not the most conducive to quietness of nerve or to comfortably 
collecting the thoughts."
Many other incidents in the life of the Sailor Prince might be mentioned, but we must hasten to the 
story of his great tour made in 1901 with his wife, now Queen Mary.
The opening year of the present century saw the five colonies of Australia and the island of Tasmania 
united into one commonwealth, with one Parliament to manage
the chief affairs of the island continent. The first meeting of this Parliament was held to mark the 
birth of a new, loyal, and united nation under the Imperial Crown. To
indicate her appreciation of the importance of the event, Queen Victoria decided to send Prince George 
(the Duke of Clarence having died nine years before) to open the Parliament in her name.

THE " OPHIR."

But death cast a shadow on the whole Empire, and the good and beloved Victoria passed away. Yet
King Edward determined to fulfil his mother's wish, and would not allow the project to be abandoned. 
It was arranged, moreover, that the voyage should not be to
Australia alone, but should embrace the Empire, so that the future King of England might become still 
more fully acquainted with the British dominions beyond the
seas and their peoples, and that these should be linked to the Empire by a personal knowledge of the 
heir to the throne.
The great ocean steamship " Ophir " was fitted up for the use of Prince George and Princess May, and 
when she sailed from Southampton she had on board a company
of over five hundred souls. The voyage was, indeed, no small undertaking - it was a Royal progress 
such 
as the world had never seen before. The distance to be covered
was 50,000 miles, equal to twice the distance round the world, and the time to be occupied was eight 
months.
Accompanied by a guard of war-vessels, the "Ophir " began her voyage on the 16th March, 1901. 
Gibraltar, Malta, and Aden, our outposts on the 
route to the East, were visited. Then followed Ceylon and Singapore.
India itself was passed by, for it was an empire too great for a mere passing visit. Australia was 
reached in May, and on the 6th of that month the Commonwealth's first
Parliament was opened by the Prince at Melbourne. During the ceremony the Princess pressed an 
electric button which flashed to every school in Victoria the signal
for hoisting the Union Jack in honour of the day.
From Australia the Prince and Princess proceeded to New Zealand, arriving at Auckland on the 10th 
June. Then they visited in succession Rotorua, Wellington,
Canterbury, and Otago. The Royal party rejoined the " Ophir " at Lyttelton, and was accompanied to 
Cook Strait by the Government steamer " Hinemoa."
Of the ceremonies of welcome tendered to the Royal party not the least impressive was that given at 
Rotorua by the Maori subjects of the King. " At this carnival the
Prince saw the Maori, as he had requested, on his own ground. He saw him there under a brilliant 
cloudless sky
 - saw him at his best. He had seen him on his arrival on Thursday in the mist and the rain, and the 
Maori had behaved impressively, with enthusiasm, and with ceremony. ' After all,' said the Maori, 'the 
elements were right on Thursday; for the first ceremony, according to our
custom, is the tangi, the mourning for the Queen, of which the great chief is the tino uri rangatira, 
the first in the direct line of descent. The elements conspired with us
to make a proper tangi.' The Prince had again seen him on Friday in his pas, among his puias, and, 
later, in the graceful poi of his womenkind and the fierce war-dances
of his men. But on this last day of his visit he saw the Maori as he had never been seen in all his 
history. In numbers, in unity of racial brotherhood, in unanimity of
loyalty to the Empire and the Royal house, in generosity of heart and enthusiasm of emotion, this 
demonstration surpassed everything in the annals of the race." (From
Royalty in New Zealand.")
From New Zealand the " Ophir " returned to Australia, and then shaped her course to South Africa. 
There the sky was still dark with the clouds of war, and only a brief
visit was made to Natal and Cape Town.
One more of the great English-speaking nations that make up the British Empire still remained to be 
visited, and the " Ophir " sailed across the Atlantic to Canada.
Crossing the continent by the great Canadian-Pacific Railway, the Royal couple gained some idea of 
the vast rolling prairies and the wheat-laden plains of " Our Lady of
the Snows," and on the 1st November the " Ophir " set sail for home from St. John's, the capital of 
Newfoundland, our oldest colony.
After a few years' rest at home the Prince and Princess entered upon their next great journey, a 
prolonged tour of India. The great dependency had been omitted from
the Prince's previous great tour, and it was felt desirable that the loyalty of the Hindu people should be 
strengthened by the 
visit of the heir to the throne.
The tour lasted from the beginning of November, 1905, till the middle of March, 1906. The Prince and 
Princess landed at Bombay on the 9th November to find the whole city,
native and European, gaily bedecked in their honour, and to be reminded, by triumphal arches 
inscribed in many languages, of the great variety of races under the British flag.
The Prince, in an address, stated that it was thirty years, all but a day, since his Royal father had 
received a similar welcome from Bombay, when commencing his tour of
India. The Prince was welcomed by a number of native rulers, and the Princess, who was the first 
Royal lady of England to visit India, received a special welcome from the
Hindu women of rank.
The Royal tour was one brilliant succession of enthusiastic receptions, amid all the pomp and 
pageantry and blaze of colours of which the East is capable. At Indore a large
assemblage of the ruling chiefs of central India welcomed the future Emperor of the dependency; and 
there was gorgeous pageantry at Jaipur, where, we are told, "the route of
the procession was more than two miles long, but every yard was lined with troops and retainers of 
Jaipur State - on foot, on horseback, on elephants, and on camels. As for
the colouring, that simply defies description. Every shade of every colour was there. To one looking 
down the road it seemed one unending vista of living rainbows. Equally
varied were the equipments and accoutrements."
At Lahore the Prince held a brilliant reception of chiefs, and, after going through the Khyber Pass 
to the Afghan border, reviewed 55,000 troops.
They were magnificently received at Amritsar, the sacred city of the loyal Sikhs, at Delhi, at Agra, 
at Gwalior and at Lucknow, where they shook hands with the survivors of
the famous siege, and at Calcutta, which they reached on the 29th December.
From India the Royal visitors went to Burma, where enthusiastic welcomes were received at Rangoon 
and 
Mandalay. Next, landing at Madras, they visited Mysore,
Hyderabad, and Benares. Near Benares the Prince took part in a great tiger-hunting expedition, in 
which four hundred elephants were employed. The Prince and Princess rode
in state through the streets of Benares on a superb elephant, declared to be the largest in India, 
with a golden howdah and resplendent trappings, and were followed by a
procession of native princes, only a few degrees less gorgeously equipped.
From their landing at Bombay till their embarkation at Karachi, the Prince and Princess covered over 
8,000 miles by rail, besides a sea voyage of some 2,000 miles to and
from Burma. " They have passed," said a writer " from the warm and humid zone of the western coast 
around Bombay, across immense tracts of parched and sun-scorched
table-land, where the black shadow of famine too often hangs over the country, and a few inches of 
rain make all the difference between starvation and plenty, to the wild
mountainous borderland of the north-west frontier, close up under 'the Roof of the World,' where 
summer and winter mark the extremes of heat and cold; they have traversed
the densely populated alluvial plains of the Gangetic delta, as well as the deserts of western 
Rajputana and the scarcely less desolate plateau of the rock-strewn Deccan,
whilst in Burma and in Madras they have seen the splendid luxuriance of tropical vegetation under the 
influence of regular trade-winds and steady 
rainfall. They have been greeted by Pathan and Baluchi tribesmen, by
Mussulman Punjabis and Bengali Hindus, and by smiling Burmans with slanting Mongolian eyes. "

From "Queen Alexandra's Christmas Gift Book."]
EDWARD VII, GEORGE V, AND THE LATTER'S TWO SONS, EDWARD AND ALBERT.

These journeys of King Edward's heir were no mere pleasure-trips, nor were they mere visits of 
ceremony. Just as King Edward, when Prince of Wales, had visited India to know his subjects and to be 
known by them, so did he send his son to visit those remote
dependencies of the Empire that were year by year making their influence more and more felt in the 
councils of the Empire. The visits sprang from a feeling of kinship
between Britain and her colonies. That the governors of the Empire should know the governed no one 
knew better than did the Royal statesman. How well was the King's
desire fulfilled was shown in the hearty welcome his son received in the lands that were visited, not 
only from those who claim Britain as the land of their birth, but also from
the native-born, and from those peoples who, while not of the same kinship as ourselves, yet 
recognise the King's sovereignty.

PROCLAMATION OF GEORGE V AS KING.
On Monday, 9th May, George V was proclaimed King in London and other cities at Home. In New 
Zealand the principal 
proclamation ceremony was performed in Wellington on the 10th May, at
noon.
In the absence, through illness of His Excellency the Governor, the Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) 
read from the steps of 
the old Parliamentary Buildings the proclamation of the death of " Our
late Sovereign Lord King Edward the Seventh, of Blessed and Glorious Memory," and the accession of 
" the High and Mighty 
Prince George Frederick Ernest Albert " to the greatest throne on
earth.
Long before the hour fixed for the ceremony a crowd began to gather on the lawn and in the portico of 
the building. By noon 
they almost covered the green lawn, and lined both sides of the
overlooking streets. The wind soughed mournfully, and a few raindrops fell. The Prime Minister 
arrived a few minutes before noon.
By this time the view over the heads of the assembled dignitaries and crowd afforded a strange 
contrast. The portico was 
crowded with ladies, Ministers of the Crown and of religion, City
Councillors, and Government officials. The eye, which could not distinguish crowded figures, took in a 
sea of high black 
hats. At the front of the steps stood the Prime Minister, clad in his
gorgeous uniform as Privy Councillor. Beside him stood the Mayor, wearing his bright regalia of 
office. Near them the white 
and scarlet feathers in the peaked hats of a group of military officers,
brilliant in full dress, review order, tossed in the breeze. Below them,
past the helmets and sloped bayonets of the official guard, stretched an expanse of dingy (by 
comparison) hats and caps, ridged in by gloomy umbrellas. A confused buzz of tongues went up from 
lawn and steps.
The Prime Minister commenced to read, and at the word " Proclamation! " the sea of hats was a sea of 
upturned, straining faces, hats having vanished in an instant, and all
voices but Sir Joseph's being suddenly hushed. The sonorous language of the Proclamation required 
only a few minutes to read.

Tibbutt photo.]
SIR JOSEPH WARD READING HE PROCLAMATION.

PROCLAMATION.
Whereas it has pleased Almighty God to call to His mercy our late Sovereign Lord King Edward the 
Seventh, of Blessed and Glorious Memory, by whose decease the Imperial
Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and all other His late Majesty's dominions 
is solely and rightfully come to the High and Mighty Prince George Frederick
Ernest Albert: We, therefore, William Lee, Baron Plunket, the Governor of the Dominion of New 
Zealand, Joseph George Ward, a member of His late Majesty's Privy Council,
Prime Minister of the said Dominion and the Members of the Executive Council of the said Dominion, 
assisted by Members of both Houses of the General Assembly, Judges
and Magistrates, Ministers of Religion, Mayors, Chairmen and Members of Local Bodies, and 
numerous 
other representative European and Maori citizens here present, do now
hereby, with one full voice and consent of tongue and heart, publish and proclaim that the High and 
Mighty Prince George Frederick Ernest Albert is now by the death of our late
Sovereign of Happy and Glorious Memory become our only lawful and rightful Liege Lord George the 
Fifth, by the grace of God, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of 
the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of
India, Supreme Lord in and over the Dominion of New Zealand and its dependencies, to whom we do 
acknowledge all faith and constant obedience with all hearty and humble
affection, beseeching God, by Whom kings and queens do reign, to bless the Royal Prince George the 
Fifth with long and happy years to reign over us. ',
GOD SAVE THE KING!
Over the Prime Minister, reading in a slow and solemn voice, the heavy folds of black and purple 
mourning drooped from the stonework overhead, forming a fluttering, high-pointed
arch. " The King is dead - Long live the King!" that was the purport of the Proclamation, and the crowd 
listened in hushed silence. A few subdued cheers followed the concluding
words, "God save the King."
But the King lives! Flags, which a moment before drooped sadly at half-mast, are flying high and free 
to attest the event. A verse of the National Anthem is sung. " Three cheers
for King George V " are called for by the Prime Minister, and given with enthusiasm. "Three cheers 
for Queen Mary " are also given with a good will. The bugle sounds the call for
the Royal salute, the bayonets of the official guard flash at the " Present," then gleam once more 
above blue, gold-braided Shoulders. The guard moves off, the crowd disperses.
" Long live the King! "
But to-morrow the flags will droop again at half-mast. It is too early to forget that a King is dead.
-From a report in the " Dominion."

TRIBUTES AND CONDOLENCES.
It is my painful duty, as New Zealand's representative, to convey to Your Majesty the profound grief 
of the people of New Zealand at the lamented death of their beloved King.
Though living in the most distant part of His Majesty's realm, the people of New Zealand, both 
British and Maori, are as devoted in their loyalty and as intense in their sorrow
as those of the Home-land, and join in the universal mourning at the great loss the Empire has 
sustained - To King George V from Hon. Hall-Jones, High Commissioner for
New Zealand.
May I tender most humbly, and with feelings of profound sorrow, heartfelt sympathy with the Royal 
Family and the Imperial Government on the sudden termination of the.
illustrious reign of the late Sovereign. The passing-away in the midst of health and strength and the 
full performance of duty of the Empire's brightest life and most powerful
influence for good and universal peace and friendship will add to a sense of public loss the more 
precious tributes of a grief that follows the loss of one so well beloved of all
his subjects. - Sir George Reid, High Commissioner for the Australian Commonwealth in Great Britain.
His Excellency the Governor, Palmerston North. -The Prime Minister presents his compliments, and 
desires His Excellency to request the Secretary of State for the Colonies
to convey to Queen Alexandra and the members of the Royal Family the profound grief of the 
Government 
and people of New Zealand at the death of His late Majesty. - J. G. WARD. - New Zealand's message.
Please accept and convey to Ministers and people of New Zealand the grateful thanks of Their 
Majesties the King, the Queen, and Queen Alexandra, and other members of
the Royal Family for the expressions of sincere and loyal sympathy contained in your telegram of 7th 
May. - King George's reply to New Zealand's message, sent through the
Secretary of State for the Colonies.
The news of the death of our illustrious Sovereign came as a stunning blow to his subjects in New 
Zealand. His  too-short reign showed him to be a far-sighted monarch,
and, apart from the fealty that his British subjects owe to the Throne, a feeling of proud reverence 
and deep attachment to the King himself very quickly evinced itself in the
breasts of his people after he ascended the throne. During his reign he has shown himself to be the 
greatest factor in the promotion of peace between the nations of the
world that has ever ruled. When the historian comes to record the many-sided qualities of King Edward 
VII, the work he did in the prevention of war and the promotion of
peace and goodwill among his fellow-men will stand out as one of the greatest examples of true 
humanitarian effort which a great King of England can achieve by the exercise
of extraordinary common-sense, marvellous tact, and ripe judgment. With such attributes, and with 
such a wonderful personality, he was able at the right time to influence for
good some of the  most powerful rulers and most contentious nations of the world. It is a unique 
circumstance that the reign of the King of peace was marked throughout its full period by an absence of 
war between any portion of the British Empire and any other country. - Message from the Prime 
Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) to the people of New Zealand.
General Botha, Premier of the Transvaal, in a striking interview, recalls King. Edward's noble 
welcome to himself and Generals De la Rey and De Wet when they visited
England after the war. They had been deeply impressed, and, with softer feelings, became convinced 
that His Majesty, the Sovereign of a nation to which they would
henceforth belong, could be regarded as a sincere friend. "I feel deeply. We lose, besides a 
Sovereign, a great personal friend." -  Cablegram.
 The Japanese Admiral who is now visiting Australia,
on hearing of the death of the King, said, " We grieve
for him as we would for our Emperor. All Japanese
loved him because he was looked upon as the chief factor
in the formation of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, which
has done so much for us. - Cablegram. 
Mr. Fischer (Premier of Orange River Colony), speaking at Bloemfontein, said, " In these times of 
unrest I know none whom the world could so ill spare, and whose loss to
humanity I more deeply deplore. Orangia sincerely shares in the Empire's grief. - Cablegram.
A Vienna paper pays a high tribute to King Edward and says, " He crowded so much into his reign that 
it forms not an episode, but an era in Britain's history. When he ascended
the throne Britain knew not what she had gained, and as he goes to the grave she knows not how much 
she has lost." - Cablegram.
The Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, in a speech in the Senate, which afterwards adjourned for 
three days, recalled his impressions of King Edward when he (the Minister) was
Ambassador in London. King Edward's parting words to him were, " I have done my duty." The first 
words King Edward spoke at Home to intimate friends on ascending the
throne expressed in, familiar sporting language the same idea: " I will play, the game." He was as 
good as his word. That powerful, comprehensive sense of duty which was one of
the chief factors in British greatness was, without ostentation and with perfect simplicity, the 
constant rule of all King Edward's actions and thoughts. Britain was not alone in her
grief, which was fully shared by Italy, who was united with Britain in the same fervent faith - Liberty - 
Cablegram.
President Taft cabled to Queen Alexandra, " I offer Your Majesty and Your Majesty's son the 
profoundest sympathy of  the people and the Government of the United States,
whose hearts go out to their British kinsmen in this national bereavement. To this I add a personal 
appreciation of those high qualities which made the life of the late King so potent
an influence towards, peace and justice among the nations." - Cablegram.
You have all heard of the calamity which has befallen our Empire in the death of our King Edward the 
Seventh, a worthy son of an illustrious mother. We - for I speak for my
brother Judges as well as myself - may be pardoned if we say that no monarch of any country has been 
so 
universally recognised as a ruler whose object was to bring about a real
brotherhood of men. It was not in our Empire only that he was called a peacemaker, but in countries 
whose peoples were not always in accord with our citizens he was revered as
one whose main desire was that war should cease. And can there be a more noble title conferred on any 
son of man than that of "The Peacemaker."
In his beneficent rule in his wide dominions he was ever foremost in promoting the welfare of his 
people and in recognising without distinction of class, or creed, or race, or station
in life, any one who was helpful to his fellows or chivalrous in his conduct. His people recognised 
his aims were just, and revered him as the symbol of the great Empire over which
he was placed. He was ever active in the performance of his duties, and even in the face of death he 
did what his hand found to do with all his might. According to the length of
human life, all people thought that there were yet many more years of usefulness and service. We 
know, however, that length of years is not always a measure of service.
He liveth long who liveth well,
All else is life but flung away;
He liveth longest who can tell
Of true things truly done each day.
His career is closed, and soon our Empire will acclaim his successor, our King George the Fifth. May 
we express a hope that the influence of his father for peace may be
exemplified in the new King, striving for the concord of nations and peoples !
In mourning the loss of our Sovereign, our hearts instinctively go out to her, the chief mourner, to 
her who is overcome with grief at the loss of her husband. May the knowledge that
she is not alone in her sorrow, but that the people of the civilised world share her grief, help her 
to carry her heavy burden and solace her in her great bereavement !-His Honour the
Chief Justice of New Zealand, Sir Robert Stout.

THE REVENGE OF THE BUSH.
Block by Lands Department.]
FLOODED OUT AT FOXTON, ON THE MANAWATU RIVER.
What does he plant who plants a tree?  He plants cool shade and tender rain, And seeds and buds of 
days to be,  And years that fade and flush again  He plants
the glory of the plain  He plants the forest's heritage  The harvests of a coming age
The joy that unborn eyes shall see:
These things he plants who plants a tree.
Everybody knows in a general sort of way that Arbor Day is a day specially chosen by the Government 
for the planting of trees; but very few people have any
clear idea why it is so necessary to plant trees, and - what is even more important - why it is a mistake 
ever to cut them down without a very good
reason. It is easy enough to see that if we cut down trees without taking any thought for the future 
we must soon come to the end of our stock of timber; for it
takes perhaps only a few minutes to destroy  a tree that may have taken hundreds of years  to grow. 
But there is a great deal besides the supply of timber that
we have to consider in thinking about the felling and planting of trees, and many of the consequences 
of clearing away our bush are much more important than
the mere loss of timber that we should otherwise be able to use or sell.
To understand exactly why the destruction of trees is a serious matter to the country and everybody 
in it we must first consider what purpose a tree serves while
it is growing. Of course it supplies us with timber; but it has many other uses that we may not 
observe at first sight. Here are some of the benefits that we enjoy through the growth of trees and the 
existence of the bush :
(1.) The decay of the dead leaves makes the soil fertile.
(2.) The foliage shades the earth, and cools both it and the air above it, thus helping to make the climate 
moist.
 (3.) The trees shelter the soil, and prevent it from being washed away by heavy rain or carried off by 
strong winds.
(4.) The roots, running deep into the earth, act as drains, which carry the moisture gradually in all 
directions underground.
(5.) The rain, broken by the dense mass of leaves, and soaking slowly through the brushwood and moss 
in the undergrowth, does not run quickly off the hillsides into
creeks and streams, to be carried rapidly away towards the sea.

GIRLS OF THE RANGIWAHIA SCHOOL IN THEIR GARDEN.
(Rangiwahia is about twelve miles from Mangaweka, on the North Island Main Trunk line. The 
elevation is 1,700ft.)

(6.) The roots bind the soil together and hold it firmly down, thus preventing it from slipping off 
the hills into the valleys and ruining the land below.
Other services that trees perform for us could be mentioned, but these should be enough to show that 
forests are a very valuable possession, and that, even if we do not
need them to supply timber for our
wants, we cannot afford to be without them.  And after considering all this it should be easy to 
understand how seriously a country is injured by the destruction of its
native bush or by the felling of its trees, if nothing is ever done to replace them.
Some of the most important results that follow the wholesale destruction of trees are:
(l.) As the air is no longer kept cool and damp by the trees, the climate becomes more severe - hotter 
in summer, colder in winter; and the rainfall becomes less.

BOYS PLANTING TREES ONTHE HILLS NEAR WELLINGTON.
EFFECT OF DEFORESTATION.
HOW THE GERMANS PLANT WASTE LAND.

(2.) The soil, no longer sheltered by the trees, is in summer converted into dust and is blown about 
by the winds; and when the rains come this loose earth is carried
away, leaving deep cuts and gashes in the hillsides, and often causing dangerous landslips that 
destroy valuable property and even human life.
(3.) The water is no longer drained slowly through
 the soil, moistening it far below the surface; therefore the springs begin to dry
 up, the small creeks cease to run, and the
 lakes are reduced in size. The water that
 should have supplied them all, no longer
 checked by tree-trunks, and moss, and
 leaves, runs headlong down the hillsides
 into the gullies, tearing the soil away with
 it, and converting creeks and rivers into
 raging torrents that burst their banks and
 sweep over the country, carrying destruction with them on every side.
(4.) The soil carried down into the rivers chokes up their channels, and makes them and the harbours 
at their mouths dangerous for navigation; and the flood-waters of these
streams, backed up over the land, form swampy lagoons and marshes that breed fevers, and in other 
ways affect injuriously the health, comfort, and prosperity of the people.
Now, it is evident that these are all very serious matters, and if we come to see what actually has 
been the result of cutting down forests in foreign countries, and in New Zealand
as well, we find that an enormous amount of harm has been done in the world already by what is called 
" deforestation " - that is, by clearing away the natural growth of shrubs and trees. Many learned and 
valuable books 
have been written to prove that in China and Asia Minor, in France and Italy, in
Spain and North America, and in many other countries, the destruction of forests has ruined the 
fertility of large tracts of land, and that, through the effects of the floods and
landslips that are always brought about by deforestation, extensive regions that were once populous and 
productive have now become barren and desolate, and, as a famous writer says, " no 
longer fit for the habitation of Man."
Our own country is, so far, too young to feel the full effects of deforestation. But if people would 
take the trouble to calculate all the damage done in New Zealand during the past ten
years by landslips and floods that could be traced to the destruction of the bush, they would soon 
find good reason to believe that it is a dangerous policy to cut down trees in large
quantities, and that it is a duty that we owe to ourselves and to the whole country to replace, them 
at least as fast as we destroy them.
If deforestation has such a bad effect on the country, what should be done to guard against its 
evils? The answer to that question is easy. In the first place we ought to preserve our
native bush as long as we possibly can. The timber alone is very valuable, and our large forest-trees 
take so many hundreds of years to grow to their full size that it would do little
good to replant them when once they are cut down. But the strongest argument against the destruction 
of the trees is that the standing bush is a safeguard against drought,
landslips, and floods; and for that reason, even if there were no other, we ought never to cut down 
our trees except when we absolutely need them for use. In any case we ought to
do what we can to replace them by planting others that will in time grow up and perform for us all 
the services that were once performed by the native bush.
It is for this reason that the governments of many countries have not only planted large areas of 
forest on their own account, but have encouraged the people to establish the custom
of planting trees on Arbor Day; and the real lesson of Arbor Day is contained in all that has been 
said about the evils of deforestation. Arbor Day should serve to remind us not only that trees are 
beautiful things that 
we ought to respect and preserve because they are beautiful, but that
they are extremely valuable to the whole country, and that if they are destroyed without being 
replaced their loss inflicts on us all a most serious injury. We cannot keep
the kauri, and the rimu, and the totara for ever, but we can at least plant trees to take their place, to 
supply us with timber, and to protect us from droughts, and
landslips, and floods; and every single tree planted by the children of New Zealand on Arbor Day helps 
to make the country brighter, and richer, and healthier, and
happier - more like " God's own country " than it was before.

KING GEORGE THE FIFTH'S MESSAGE.
"TO MY PEOPLE BEYOND THE SEAS."
In a message addressed " To my People beyond the Seas," King George V says,
" The innumerable messages of kindness from my loyal subjects beyond the seas have deeply touched 
my heart, and have assured me that I have in full measure their
sympathy in the great trial that has befallen me and them, that my sorrow is their sorrow, and that 
we share in a common loss.
" As a sailor in constant touch with the oversea dominions I  personally realised the affectionate 
loyalty holding together many lands and divers peoples in one glorious
fellowship. Nine years ago I travelled the Empire accompanied by my dear wife, and, had the late King 
lived, she and I, at his expressed wish, would have visited South
Africa to open the Parliament of the South African Union,* the latest and greatest evidence of that 
peace and harmony which my father ever loved to promote.
" The happiness of all his people throughout the dominions was dear to the heart of my beloved 
father. For them he lived and worked; in their service he died. I cannot
doubt that they hold his name in grateful remembrance.
 "I am now called upon to follow in his foot-steps, and carry on the work which prospered in
his hands. It will be my earnest endeavour to uphold constitutional government, and to safeguard in all 
their fullness the liberties that are enjoyed throughout my dominions; and, under the guidance
of God, the Ruler of all men, I will maintain, upon
the foundations of Freedom, Justice, and Peace, the
great heritage of the 'United British Empire."

* Cape Colony, Orange River Colony, Natal, and Transvaal.

MEMORIAL TO THE LATE MR SEDDON.
On the 10th of February last there took place at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, a ceremony of deep 
interest to New Zealanders, when the Duke of Argyll unveiled a monument to
the Right Honourable R. J. Seddon, late Prime Minister of New Zealand. The memorial was placed in 
the 
crypt, which is full of historical interest, containing as it does
memorials to Nelson, Wellington, Sir George Grey, Sir Bartle Frere, and other great departed of the 
Empire.
The inscription on the memorial is as follows:-  "To the memory of Richard John Seddon, Prime 
Minister 
of New Zealand, 1893-1906 - Imperialist, Statesman, Reformer - Born June 22nd, 1845, at St. Helens, 
Lancashire - Died at sea, June 10th, 1906 - 
Buried at Observatory Hill, Wellington, New Zealand."
In the course of his speech the Duke of Argyll said:
" In unveiling this work of art to-day, representing our friend and English fellow-countryman, 
Richard John Seddon, we desire to mark our affection for the man, and our respect
for the statesman of the islands which have been called the Britain of the Southern Hemisphere. Mr. 
Seddon was like one of the heroic Knights of Northern Story, who sailed
forth for conquest and adventure on the track of the Rising Sun.
" Leaving his Lancastrian home, he wrought a great work in the Southern Seas, where a young 
community 
possessing a glorious land was free to try anew how its growth
might be shaped to worthy ends. He did much to realise his ideal, and to cause New Zealand to be seen 
as a gracious hostess welcoming the weary and sorrow-laden, and
giving to all hope and confidence and strength. Having done all man could, he died while the vision 
he had created shone forth benignant and majestic. He wished for no praise
for himself that was not praise for his adopted country.
" Where we find that the native race of a country is of fine stature, bold, and able, there we may 
know that our people will keep their ancient reputation for muscular and
mental power. This it was that made the first great leader of the young New Zealand nation, Sir 
George Grey, tell Britain that in the islands they had so fortunately annexed the
Old Country had founded a people who would in time be the masters of the Southern Seas. The names 
of 
Grey and of Seddon will ever be jointly associated with their early history. It was to Seddon that Grey 
passed on the sceptre in the young 
nation's affections. When consulted by Seddon on the acceptance of the
task of forming a Ministry, Grey wrote to him, 'You are acting in a great crisis such as makes a 
hero. Act, with your Maker, for the good of His creatures. What any one may
say or do is nothing to you. The millions of your fellow-men and their Maker - let these be your 
thoughts. Be brave, unselfish, gentle, but resolute for good. Reflect well before
acting, gain time for thought - the good among men will soon gather round you.'
" He followed bravely this brave advice, and became the most trusted leader in all Australasia. He 
gave no uncertain voice when the call came to prove the unity of the Empire.
'Loyalty,' he said, ' is but kinship written large, and every man and woman of the colony is proud of 
the crimson thread which makes the people of New Zealand loyal sons and
daughters of the British Empire. Whatever be the sacrifice, we cheerfully take our stand beside the 
Mother Country for the maintenance of her honour and the integrity of the
Empire.' And nobly New Zealand responded to the call, sending, one after the other, ten contingents 
to South Africa. Our dear friend's spirit still guides her councils. She is
foremost in her desire to be represented in our fleets. And now in the Imperial capital's cathedral, 
in the centre of the Empire he served, we honour his memory in the land that
gave him birth, as they honour it in the land that gave him fame. We gratefully record his services 
for King and Country. We revere his example and we deplore his loss."

A NEW ZEALAND NATURE CALENDAR.*.
JUNE.
In June the year has not yet touched its deadest stage, because, though the sun reaches its farthest-north 
point towards the end of the month, the average temperature is not
so low as that of July, and the ground has not become so cold and wet as it is in August.
Nature is not dead, but only in part asleep, and in the leafless branches and under the ground there 
is the constant stirring of the life which is preparing to break forth in fresh
vigour with the advent of spring. The thrushes also sing on the tree-tops, the native birds that come 
in towards cultivations and human habitations at the beginning of winter -
korimakos, tomtits, wax-eyes, and fantails - are still to be seen and heard about the bush and gardens, 
and the skylarks begin to soar heavenwards - all in anticipation of the
nesting season which is soon to begin.
Butterflies and humble-bees are occasionally to be met with on bright days in sunny nooks facing the 
north. But under bark and dead leaves, among the decayed and
decaying rubbish of the bush, and buried in the ground, are numberless forms of insect life, much of 
it in the chrysalis stage, preparing for the transformation that is to be
completed later.
Most plants have entered on their period of apparent rest in this month; the fruits have mostly 
disappeared, and the seeds are now committed to the soil to soften, swell, and
get ready for their visible germination in the coming summer.

* These notes were unavoidably held over from previous months. With this issue this series of articles 
comes to a close.

As a rule there are scarcely any flowers to be met with. On the other hand, non-flowering plants can 
be readily studied during the winter months. Ferns and mosses are in fine
sporing condition, and many of the liverworts throw up their capsules on slender white stalks, which 
open at the top like miniature crosses.
But June is pre-eminently the month in which to look for fungi, many of which are very beautiful and 
interesting. One of the commonest is a big brown toadstool (a large
Boletus, probably the introduced Boletus edulis), which frequently occurs under pine - trees. It 
matures throughout the autumn and winter months, but seems to be more
abundant during June than at any other time, to judge by entries in my note-books. As it becomes 
fully matured its upper skin acquires a slimy appearance, while its stalk and
underside turn yellow. It is not like a mushroom, which has its spore-organs borne on plates or "gills," 
but the whole underside of its umbrella is made up of very numerous fine tubes, on the walls of which 
the spores are developed.
Another fungus to be found in June is a subterranean fungus, something like the famous morels and 
truffles which fetch such a high price in Europe. At first it is like an ordinary
potato, but soon it bursts the enclosing skin and appears above ground as a white coral-like basket.
Among the numerous other fungi to be looked for, two are deserving of special mention on account of 
their brilliant colour. One (Hygrophorus cyaneus) is a bright sky-blue and
rather rare species; but the other (Aseroe rubra), which is not uncommon, is a red and very 
attractive form. It stands an inch or two off the ground, and opens out like a fine red
starfish, with several radiating arms. But handle it carefully, for its smell is most offensive, just like 
putrid carrion. Evidently 
it is meant to be visited by carrion flies, which, either themselves or by their
maggots, help to spread the spores.
At this time of the year we may turn our attention to a domain of nature that is as interesting in 
winter as in summer - the domain of the old ocean. The sandhills along our
shores afford interesting study. There are to be seen a few plants that are to be found only in such 
localities. These have fibrous roots and long creeping stems, which send up
buds here and there even when buried under several inches of sand. These are the natural sand-binders 
which tend to make the hills permanent dry land. They are commonly
plants with a wide geographical range, though locally their distribution is so limited.
Seaside plants as a rule are either hard and dry or thick and spongy in their texture. Their surfaces 
are not furnished with so great a number of breathing pores, or stomata, as
we find in ordinary green plants that grow away from the neighbourhood of the sea; in consequence 
they do not evaporate water so rapidly from their foliage and stems.
The animal life of the sandhills is not very abundant, yet, wherever plants are to be found, there 
Animals - especially insects of various kinds - are found to eat them, and still
others to prey upon the vegetable-feeders. Burying-beetles, carnivorous beetles, ants, and spiders 
all belong to the last class, and quite a respectable collection of these can
be made in any hollow where the blown sand is more or less grown over with plant life. While the 
plant-eaters are mostly brownish, grey, or dirty
green, to enable them to lie hidden either among the foliage or in the vegetable debris of the sand, their 
enemies are not so protectively coloured, and trust, as a rule, to their superior agility or 
strength in the struggle for existence.
When we leave the sandhills and walk down on the beach we find that the border line between sea and 
land, where the highest tides and heaviest gales have thrown up
the seaweed to a great height, is inhabited by colonies of scavengers whose work is to eat up, and so 
clear away, the debris that collects. Under the decaying weed - usually misnamed kelp - are to be found 
numerous flies, beetles (with their wing-covers so short as to 
protect only about one-third of their body, and therefore useless to
them for flight), large earwigs, sometimes small ants, and almost always sand-hoppers.
In the case of the flies and beetles, we see one of those devices which meet one at every turn when 
studying the organic creation. Neither of these insects can fly - at
least, to any extent. Had they considerable wing-power their chances of being blown out to sea during 
off-shore winds would be great, whereas with enfeebled powers of
flight they are saved this fatal risk.
The sand-hoppers are specially adapted for living out of the water and for burrowing in the sand. 
Their bodies are sheathed in flexible coats of mail, their fore limbs are
fairly strong, so that they can rake the sand together with their feet, while with the powerful tail 
end of the body they can throw the raked-up sand far behind them. So
active are they that a big strong hopper can bury itself out of sight in a mound of clean sand in the 
course of a few seconds.
Besides the sand-hoppers, innumerable little creatures, like small wood-lice, may be seen running 
about on the sand a little above the water-line, ready to eat up the
various specimens thrown up on the beach. But as they are themselves liable to be picked up by the 
countless gulls and petrels 
that roam up and down the coast, they are coloured almost exactly
like the sand; and besides, when alarmed, they instantly roll themselves into a ball, which completes 
their resemblance to a pellet of sand.
There is perhaps nothing more remarkable on the seashore than the extraordinary rapidity with which 
dead and decaying material is removed. So much is this the case
that the collector who wishes to gather what the sea has thrown up must do so promptly, or his 
material will all be destroyed before he comes on the scene.
JULY.
July is the coldest mouth of the year, and, though the days are lengthening appreciably, yet the 
ground is probably more thoroughly chilled, than at any other season.
The severity of the weather in this and succeeding months is seldom, however, due to mere lowness 
of temperature - the amount of moisture in the air has much greater influence. Thus a succession of 
hard frosts does comparatively little damage even to 
half-hardy plants if the weather is dry; but a fall of a few degrees below the
freezing-point following close upon rain or snow will probably destroy or cut back a number of 
delicate plants that might be able to survive many winters when the
conditions are more equable.
July is a poor season for the botanist. Of native flowering-plants with conspicuous flowers very few 
are as yet to be met with in flower. As sometimes happens, even in
June, early examples of the fuchsia and of the kowhai are occasionally to be
found, the latter especially on sunny hillsides. Both of these plants, it must be remembered, have 
their flowers fertilised by birds, not by insects, so that in this respect
they are not dependent on the season.
Though conspicuous flowers are almost wanting in July there are many plants whose inconspicuous 
flowers are still to be found. Such flowers, of course, are not
dependent on insects, but are mostly self-fertilised, or - as in the case of so many introduced 
catkin-bearing species - they are fertilised by the wind. Many of the
commonest garden weeds - sowthistle, groundsel, chickweed, and others - which flower all through the 
winter with annoying regularity, are thus self-fertilised.
There is but little animal life visible in midwinter, except the different kinds of birds, native and 
introduced, which are so readily observed at this season; but there is
plenty of hidden life for those who care to look for it. I remember on one bright July day, some 
years ago, that a party of us were examining some fallen totara-trees in a
bush-clearing. As we stripped the loose bark off one of the trunks we uncovered a number of 
greyish-brown lizards lying in a semi-torpid condition. They were carried
home and placed in a dry aquarium case, fitted with pieces of wood and stone, and covered with a 
loosely-fitting lid. During very cold weather they remained sluggish,
but during the warmth of each sunny day they brightened up very considerably. Two of them lost or 
shook off their tails at the time of capture, but neither of them
seemed to be the worse for the loss. I kept all of them till the beginning of November, though they 
ate hardly anything.
But with the advent of warm weather a remarkable change came over them. Between the second and 
the seventh of the month they got rid of their old skins, which peeled off them like pieces of 
very thin worn glove, and they emerged bright and clean as contrasted
with their former dirty grey appearance. They ate small pieces of meat and liver freely. But the most 
remarkable thing about them was their activity. Formerly they
apparently could not hold on to the glass walls of their prison; but once their moult had taken place 
they ran up the sides quite easily, and, in spite of the lid, which was
more closely fastened on, they all managed to escape within a week.
-Adapted from Mr. G. M. Thomson's "A New  Zealand Naturalist's Calendar."

THE BUILDING OF THE CASTLE.
They stand, as stands a lofty mind, Worn, but unstooping to the baser crowd, All tenantless, save to 
the crannying wind, Or holding dark communion with the cloud:
There was a day when they were young and proud, Banners on high, and battles passed below; But 
they 
who fought are in a bloody shroud, And those who waved are
shredless dust ere now, And the bleak battlements shall bear no future blow.
-BYRON.
During last month (June) a series of twelve pictures of British castles was forwarded to the school, 
and it may not be out of place to trace the growth of this form of
defence, which is common to all nations.
The word "castle" comes from a Latin word meaning stronghold, and was first applied to an 
encampment 
or fortress that, because of its natural strength or its artificial
protection, could be easily defended. In later times, when the country became more settled, the castle 
took on a more pretentious 
form and became the residence as well as the stronghold of the
nobleman.
The earliest fortress was on a naturally strong site, either defended by water, as an island, or 
perched on a precipitous cliff, which made access difficult. But the natural
strength was often increased by the erection of palisades, and the defenders were made still more 
secure by the construction of a ditch that could be filled with water, the
removed earth forming a bank on which the palisade was erected.
Of the castles that the Romans erected in Britain during their long occupation, Richborough Castle, 
in Kent, is almost the only relic, and from the coins found there it is
supposed to have been built during the time of the Emperor Severus (146-211). The walls were 
enormously thick, and were faced with regular courses of squared stone.
Regarding the castles built by our Saxon forefathers our knowledge is very meagre. It is more than 
probable that they were not numerous, and that they were built
principally of wood. Alfred, who did so much for the defence of the country, constructed several 
strongholds, which his successors do not seem to have kept up or
improved. At all events, they offered little resistance to William the Conqueror, who, in order to 
guard against invasions from without, as well as to overawe his newly
conquered subjects, immediately began to erect castles all over the kingdom. He parcelled out the 
lands of the English among his followers, who, to protect themselves
from the natives, built castles and strongholds on their estates. So rapidly did these increase that 
towards the latter end of Stephen's reign they numbered 1,115.
The style of castle erected in England after the Conquest was naturally that to be found in France. 
The castle was usually erected on a hill or on the bank of a river, and the
whole site, which was often of great extent, was walled and was surrounded by a deep and broad ditch, 
called a moat or fosse. This could be easily filled with water or left
dry. Passage over the moat was given by means of a drawbridge, which could be raised or lowered as 
occasion required; and, in some of the later castles, a strong
outwork, called a barbican, was placed at the principal entrance, which was, further defended by a 
heavy gate that slid up and down, and was called the portcullis. (See
picture No. 22, Arundel Castle.)
The centre of strength of the castle was the keep (see pictures No. 17, Windsor Castle, and No. 28, 
Dublin Castle), a strong tower the walls of which were of great
thickness. In those days there were no cannon, and the Norman relied upon the resistance of the solid 
walls for protection against stones and arrows, the principal
missiles that could be used by the besiegers. The picture above gives a general idea of the earlier castle 
as built by the Norman.

EARLIER CASTLE.

As the means of offence improved it became necessary to strengthen the castle. Towers or forts were 
added, and the walls and other important points were defended by
towers which were independent forts in themselves, though the keep still continued to be the 
residence of the commander and the last refuge in case of need. The picture
on this page serves to give a good idea of the later type of castle.
 But in the time of Stephen these castles became  strongholds  from which any  lawless land holder 
could oppress the countryside , and no more ghastly  picture of a 
nation's history  has been painted  than that which  describes the  horrors of the  time. " They built 
castles,  and filled them  with devils  and evil men.  They hanged up men by the feet, and smoked them 
with foul smoke. Some were hanged up by their thumbs, others by the head, and burning things were 
hung on to their feet. They put knotted strings about their heads, and writhed them till they went into 
the brain. They put men into prisons where adders and snakes and toads were crawling, and so 
tormented them. Some they put into a chest, short and narrow and not deep, that had sharp stones 
within, and forced men therein, so that they broke all their bones."

LATER CASTLE.

But such castles, though strong in war, were dull and dreary residences in time of peace, and, as 
civilisation advanced, and manners softened, the families forsook the
gloomy keeps and dwelt in
private halls and rooms erected in the inner courtyard or ranged along the outer walls, so that from 
the openings a view of the surrounding country could be enjoyed.
These and other buildings gradually filled up the courtyard, till in the fifteenth century the 
castles of the nobles were not only strong fortresses, but splendid palaces.
With the invention of gunpowder, however, the old stone castle became less secure, and, when the 
nobles recognised that their walls were too weak to withstand a
prolonged siege and the battery of cannon-balls, the defences were allowed to fall into decay or were 
thrown down. Thus it was that the feudal strongholds became
pleasant country residences of the nobles rather than grim fortresses and gloomy prisons. 
Many of the recent castles still retain the external character of the older structures, with their 
battlements, loopholes, embrasures, and drawbridges; but these features
are not for use, and are retained only to maintain for the castle its traditional dignity and importance, 
though they serve also to give a picturesque and medieval aspect to
a landscape.

DATES FOR THE MONTH (July) : 1st-First New Zealand telegraph opened, 1862; 3rd-Foundation 
of Quebec by Champlain, 1608; 5th-First cable message sent from
London to Sydney, 1871 ; 12th--Allies quitted the Crimea, 1856; 17th-Commencement of Waikato 
War, 1863 ; 20th-Arbor Day; 23rd-Gibraltar taken, 1704; 27th-Spanish Armada defeated, 1588. On 
appropriate days the school flag might be hoisted.

THE GENERAL EFFECT OF ALCOHOL.
Alcoholic drinks seem to be at first stimulating, and later to have a dulling effect. This 
stimulation is, however, not real, but only seeming, and is caused by the dulling of the
power of self-restraint.
A civilised man restrains himself; he does not allow himself to say certain things, or to do certain 
things; he does not hoot and howl, he does not laugh immoderately nor
weep at trifles, because he restrains himself. The dulling effect of a narcotic first acts upon this 
self-restraint, and a person becomes boisterous, loud, and rude. He talks too
much, and is not considerate in his treatment of others. As this dulling goes on, it affects his 
senses and other mental powers, so that he is not clear in his thoughts, and
later it affects his muscles, causing him to reel and stagger.
The thing about wine and cider which is hard for young people to understand is, why there is harm in 
anything made from grapes and apples, which are both healthful fruits.
But since we know how quickly sugar can be changed into other substances by the yeast plant, it will 
not be so hard to understand. If you put a few spoonfuls of grape-jelly
or of marmalade into a pint fruit-jar, fill it with warm water, and add a little yeast, you will find in a 
few hours that it is fermenting. The sugar is being changed into carbon
dioxide and alcohol. In three or four days the liquid will have changed into wine or cider, and if it 
is put into a still, alcohol pure enough to burn at the end of the tube may be
distilled off from
the liquid.
The juice of apples as it is pressed from the fruit is harmless and refreshing, but it remains so only for a 
few hours, after which it contains a little alcohol, which increases day by day, so 
that cider which at first was harmless comes very soon to be a little harmful,
and in a few weeks to be intoxicating, as it then contains almost if not quite as much alcohol as beer 
contains.
Professor Meyer, of the University of Gottenburg, says: "Naturally the lighter alcoholic drinks, 
such as cider, beer, and light wines, cultivate a taste for the stronger liquors
and ardent spirits. "
Some people think that alcoholic drinks may be indulged in moderately. Let us hear what medical men 
say about moderate drinking. " Every drunkard was once a moderate
drinker, and every man who, by his example, leads other men to moderate drinking, also leads a part 
of them to immoderate drinking. He starts a stone rolling which it is no
longer in his power to arrest."
" After opening the floodgate, not one man in a thousand can stay the progress of a besetting vice, 
and of all besetting vices the alcohol habit is the most inevitably
progressive. An unnatural appetite has no natural limits."
" Experience has proved that recovery from drunkenness is possible only by complete abstinence from 
alcohol. Moderation does not help, for the taking of a small quantity of
liquor causes an inordinate thirst for more."
" Alcoholic indulgence extinguishes self-control. How many a pathetic story could I tell of even 
great and good men, the intellectual, high-minded, and moral, who, confident
in their power of knowing when to stop, have at last helplessly succumbed and been disgraced! "
The effect of alcohol upon a grown-up person is bad enough; but it is even worse upon a developing 
person. The effect upon children is worse, because the body and brain of the child are in the process of 
growth. Even in the 
years of early manhood, alcohol is very harmful to the proper
development of body and mind.
-From the " New Century Elementary Physiology."

ARBOR-DAY PICTURES - The Editor desires to thank the teachers of the Rangiwahia, Riwaka, Long 
Acre Valley, and Halcombe schools for forwarding photographs in response to the notice contained in 
the April number of the Journal. 

TOOTH DRILL.
A sergeant was examining a recruit, and found him all right until he came to look at his teeth; these 
were in such a bad way that the sergeant said, " No, I am sorry, but
with those teeth you would be no good in South Africa."  "
The recruit replied, "Well, that seems hard lines. Do we 'ave to eat them Boers when we've killed 
them?"
The sergeant had, of course, meant that it was no use for a man with bad teeth to go on service, 
because he would not be able to bite and chew the tough meat and hard
biscuits which soldiers have to feed upon.
And so it is with a Scout; he must have good teeth if he is going to live the life of a frontiersman.
Most boys start with good teeth, but their teeth are very likely to get rotten unless they are 
cleaned carefully twice a day; and fellows often don't think of this till they get an
awful toothache. But the teeth have then begun to go bad, and it is too late to do much with those 
that have begun to rot, though you may save some of the others.
The thing is to take care of the teeth before they begin to get bad.
Disease in the teeth is started by little scraps of food getting lodged in between them and being 
allowed to stop there and rot. But if you carefully brush out all the cracks
between your teeth when you go to bed and when you get up, every day, the chances are that you will 
never suffer from toothache, and your teeth will be strong, and white,
and sound, and able to tackle the hardest biscuits that form a Scout's fare.
-From "Yarns for Boy Scouts," by  LIEUT.-GENERAL BADEN-POWELL.

DATES FOR THE MONTH (AUGUST). - 3rd - Slavery abolished by Britain, 1834 ; 9th-King 
Edward VII crowned, 1902 ; 11th - British flag hoisted at Akaroa by Captain Stanley, 1840 ; 17th - 
Kermadec Group annexed to New Zealand, 1887; 21st-First steamer arrived in Dunedin, 1858; 26th-
Cook Strait submarine cable laid, 1866; 30th- Anglo-Japanese alliance renewed, 1905. On appropriate 
days the school flag might be hoisted.

THE ROMANCE OF THE NORTH POLE.
IV. FROM FRANKLIN TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE  POLE.
The search for Franklin led to the discovery of not less than 7,000 miles of coast-line, and to the 
mapping - out of an intricate network of islands scattered over the frozen 
seas north of America. A noble and generous feeling of sympathy for Franklin and his brave 
companions prompted the Americans to fit out 
several expeditions - their first interest in Polar exploration, an
interest that has been maintained until at last Commander Peary has given to America the honour of 
first reaching the Pole. The intrepid American explorers, Mr.
Grinnell, Dr. Kane, and Mr. Charles Hall are all worthy of having their stories told, but space 
forbids. England, Norway, and Sweden also sent out expeditions, and
slowly but surely the boundaries of the Unknown North were pushed farther and farther back.
NORDENSKIOLD.

But a fresh stimulus was supplied by the exploit of Professor (afterwards Baron), Nordenskiold in 
proving the existence of a navigable north-east 
passage. Nordenskiold was born in Finland, but the stern rule of Russia
compelled him to take refuge in Sweden. Between the years 1858 and 1870 he had made seven or eight 
voyages to the Arctic regions, and by his two voyages in 1875-76
was the first to show that in summer it was possible to steam from the North Cape to the mouth of 
the Yenisei. Since that time many commercial voyages have been made
by enterprising captains desirous of opening up a trade with Siberia.
Encouraged by his easy passage to the Yenisei, Nordenskiold determined to get round into Behring 
Strait. In July, 1878, he set out in the " Vega," accompanied by the
collier " Lena " with a supply of coal. On the 19th August they reached the most northerly point of 
the Old World - Cape Severo, or Chelyuskin. Soon afterwards the "Lena"
directed her course to the mouth of the river after which she was named, and the "Vega " proceeded 
alone. On the 12th September she was within 120 miles of Behring
Strait, at a point that in 1778 Cook reached from the Pacific.
Up to this point Nordenskiold had been successful beyond his expectations, for he had very nearly 
completed the passage in one season. But, unfortunately, the ice
became so tightly packed round the ship that she could proceed no farther, and had to remain in this 
tantalizing situation for ten months. On the 18th July, 1879, the ice
broke up, and two days later the " Vega " passed through the strait and entered the Pacific with 
flying colours. Three hundred and twenty-six years after Sir Hugh
Willoughby's fatal attempt in 1553, the north-east passage was successfully accomplished without the 
loss of a single life and without material damage to the vessel.
The widespread interest thus re-aroused in Arctic exploration brought about a united effort on the 
part of all civilised nations to investigate the conditions of the Polar regions.
An international Polar conference was held at Hamburg in 1879, with the result that in 1882 and 1883 
not fewer than fifteen expeditions set out. Some of them went to the
Antarctic regions, but most of them to the Arctic, where they established stations for the observation of 
physical conditions rather than for the purpose of adding to
geographical knowledge. One expedition, however - that of the United States, under Lieutenant Greely 
- pushed to the far north, and one of the exploring parties succeeded in getting to within 450 miles of 
the Pole. The Greely expedition also succeeded in showing that 
Greenland was not so much ice-capped as ice-surrounded.
Up to this time the general method of exploration had been to establish a base where the principal 
stock of provisions was kept and then push forward, storing food at
various points for the return journey. But in 1888 the Norwegian, Dr. Fridtiof Nansen, determined on 
a bolder method of exploring the unknown tracts of Greenland. He was
landed on the east coast, where there were no inhabitants, and started to cross the island. The 
lives of himself and his companions depended on the success of the journey,
since he had left no supplies in the rear, and it would be useless for him to return. He succeeded 
brilliantly in his attempt, and his exploit was followed up by Lieutenant
Peary, who also succeeded in crossing Greenland, but at a much higher latitude than did Nansen.
The success of his bold plan encouraged Dr. Nansen to attempt one even bolder and more startling in 
character - nothing less than drifting towards the North Pole bound up in the ice. Nansen knew that 
relics from 
the " Jeannette," which foundered north of Siberia somewhat to the west of
Behring Strait, in 1879, were found in 1884 in floating ice off the coast of Greenland. He had also 
carefully, examined the 
ice-floes of Greenland, and in many places he had found upon them
deposits of mud which his knowledge of geology taught him had come from Siberia. These facts could 
be explained only by 
supposing that from north-eastern Siberia the ice drifted north -west
towards Greenland. He would therefore get his ship fast in the ice and let it carry him near the North 
Pole. Thus did the 
idea of the expedition of the "Fram " (or "Forward," as the name means in English) originate.
 The " Fram " was built in Norway. Every care was taken that she should be of enormous strength  and 
constructed of such a shape that when the ice closed round about her she would be lifted gradually up 
until she rested on the ice without being crushed or damaged by it.

NANSEN AND HIS WIFE ON SKI.

Nansen reckoned that his drift would last three years, but he provisioned
his vessel for five.
On the 24th June, 1893, the " Fram " set sail from Christiania with a crew of thirteen all told, and the 
map on the next 
page shows her route to the time of her return. On the 22nd September she
became ice-bound. The dogs were let loose on the ice, kennels were made for them, the cabins were 
made snug and comfortable, and all preparations were made for the long drift.

Nansen's "Farthest North."]
"THE ICE WAS PILING UP ABOUT THE VESSEL."

You can imagine what an anxious time it was when the ice began to " nip " or press round the vessel. 
The men were all seated 
at a meal when the increased noise of the moving ice told them that
the critical moment had come. The timbers of the " Fram " began to creak. She was being " nipped," 
and every one hurried out 
of the cabin to see to the boats and the dogs and the stores.

From the "Romance of Polar Exploration;" by G. Firth-Scott.]
MAP OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS, SHOWING ROUTE OF NANSEN AND THE "FRAM."

The ice was piling up about the vessel. Higher and higher it rose, till some 
of it crashed upon the deck. For the moment it seemed that nothing could
save her, and that her solid timbers must be ground into splinters. Silently the men stood on the ice. 
Would their vessel 
rise as was intended and lie in safety, or be crushed to pieces and deprive
them of a reasonable hope of safety? There was a sound of rending. Then with a mighty wrench she 
tore herself from the bonds 
that held her and, rising slowly, slipped out of harm's way.
On the 12th October the sun was seen for the last time that year, and the men set about making the time 
pass as pleasantly 
and happily as possible. They took constant exercise upon the ice, and
sports were arranged. There was plenty of good food, and there were also books and games of all 
descriptions. So Christmas 
and New Year passed by, not without longings and yearnings for home
and for friends who no doubt were anxious as to their fate. On the 20th February, 1894, the sun 
returned. In June the ice 
began to melt, and soon there was open water near the ship.
In the meantime the " Fram " had been drifting - zigzagging slowly north-west, as Nansen had 
expected, on ice that was 30 
feet thick. But it was evident that the drift of the ice would not carry her
so far north as had been hoped, and during the second winter careful preparations were made for a 
sledge journey northwards 
in the following spring.
On the 14th March, 1895, Dr. Nansen on ski, followed by Lieutenant Johansen with the dogs and 
sledges, left the ship. On two 
of the sledges were strapped kayaks, or Eskimo canoes, for use
should open water be met with. For three weeks the two intrepid explorers pushed northwards, but, as 
there was no hope of their reaching the Pole, 
and as their food was becoming exhausted, they determined to
abandon the attempt. So in latitude 86' 13' 6" N., only 200 miles from the Pole, they planted two 
Norwegian flags and turned their faces southwards.
A very difficult and dangerous journey was still before them, and it was not until the 17th June, 
1896, that they saw any fellow-men. On Franz Josef Land Nansen met
Mr. Jackson, leader of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition, who in 1894 had established himself there 
in the " Windward." Nansen and Johansen were warmly received
by the men of the " Windward," and not the least enjoyable of their new experiences was a warm bath - 
a  cake of soap and a change of clothes being luxuries they hid
not enjoyed for more than a year.
The meeting between Jackson and Nansen was dramatic in its extreme simplicity, and reminds us of 
the 
meeting between Stanley and Livingstone in very different
surroundings. Nansen left his camp on his ski and set out for a " constitutional " on the ice. He had 
not gone far when he heard the bark of a dog. Hoping that the dog
meant the presence of a whaling-ship, he pushed on and saw two specks moving in the distance. As he 
approached, the specks resolved themselves into a man and a dog.
The man saw him and waved his hat, and Nansen replied by waving his.
" How do you do?" he said to Nansen as they met.
" How do you do? " answered Nansen as they shook hands. " Are you wintering here?"
Could any reception of the man whose name was in everybody's mouth, and who had been away from 
civilisation for so many long months, have been cooler?
"Yes; our camp is over here. Won't you come
across? " replied Jackson. "I think we can find room for you."
 Never dreaming
that he was unrecognised, Nansen agreed,
though he
was surprised that no questions
were asked
about the  "Fram." Presently  Jackson looked at him more
closely and
asked, "Are
you Nansen?" " Of course
I am," was
the reply,
 and  the grasp of both his hands showed the warmth of his welcome. Nansen had forgotten that his 
face and hair 
were grimy with the dirt and grease of months .of travel, and
that even his own family might have been forgiven for not recognising the smart Norwegian doctor in 
the unkempt, travel-stained, long-haired man he had become.

" Romance of Polar Exploration," by G. Firth-Scott.]
THE MEETING OF NANSEN AND JACKSON.
 
Three weeks later, in the "Windward," they were sailing south - towards home. They arrived at Vardo, 
in the north of Norway, on the 13th August; and a week later the "Fram"
entered the same port, with all her crew in good health.
Nansen's name will always stand high among those of the greatest Arctic explorers, not only because 
of the character of his achievements, but also on account of the skilled
and scientific nature of the observations he made.
Nansen's " farthest north " was surpassed by Captain Cagni, of the Duke of Abruzzi's expedition, in 
the "Polar Star." This whaling-vessel left Christiania in June, 1899, and
proceeded to Franz Josef Land, where she wintered. In 1900 a sledge journey was undertaken, and 
latitude 86' 33' 49" was reached in April. This latitude was in turn
exceeded by Commander Peary, who in April, 1906, reached latitude 87' 6'.
Two other attempts to reach the Pole may be mentioned. In 1897 a Swedish engineer named Andree 
tried 
to reach the Pole by means of a balloon. Starting from Dane's Island,
Spitzbergen, he was last seen floating away to the north, but was never heard of again. In 1907 
another attempt was made to reach the Pole by balloon, Wellman, an
American journalist, setting out in his airship the " America." But the airship was driven back by 
storms and forced on to a glacier, and the party returned a few weeks later.
This brings us up to the final exploit in the search for the Pole its actual discovery by Peary on the 6th 
April, 1909.

ASIA: THE TRAVELS OF THE POLOS.
The adventurous journey of Friars John and Benedict, begun in 1245, to the camp of the Great Khan of 
the Tartars at Karakorum, was soon followed and far surpassed by  the
wanderings of a much more famous traveller, the Venetian, Marco Polo. The romantic nature and 
the wide extent of Polo's  journeys  have caused him to be
called the prince of medieval travellers.
He first revealed to Europe the magnificence and glories not only of the Great Khan's semi-barbaric 
rule, but also of those ancient and highly civilised nations of the far East,
whose existence during many centuries had been scarcely dreamed of by the Western world. He not 
merely visited the great Tartar conqueror, Kublai Khan, the fifth and
greatest successor of Zenghis Khan, but he became his favourite, as Joseph became Pharaoh's favourite, 
and for seventeen years - 1275 to 1292 - he held an office of high
honour.

MARCO POLO.
 
By this time Christianity had recovered from the alarm into which it had been thrown a few decades 
before, when the first outbreak of the Tartars threatened to engulf it, and the Tartars themselves
were becoming an object of curiosity rather than of fear. Their power, however, was still widespread 
and formidable. " In Asia and Eastern Europe," it has been said, " scarcely a dog might bark
without Mongol leave, from the borders of Poland and the Gulf of Scanderoon* to the Amur and the 
Yellow Sea." In the year 1267 Kublai Khan had built his capital at Cambaluc, by Pekin, at that
time one of the great cities of the world, though it was unknown to Europe till it was described by 
Marco Polo.
The family of Marco Polo was apparently of noble standing in Venice, which in the thirteenth -century 
was a great naval and mercantile city. Marco's father, Nicolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, were
merchants, who in the year 1260, while Marco was still a child in Venice, went on a trading venture 
to the Crimea. From there the prospects of trade took them far north along the Volga, and then,
being prevented from returning by a war which made impassable the country to the south-west, they 
went south-eastward to the city of Bokhara. There they fell in with some Tartar envoys, who
persuaded the two brothers to accompany them on a visit to the Great Khan at his court on the border 
of Cathay, or China. Kublai Khan received them kindly, and, as he wished to soften the barbarous 
manners of his rude subjects, he gave the brothers letters to the Pope, asking him to send a hundred 
missionaries to educate the Tartars and teach them Christianity.

* Or Iskanderun, south of Asia Minor.

In the year 1269 the brothers returned to Europe, and found that Pope Clement IV had died the year 
before, and that no new Pope had been elected. Two years passed by before a new Pope,
Gregory X, was elected, and the brothers, accompanied this time by young Marco, set out on their 
journey to the Great Khan together with two Dominican preachers whom the Pope sent with
them in response to the Tartar's request. At this time young Marco was only seventeen years of age.
The two friars must have been badly chosen, for their hearts failed them when they saw the perils 
of their journey, and they turned back home before it was well begun. The three Venetians,
however, went on their way, with many adventures, from Acre to Bagdad; thence to Ormuz, at the 
mouth 
of the Persian Gulf; thence in a northerly direction to the River Oxus, which they
ascended to the Pamir plateau; across the plateau to Kashgar; thence to Yarkand; and afterwards 
across the great desert of Gobi to the north-west frontier of China, which they followed to the summer 
residence of the Great Khan at Kai-ping-fu, nearly a hundred miles north of the Great Wall of China.

From a Chinese engraving.]
KUBLAI KHAN.
From an old print.]
MARCO POLO LANDING AT ORMUZ.

Three and a half years were spent by the travellers on this journey; and when they finally bent their 
knees before the Great 
Khan there was, to quote the words of Marco, " great rejoicing at the
court because of their arrival, and they met with attention and honour from everybody."
Marco, who proved very quick at learning the language and customs of the Tartars, became a special 
favourite of the Great 
Khan, who sent him on a six-months embassy to a distant province, a mission he conducted with great 
prudence. Especially did he please the Great Khan by his skill in describing the strange places and 
customs he saw, and this talent caused him to be sent on
many other embassies. He was for three years governor of the great city of Yang-chow; he also visited 
Tibet, the provinces of 
China and Cochin China, the old capital of the Mongols at Karakorum,
and probably some of the southern states of India.
Meanwhile his father and uncle became rich by
gifts and trade, but as Kublai Khan grew old the Venetians became anxious lest a new Khan should 
arise who might be less kind 
to them, and so prayed leave to return to their own land. The
Great Khan was very loth to let them go, but at last, in the year 1292, he allowed them to set forth with 
an escort which was 
taking a young Tartar princess to Tabriz, in Persia, to be married. The
travellers went by sea, spending some time in Sumatra and in the south of India, and touching perhaps 
at Ceylon and other places which are described by Marco Polo in his book.

From an old print.]
KUBLAI KHAN IN A CANOPY CARRIED ON THE BACKS OF FOUR ELEPHANTS.

Two years or more were spent upon this journey, and most of the party, except the Venetians and the 
princess, perished on the way. The Polos reached Venice safely; but the adventures of Marco Polo were 
not yet finished. In a sea-fight between the Venetians and their naval rivals the Genoese he was taken 
captive, and 
the famous record of his travels was dictated by him to a fellow-prisoner 
at Genoa. He lived for about a quarter of a century after being set free, but of his later life few 
particulars have come down to us.
 There is reason to believe that by the majority of Polo's countrymen the narrative of his travels 
was received very much as we receive the story of the impossible
adventures of Baron Munchausen. They need not, however, have been so incredulous, for, compared 
with 
many other early travellers,  Marco Polo is  a very truthful 
chronicler.  He does, indeed, take for granted, without inquiry,  the stories  that were  
general in his  time of Prester  John, the  Christian king  who was supposed
to rule over a great realm in Asia; of the immense bird, the roc, which was said to be so large that it 
could lift an elephant high up into the air; and of other quite
imaginary wonders, the expectation of seeing which must have made the idea of travel highly 
interesting and exciting in his day. He repeats gravely and without
question a marvellous story which was current about Japan. " The lord of that island," he says, "hath a 
great palace which is entirely roofed with fine gold, just as our
churches are roofed with lead, insomuch that it would scarcely be possible to estimate its value. 
Moreover, all the pavements of the palace, and the floors of its
chambers, are entirely of gold, in plates like slabs of stone, a good two fingers thick; and the windows 
also are of gold."

THE FABULOUS ROC.

But Marco Polo did not claim that he had seen Japan, and in the case of
countries which he visited - and they were many - he describes their manners and characteristics with 
general accuracy.
Among the most interesting chapters of his book are those which describe the city of Cambaluc, and 
the pomp and state kept by the Great Khan. Cambaluc, which was
built by the Tartars alongside the old Chinese capital of Pekin, was, he says, square in shape, and each 
side of it was six miles long. It was surrounded by walls of
earth ten paces thick at bottom, three paces thick at top, and more than ten paces high, with 
frequent gates and palaces. When the Great Khan sat at table on any
great court occasion, the members of his family, the barons and officers of his empire, with their 
ladies, sat ranged below him, and outside the hall would be found more
than 40,000 people, "for," says the old traveller, "there is a great concourse of folk bringing 
presents to the lord, or come from foreign countries with curiosities. And
when the Emperor is going to drink, all the musical instruments, of which he has vast store of every 
kind, begin to play. And when he takes the cup all the barons and
the rest of the company drop on their knees and make the deepest obeisance before him, and then the 
Emperor doth drink. But each time that he does so the whole
ceremony is repeated."
The scene of rude magnificence comes up before us as we read, but our eyes are bent in admiration and 
in homage not so much on the Great Khan as on the simple
western traveller at his table, who had endured such mighty journeys and beheld so many wonders, 
passing the comprehension of his age.

LORD ISLINGTON.
THE ARRIVAL OF OUR NEW GOVERNOR.
On Wednesday, the 22nd June, our new Governor, Lord Islington, the sixteenth Governor of New 
Zealand, landed at Wellington, 
and, after receiving a hearty reception from the Mayor and citizens,
proceeded to the old Parliamentary Buildings, where certain ceremonies had to be performed before he 
could assume his duties. 
It is provided that the Commission appointing the Governor must be
read and published at the seat of Government in, the presence of the Chief Justice or some other Judge 
of the Supreme Court, and that the Governor must then and there take the Oath of Allegiance to the 
Sovereign, and also the Oath 
of Office, in which he promises to administer justice impartially. After
our late Governor, Lord Plunket, left New Zealand, Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice, was Acting-
Governor, and until all 
necessary forms and ceremonies were completed he still retained the office,
even though the new Governor was on New Zealand soil.
When Lord Islington arrived at the Parliamentary Buildings, King Edward's Commission appointing 
him Governor was read, and 
was as follows: * - Edward the Seventh, by the Grace of God of the
United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of 
the Faith, Emperor of India: To Our Right Trusty 
and Well-beloved John Poynder, Baron Islington. Companion of  Our Distinguished Service Order: 
Greeting. WE do, by this Our 
Commission under Our Sign Manual and Signet, appoint you, the
said John Poynder, Baron Islington, to be, during Our pleasure, Our Governor and Commander - in - 
Chief in and over Our 
Dominion of New Zealand, with all the powers, rights, privileges, and
advantages to the said Office belonging or appertaining.
II. And We do hereby authorise, empower, and command you to exercise and perform all and singular 
the powers and directions 
contained in Our Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Our United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster the Eighteenth day of November, 
1907, or in any other 
Letters Patent adding to, amending, or substituted for the same, according
to such Orders and Instructions as Our said Governor and Commander-in-Chief for the time being hath 
already received, and to such further Orders and Instructions as you may hereafter receive from Us.

* You will remember that one of the last acts the late King performed was to receive Lord Islington, 
and you will see that the Commission is dated only two days before his death.
  When New Zealand was constituted a Dominion.

III. And We do hereby appoint that so soon as you shall have taken the prescribed Oaths and have 
entered upon the duties of your Office, this Our present Commission shall
supersede Our Commission under Our Sign Manual and Signet bearing date the Twentieth day of 
November, 
1907, appointing Our Right Trusty and Well-beloved William Lee,
Baron Plunket, Knight Commander (now Knight Grand Cross) of Our Most Distinguished Order of 
Saint 
Michael and Saint George, Knight Commander of our Royal Victorian
Order, to be Our Governor and Commander -in-Chief in and over Our Dominion of New Zealand and 
its Dependencies. 
IV. And We do hereby command all and singular Our Officers, Ministers, and loving subjects in Our 
said Dominion, and all others whom it may concern, 
to take due notice hereof, and to give their ready obedience accordingly.
Given at Our Court at Saint James's, this Fourth day of May, 1910, in the Tenth year of Our Reign. By 
His Majesty's Command.
CREWE.
His Excellency then took the Oath of Allegiance
;and the Oath of Office, which are as follows:
I, John Poynder, Baron Islington, do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His 
Majesty King George V, his heirs and successors, according to law. So help me
God.
I, John Poynder, Baron Islington, do swear that I will duly execute the office of Governor of the 
Dominion of New Zealand and its dependencies, and that I will duly and
impartially administer justice therein. So help me God.
The oaths were duly signed by the Governor, and the ceremony was completed by the Chief Justice 
signing the following declaration:
The foregoing oaths - viz., the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of Office - were taken, sworn, and 
subscribed before me at Wellington, in the Dominion of New Zealand, this 22nd
day of June, in the first year of His Majesty's reign, and in the year of Our Lord 1910.
Cheers for the Governor and for Lady Islington were heartily given on the call of Sir Joseph Ward.
It may interest you to know what position the Governor of a self-governing colony holds, and what are 
his duties. Well, it may be said that he represents the Sovereign and
performs in the Dominion and for the Dominion such duties as would be performed at Home by the 
King, 
though his powers are somewhat more limited. He has to sign and to
affix the public seal to all Acts of Parliament, and to appoint Judges and Justices and all necessary 
officers and officials of State.
There are certain laws, however, which not only affect the well-being of New Zealand, but affect the 
Empire as a whole, and its relations with foreign Powers. Such laws have to
be sent Home by the Governor for royal assent, and until this is done they cannot be enforced. The 
Governor exercises, also all powers lawfully belonging to the Sovereign in
respect of summoning, proroguing, or dissolving Parliament. Of course, many of the duties of the 
Governor are merely formal. In most matters he respects and acts upon the advice of the Executive 
Council, but in certain matters he may act on his own judgment. In regard to 
granting pardon or reprieve to criminals his powers are great. He may not
pardon or reprieve any offender sentenced to death without first receiving the advice of the 
Executive Council, and in every other case the advice of one at least of his Ministers.
When, however, the pardon or reprieve might directly affect the interests of the Empire or any 
country or place beyond the Dominion, the Governor must take these interests
specially into his own personal consideration, and, according as his judgment directs, may, or may 
not follow the advice given by the Executive Council. Except where the
offence has been of a political nature unaccompanied by any
other great crime, the Governor cannot make it a condition of any pardon or remission of sentence 
that the offender shall be banished from the Dominion. Political offenders may therefore be
banished, but those whose acts have been criminal cannot be foisted on to other countries. It will 
thus be seen that, while representing the King, the Governor must act as constitutionally as does
the King himself, and must be regardful of the wishes of the people of the Dominion as expressed to 
him by their Representatives. At the same time he has to exercise such care in carrying out
his duties as will check any legislation that is not in the interests of the Empire as a whole, or 
that may affect our peaceful relations with other countries.
But in addition to these constitutional duties of a Governor there are others probably no less 
important, particularly in a young country that has its destiny to mould. The representative of the 
Crown
is invested with those attributes of dignity and worth which are in a peculiar degree ascribed to 
royalty, and, though having a more circumscribed area of influence, he has opportunity to exercise
those talents which made King Edward VII and his noble mother so beloved among their subjects. At 
his 
official reception Lord Islington referred to the profound effect his last interview with the late
King had upon him, and added, " The people of New Zealand, I am quite sure, will ever cherish in 
their remembrance that among the very last messages of solicitude and appreciation sent to his
subjects beyond the seas was one conveyed through me to the people of this Dominion from  His late 
Majesty." On another occasion, and speaking personally, he said, "While among you I wish to be 
considered a New Zealander, having your sympathies, feeling as you feel, and entering into all your 
hopes and aspirations."

DATES FOR THE MONTH (September).- 1st-H.M.S. "Pelorus" discovered Pelorus Sound, 1838; 
7th-Gold discovered at Ballarat, 1851 ; 12th-New Zealand University established by Act, 1870; 14th-
Duke of Wellington died, 1852; 16th-First body of New Zealand Company's emigrants sailed from 
Gravesend for New Zealand, 1839; 18th-British flag hoisted at Auckland, 1840; 19th-Women granted 
franchise in New Zealand, 1893; 20th-Sir George Grey died, 1898; 21st-Sir Walter Scott died, 1832; 
22nd--Battle of Alma, 1854 ; 25th-Relief of Lucknow, 1857 ; 26th-New Zealand proclaimed a 
Dominion, 1907 ; 26th-Arrival of Sir George Grey at Auckland to take over Governorship of New 
Zealand, 1861 ; 27th-First railway opened in England, 1825 ; 29th-Birth of Nelson, 1758 ; 30th-Fiji 
ceded to Great Britain, 1854. On appropriate days the school flag, might be hoisted.

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted ? Thrice is he arm'd than hath his quarrel just; And 
he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
-SHAKESPEARE.

CABLE-REPAIRING.
Photo by Education Department.]
THE "TUTANEKAI"
(The crane seen beyond the ship must not be mistaken for part of the ship's equipment.)
No matter in which island of New Zealand you live you are accustomed to see in the newspapers 
telegrams that pass from one island to the other. You may even have received or
sent such telegrams. Yet I doubt if many of you can tell by what route a message travels between the 
two islands; and I am certain few have thought of the care that is taken, the
money that is spent, and the skill and ingenuity that are exercised in laying down and keeping in 
repair the various cables connecting the North and South Islands, and also the
cables connecting these with the smaller islands off the coast.
The map on the next page shows the principal internal and external cable connections and the stations 
they unite. Across Cook Strait there are six cables. Five of these touch the
South Island at White's Bay, Port Underwood. Of these, two touch the North Island at Lyall Bay, near 
Wellington, and three at Oterangi Bay, near Cape Terawhiti.
 The other Cook Strait cable goes from Wanganui to Wakapuaka, near Nelson. Stewart Island and the 
Great Barrier are connected 
by cable with the mainland, and there are also shorter cable
connections to lighthouses and across several of the northern rivers and harbours.
Our cable communication with other countries is carried on over two routes. What is known as the 
Eastern Extension route is 
from Wakapuaka to Botany Bay, near Sydney, and thence to all
parts of the world. What is known as the Pacific route is from Doubtless Bay to Norfolk Island, where 
connection can be made 
either with Australia near Brisbane, or with Canada near Vancouver,
and thence to any destination.
But a break has occurred in one of the cables crossing Cook Strait, so let us go on board the " 
Tutanekai," the Government 
steamer, which is lying alongside the wharf at Wellington with steam up
ready to go out to effect repairs. This can be done only under favourable weather-conditions; and 
therefore the telephone is 
used to inquire from the signal-station on Mount Victoria as to the
weather outside in that stormiest and trickiest of waters, Raukawa (Cook Strait), and from the 
Government Meteorologist as to what are the prospects of wind and 
sea abating or increasing.
At last all is ready. The sky is cloudy, but there is little wind. The telegraph to the engine-room rings, 
the lines are cast 
off, and we glide away. While the " Tutanekai " steams down the harbour in
the early morn of the long summer day let us glance round her decks and into her holds. At the bow, 
like the framework of 
one of the miniature castles on the prow of the old three-decker, is a structure from which, with its 
wheels and other devices, the men grapple for the cable, haul it on board, and return it to its resting-
place under the sea.

Photo by Education Department.] .
THE BOW OF THE "TUTANEKAI"

On the deck behind the forecastle is a massive winch with two giant wheels, one for hauling in the 
cable, and the other for 
passing it out. Behind this the uncovered hatchway discloses a great
circular tank extending from one side of the ship to the other. It is flat-bottomed, and from its centre 
rises a curious 
column, somewhat like an
inverted flower-pot in shape. This is of assistance in taking in or paying out the cable without twisting 
it as it is coiled 
or uncoiled round and round the tank. For the present this tank is empty, and
will be used for storing any lengths of cable that may be brought on board. Under the after hatch there 
is a similar tank, 
containing six knots of new cable to be used for repairing purposes. Hanging from the rigging or lying 
about the decks are buoys to be dropped overboard to mark the starting-point of operations, the position 
of a cable that has been picked up, and so on.

Photo by Education Department.]
THE BUOYS AND THE WINCH.

Inserted into the top of each is a stout pole carrying a wicker frame, reminding us 
of a Chinese lantern, though it carries no light and serves merely to
attract attention to the buoy. There are many other points of interest and strange devices the purpose of 
which can be 
thoroughly understood only when operations are being carried on.
But we are now outside the heads, and steering a course towards Cape Terawhiti. Early as it is, there is 
a call to breakfast, 
for when the work of
picking up the cable has once begun meals must give place to work, and the man who grumbles 
because he is a little early or a 
little late for breakfast,  dinner, or tea is not wanted on board a
cable-repairing steamer.
From experiments made on shore it is known that the break in the cable we have to repair is seven 
knots from its northern end 
at Oterangi Bay. Though the three cables to White's Bay meet at the
same stations ashore, they are laid some distance  apart, so that they are not so likely to foul one 
another, and when one cable has to be picked up there is less chance that another will be caught and 
damaged by the grapnels.

THE CABLE.
A.	The core of seven copper wires. B. Gutta-percha insulation. C. Jute wrapping. D. Protecting 
steel wires.

The cable we have to repair is known as No. 1, the most westerly one.
But you may ask how it is that the men know that the break is seven knots from the shore. Well, let us 
try to make this clear 
by means of an illustration. When water is flowing through a pipe there
is friction between the pipe and the water. This friction resists the flow of the water. The longer the 
pipe the greater is 
the total resistance. This resistance per mile or per chain can be calculated.
Now, electricity does not flow like water in a pipe, but when a current passes along a wire there is 
resistance. This resistance can be measured by instruments both ashore and on board the 
ship. Indeed, the resistance of the cable with which we are concerned is 10.8
units per knot; and, as the cable is 31 knots long, its total resistance = 10.8 multiplied by 31. Now, 
when communication is interrupted by a break, the current will still pass along the
wire till it comes to the break, and there it escapes and passes to the earth. But as the distance 
the current travels is shortened the resistance will be less. In this case it was 75.6
units, and dividing this by 10.8 gave the distance of the break as seven knots from Oterangi Bay. As 
the position of the whole cable is carefully charted, and the distance of the
break from the shore is known, the captain knows exactly where to go to pick up the cable at the 
point most convenient for repairs - that is, some distance nearer the shore than the
break.
But the captain has to bring his ship exactly to this point. To do this he has to take the bearings 
of three fixed points on shore - The Brothers, Sinclair Head, and Cape Terawhiti
being the most favourable " sights " for this particular break. But the clouds have not lifted as we 
hoped. Occasionally they lift for a few moments in one direction or another, but not
sufficiently for us to make observations from all three points at once. So the "Tutanekai " steers for 
Oterangi Bay, lands some stores, and puts back to anchor inside Wellington Harbour for the night.
We are out again early next morning, and this time the landmarks can he clearly seen. The captain is 
now at the bow, and on the bridge stands the first mate, also taking
observations. The vessel being manoeuvred to the required spot, " Let go " is the word, and 
overboard go two curiously shaped anchors, some heavy cable, then a stout rope - 250 fathoms in all - 
and then at the word " All clear " a 
buoy serving to mark the spot near which the steamer will dredge is lowered and
let go. " Take your bearings," says the captain to the mate on the bridge, and these are again taken 
for checking purposes. The anchors used for the buoy are very different from
those usually seen. They are known as " mushroom " anchors, a name that would suggest itself to any 
one at first sight. The mushroom is inverted, and when brought to the
surface its cup-like hollow may contain much of interest to the curious in the way of life and 
conditions obtaining on the sea-bottom - coral, oysters,  cockles, shells of many kinds, stones as 
smooth and clean as those picked out of a rapidly flowing river, small octopuses, squids, and other 
strange and interesting forms of marine life.

Photo by Education Department.]
 THE CURRENT IN COOK STRAIT RUSHING PAST A BUOY.

A grapnel is now put down, and the steamer proceeds slowly to dredge. This requires the greatest care 
and judgment on the part of the captain and his officers. The strong current
that flows backwards and forwards through the strait with the alterations of the tide - a current at 
times stronger than most of our rivers - may give endless trouble. Though it is weighted with anchors 
and 
heavy cables the guide-buoy may shift its position, and cause the wrong cable
to be picked up; it may even break away altogether and drift for miles unless the steamer is on the 
spot to secure it at once. On one occasion a buoy that had been put down
could not be found for some time when the steamer returned to the spot. Careful search, however, 
showed a white streak in the water, which proved to be caused by the buoy. It
was submerged some feet by the strong current - so strong, indeed, that though the buoy had not drifted 
the stout pole six inches thick attached to it had been broken off like a carrot.
 The grapnel must not travel too quickly over the
bottom, for the strain might break the cable before
the ship could be stopped. In still water the vessel
steams slowly ahead. When the current is strong
the vessel drifts with it but steams against it to
lessen the rate at which the grapnel is travelling
over the bottom. To contend against all these difficulties and to meet each sudden change of difficulty 
requires no small presence of mind and no mean
skill and ingenuity.  Indeed, it is easier to dredge
for the deep-sea cables than for the cables that
lie under the ever-changing and treacherous waters
of Cook Strait.
The rope attached to the grapnel passes over some wheels at the bow, under one attached to a machine 
for showing the strain on the rope, and down to the winch. The machine
for showing the strain is very ingenious, and is known as a dynamometer. As the strain increases, the 
bight in the part of the rope passing under the wheel straightens and a
cylinder is pushed up. The illustration on
this page shows the cylinder pushed up, indicating that the grapnel has caught something.*
The tide is slack, and there is but little current, so the " Tutanekai " steams slowly ahead. The 
captain sits on the grapnel-rope, and he asks us to do the same. We can
distinctly feel the grapnel dragging along the bottom and jerking the rope as it clings to irregularities, 
and slips and jumps over them 150 fathoms down.

Photo by Education Department.]
THE DYNAMOMETER SHOWS A "BITE." 
(The picture shows also the mushroom anchors.)

A stronger jerk than usual, and we jump up - the seat is too uncomfortable.
" A bite," calls one of the men, the cylinder of the dynamometer rises, and with it our hopes that the 
cable has been caught at the first attempt. Then the cylinder falls; and so do our faces. We steam on till 
the captain is sure we have passed over the cable.

* The dynamometer has two cylinders, one of which is used when the cable is being dredged for and 
the other when a cable is being paid out.

 Then we drift back, for the current is increasing and setting eastward. Again no 
success. The grapnel is hauled on board; and, as the current will set more and more
strongly eastwards as the tide makes, a heavier grapnel is attached. Back again, and another drift. 
Still no success.
" Haul in," is the word, and just as this is being done there is a " bite." The pull increases 
steadily - a good sign. The cylinder rises, but it is not high enough to show that we have caught the 
cable. We have caught something, at any rate.
" A rag," suggests some one. As the grapnel is being hove up we lean over the side to see what it is; 
and indeed it proves to be a "rag " - that is, a piece of old cable. (It was laid down
in 1892 and was not recovered during repairs in 1903.) Yet it was an object-lesson on the corrosive 
action of the sea-water on metal, the stout steel wires forming the covering being
eaten into as with an acid, and the torn ends being corroded away to sharp points. Seeing this, and 
knowing how the current of the strait must cause great wear and tear on the cable,
we can easily understand how breaks occur. Pieces of the rag are cut off and kept as mementos, and 
the rest is cut into short pieces and thrown overboard. These will not in future
cause disappointment to cable-dredgers.
At last there is a " bite"; steadily the pull increases in strength; up goes the cylinder, and all eyes watch 
it - it rises and falls slightly, but is always high.
" We've got it; up she rises," and other similar expressions are heard. The speed of the vessel is so 
regulated that she does not hang on to the cable. Men who have been lolling about
spring to their feet, books are thrown aside, talk ceases, and sharp orders are given; the crew 
spring to their posts, and the electricians get ready to test the cable and communicate
 with the shore: all is orderly bustle
without confusion.  
The cable is hauled up, and men go over the bow and make it fast in two places about eight feet  
apart. It is then cut between these, and one end - the north end - is hauled on board.

Photo by E. P. Cowles, Wellington.]
"MEN GO OVER THE BOW."

The electrical staff is in a little cabin in which is a bench 
covered with delicate instruments of polished wood and brass for communicating with the shore and 
testing the cable. This may now be called the brain of the ship. The chief of the staff 
stands at the 
bench while one of his assistants is attaching a copper wire to the copper core of cable. " All right," 
comes the word, and " Tick-a-tick-tick " goes the telegraph-key. "Tick-a-tick-tick" again, and then 
comes a reply from Oterangi showing that that portion of the cable is working. The 
end of the cable is buoyed and let go.
The piece going to the South Island is then tested, and the break is found to be about half a mile 
away. The ship moves, the giant wheel of the winch revolves, and the cable is slowly
hauled on board and coiled in the fore tank. Here and there is a knot or twist in the cable. It may 
be at one or more of these that a break has occurred, for the cable may not be cut
through - only the copper core may be broken. Trial after trial is made to " get " White's Bay just as 
Oterangi was " got." At last a response; the break has been passed, and the
damaged piece is on board.
Then comes the work of " splicing in" a piece of new cable. The ends of the old and the new cables 
are taken into a " tent " - a temporary wood-and-canvas erection on deck. Busy
fingers set to work unravelling the ends, joining the cores, covering the joint with gutta-percha to 
keep out the water, then with jute, and finally splicing the thick outside protecting-
wire. This having been done and the joint tested, the " Tutanekai " steams away towards the buoyed 
end of the cable, the other wheel of the winch now doing its duty and paying out
the cable steadily and evenly. The buoy is reached, and the cable is again hauled on board. Again the 
repairers dive into the tent to splice, and finally the repairs are completed. The
cable is put over the bow, and lowered some distance by means of a rope. " Cut," calls out the captain; 
an axe flashes, the rope is severed, and the cable sinks 150 fathoms deep.

THE ROMANCE OF POLAR EXPLORATION.
V. THE DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH POLE.
We now come to the last and greatest feat in Arctic exploration - the discovery of the North Pole by 
Commander Peary, of the United States Navy, on the 6th April, 1909. But before the story of this great 
achievement is told it will not be out of place to say a little about the man who has attained what has 
cost so many valuable lives, and what has lured thehardiest mariners of all nations for 400 years.
 Robert Edwin Peary, the hero of this exploit,
was born in 1856 at Cresson Springs, Pennsylvania.
When he discovered the Pole he was therefore
fifty-three years old, an age at which few men would
feel anxious to undergo the perils of a strenuous
battle with the ice-fields of the north. Entering
the United States Navy in 1881, Peary worked for
some time as an engineer at the Nicaragua Ship-canal. In 1885, while still a comparatively young
man, his imagination was fired by the adventures
of Nordenskiold in Greenland, and from that time
the lure of the north seized upon him. He has
crossed and recrossed the Arctic Circle many times,
going and coming, but it was not until 1898 that
he set out with the stated and express purpose of
reaching the North Pole if possible. In him the old
adage, " Try, try, try again," is certainly well
exemplified, for it was only after many attempts
that he succeeded in reaching the goal of his
ambition.  
Yet his previous attempts cannot be counted failures, for he was the first to prove that Greenland is 
an island, and on three occasions, creeping nearer and nearer the Pole, he
reached successively the
latitudes of 83' 52', 84' 17' ,and 87' 6', the last giving back to the United States the record of "farthest 
north," which for a time had been 
wrested from it first by Nansen and then by the Duke of Abruzzi. During this
expedition (1905-6) he was absent from his ship, the "Roosevelt," for 117 days, and, sledging 
northward, succeeded in reaching a point within 201 miles of the Pole. So scarce did
food become that the party was driven to eating the dogs.
The expedition to which we shall now turn our attention set sail from Sydney, Cape Breton (an island 
north of Nova Scotia), on the 17th July, 1908. Peary's vessel was again the
"Roosevelt," the sturdy fighter that had carried him on his previous journey. This was to be his last 
voyage to the Arctic, for, successful or unsuccessful, he intended to retire from
the race for the north. Of the last twenty-three years of his life no fewer than eighteen had been 
spent in the Arctic regions, and the other five had been given to preparations for
future voyages. No wonder, therefore, that he had determined to spend the rest of his days in the 
quiet enjoyment of home life.
On the 26th July he crossed the Arctic Circle and was in continuous daylight. On the 1st August he 
reached Cape York, Greenland. At Etah he obtained coal and stores from a
supply-ship, the "Erie," and left on the 18th August. Arriving at Cape Sheridan on the 1st September, 
he determined to winter there. Time and again was the " Roosevelt " in danger of being crushed to 
matchwood by the closing of the channels through which she had to nose her way. 
Sometimes a stretch of open water allowed her to forge ahead at full speed;
at other times she had to fight like a gladiator and break for herself a passage through the thick ice.

The "Children's Encyclopaedia."]
MAP SHOWING PEARY'S JOURNEY TO THE NORTH POLE.

On the way to his winter quarters Peary picked up Eskimos - men, women, and children - the men to 
attend to the dogs and to hunt, and the women to 
make clothes both for their kindred and for the crew. In his previous journeys
Peary had used the Eskimos, and since 1891 had been training them in his methods so that they might 
be useful for his purpose. He had found his northern friends trusty helpers,
and had formed a great liking for them, while they repaid him by giving him their implicit faith and 
confidence.

GREENLAND ESKIMOS.

At Cape Sheridan stores were landed and houses built on shore, so that if the ship had to be abandoned 
owing to any accident the men would not be deprived of food, and would have a reasonable chance of 
returning southward. The sledge attack on the Pole was to be made from Cape Columbia, some ninety 
miles north-west of Cape Sheridan, and the
autumn, was therefore spent in hunting and in transporting stores to Cape Columbia.
The sun disappeared on the 12th October, and during the long winter night preparations were 
completed for the work of the following spring. The plan adopted was briefly as
follows: The northern march was to be made by a comparatively large party, with sledges drawn by the 
pick of the dogs. A course well to the westward was to be kept to allow for
the eastward drift of the ice. As the food was consumed a sledge would be sent back. to Cape 
Columbia, not to stay there, but to reload with fresh supplies and follow the main
body. It was known that the sea extended for many miles north of the winter quarters; indeed, as 
afterwards, proved the case, it extended right up to the Pole. This ice was not
still. It rose and fell with the tide, or the swell, and " leads," or cracks showing open water, 
often caused vexatious delays. Then the explorers had to wait until the lead closed, or
had to raft themselves across on pieces of ice.
Time and again the grinding and cracking of the ice placed them in imminent danger of being engulfed. 
Here is a description of what occurred a few days after the march began.
Peary says,
" We built our igloos and turned in, but I was roused by a movement of the ice and found that a 
rapidly widening road of black water ran but a few feet from our igloos. The ice on
the north side of the lead was moving around eastward of the small floor on which we were. The 
captain's igloos were drifting east in open water, and the sides of our igloos
threatened to follow suit. I called to the captain's men to pack sledges and be ready for a quick 
dash when a favourable chance arrived. We moved on to a large floe to the west of
us.
" For the rest of the night and during next day we suffered untold torments, the ice surging 
together, opening out, groaning, and grinding. Then the motion ceased, the open water closed, the 
atmosphere of the north cleared, and we rushed across 
before the ice should open again."
But we have got somewhat ahead of our story. On the 15th February, in the dull grey twilight of an 
Arctic dawn, the sledge expedition left the " Roosevelt " for Cape Columbia,
and started northward on the 1st March. It consisted of seven members of the crew, seventeen Eskimos, 
and nineteen sledges drawn by 133 dogs.

PEARY WITH ESKIMO DOGS.

Bartlett, the plucky captain ,of the " Roosevelt," was in charge of the leading 
division. On the 5th March the sun raised itself above the horizon and then
disappeared, being seen for the first time since the 12th October, 1908. Sledge after sledge was sent 
back as prearranged. On the 28th Peary had beaten his previous record
of 87' 6' (made in 1906), on the 2nd April he crossed
the 88th parallel, on the 4th the 89th, and at 10 a.m. on the 6th he stood at the Pole. With him 
were his negro servant and four Eskimos. For the first time man had stood at
the apex of the earth, where a day and a night are a year, where every direction is south, and where 
there is no longitude, or, if you like it better, every longitude from 0' to
180' E. and W.
And what would be one's feelings at such a moment? Peary says,
" If it were possible for a man to arrive at 90' north latitude without being utterly exhausted, body 
and brain, a series of unique sensations and thoughts would no doubt be
recorded; but the attainment of the Pole was the culmination of days and weeks of forced marches, 
physical discomfort, insufficient sleep, and racking anxiety.
" My most impelling desire, when I knew for a certainty that I had reached my goal, was for a little 
rest; but after two or three hours of absolutely fatigue-impelled sleep a state
of mental exaltation made further rest impossible. For more than a score of years that mathematical 
point on the earth's surface had been the object of my every effort. To
attain it I had dedicated my whole being; had risked my life a hundred times and the lives of those 
who had been glad to take the chances with me; had given all my own
money and the money of my friends. That last journey was my eighth into the Arctic. I had spent in 
those regions eighteen years out of the twenty-three between my thirtieth
and my fifty-third year, and the five years which I had spent in civilisation during that period had 
been mainly occupied with preparations for Arctic journeys.
" And on the 6th April, 1909, while quartering the locality in every direction and taking my 
observations, I tried to realise that after twenty-three years of struggles and discouragements, some of 
them too intimate and personal ever to be written 
down, I had at last succeeded in placing the flag of my distant country at the goal
of the world's desire."
Peary continues,
"We arrived at 90' north at 10 o'clock in the morning of the 6th April, and we left there about 4 
o'clock in the afternoon of the 7th April. Only by our watches, of course, could we
distinguish the morning from the afternoon, as the sun at that point swings round and round the 
heavens at a certain altitude, and it is always daylight at that season of the year.
" During those thirty hours at the Pole I made the necessary observations for position, went some 
ten miles beyond my camp and some eight miles to the right of it, planted my
flags, deposited my records, took photographs, studied the horizon through my telescope for possible 
land, and sought for a suitable place to make a sounding."
While Peary was rejoicing in the success of his great undertaking he little knew that a dear 
personal friend and a prominent and valued member of the expedition, Professor Marvin,
had been added to the long list of those whose lonely graves are dotted along the polar tracks or are 
hidden fathoms deep below the eternal ice.
The story of Professor Marvin's death was obtained from one of the Eskimos. Marvin left Commander 
Peary on the 26th March to return to the ship with two Eskimos and seventeen
dogs. On the 10th April he was forty-five miles from Cape Columbia. On this day the Eskimos took a 
longer time than usual to pack the sledges, and thus Professor Marvin had a
good start of them.
When the Eskimos arrived at an open lead
they noticed that the young ice was broken, and twenty-five yards out they saw what looked like a 
man's body floating in the water. Owing to the treacherous condition of the ice the
Eskimos did not venture out, but continued the journey and reported what they had seen.
Captain Bartlett went back to the point described by the Eskimos and recovered the Professor's body. 
His spare boots and clothing and personal belongings were still on the ice
where the Eskimos, acting on the superstition of their race which prevented them from bringing away 
a dead man's effects, had left them.
Peary's return journey to Cape Columbia was made in sixteen days. Cape Columbia was reached on the 
23rd, and the " Roosevelt " on the 27th, the whole journey from the winter
quarters to the Pole and back occupying only fifty-four days, a remarkable feat in polar travel.
Only the South Pole now remains to be conquered. As you will remember, Sir E. Shackleton got to 
within 112 miles of it in January last year. Another expedition is now on its way out
from England under Captain Scott, so well known in connection with Antarctic exploration. It is 
expected that the expedition will leave New Zealand about November next.
[NOTE. -Commander Peary's book giving an account of his exploit has not yet been published. The 
above article has therefore been compiled from newspaper reports with such additions as the 
proprietors of the London Times and Nash's Magazine (in which Peary's story is appearing) have 
courteously permitted to be published. Many interesting details are, of course, omitted in our 
necessarily very brief account of Peary's adventures.]

ASIA.
IV. ROADS AND COMMERCE FIVE CENTURIES AGO.
We have seen how the travels of pilgrims and adventurers made central Asia and the far east known to 
the nations of Europe. But in addition to those whose names have been
mentioned in the Journal there were others, many others - some travelling in pursuit of religious 
knowledge, some for the sake of adventure, and others in pursuit of gain. So it
came about that in the fourteenth century Cathay (China), Zipangu (Japan), and India became known as 
countries of great wealth - rich in fine fabrics, gold, and precious stones,
and abounding in spices (then very rare) to tickle the palates of the western epicures. Nothing 
produced by the looms of Europe could equal the silks from China, the calico from
Calicut, or the muslins from Mussel; the glorious gems that adorned the crowns of kings - the emerald, 
the ruby, the topaz, and the diamond - all came from the east, mainly from
India; but, above all, from the Asian islands came the spices that, once introduced, became most 
desirable for flavouring the dishes of the wealthy - cloves from the Moluccas,
nutmegs from Banda, cinnamon from Ceylon, mace from Java and Malacca, and so on.
But communication between the east and the west was by no means easy. As we know from the Bible, 
caravan routes were established at a very early date from Egypt to Syria
and Mesopotamia. Later these were extended farther eastwards. But Asia is the continent of high 
plateaus and great mountain-ranges, and to avoid these wide departures from a
straight course had to be made. The merchants on their travels had generally to follow paths already 
beaten by the natives, and, as the inhabitants displayed friendliness or hostility, so did the merchants 
find the roads open or closed. 
Two great land routes existed between eastern and western Asia. One, lying
between the Kuen Lun and the Thian Shan Mountains, ran via Kashgar and Bokhara to Basra (or 
Bassora), 
at the head of the Persian Gulf, or to Ormuz, then a flourishing city
near the mouth of the gulf ; and the other, lying South of the Altai Mountains, skirted the north of 
the Great Lakes - Balkash, Aral, and the Caspian -and so to Astrakhan and
Constantinople.  Between southern Asia and Europe, as we have seen in the story of 
Marco Polo, there was communication  by sea for a great part of the way.
But, by whichever route goods passed, the merchants were liable to pillage and robbery, or, at the 
very least, had to pay a heavy tribute to the despots through whose lands they
travelled. For instance, spices were carried in ships from Calicut to Jiddah, on the Red Sea, where, on 
being landed, they were taxed by the Sultan. 

A CARAVAN.
 
From Jiddah they were carried in smaller craft to the head of the Gulf of Suez, where they were taxed 
again. On camels 
they were then carried across the desert to Cairo, where still further dues had
to be paid. And so it went on as the goods were carried by boats from Cairo to Rosetta and by camels 
from Rosetta to Alexandria.
In Asia the trade was carried on chiefly by Arabs, and Alexandria became the meeting-place of the east 
and the west.

THE PORT OF ALEXANDRIA.

There could be seen merchants from all European countries and wanderers from remote parts of Asia 
and Africa. 
Of the European nations the Italians had the shortest voyage to reach Alexandria, and before the end of 
the thirteenth century the whole of the eastern trade had practically fallen into their hands. Genoa and 
Venice were for a long time rivals for the trade, but the latter secured the larger share, and Genoa had 
to content herself with the trade with Constantinople. From Venice the spices, 
jewels, and perfumes were distributed over Europe, and England sent her wool
to Italy in exchange for flavourings for her foods and jewels for her women. To such an extent did 
Venice increase in power and wealth that by the fifteenth century she had extended
her dominions not only over northern Italy and east of the Adriatic, but also to Crete and Cyprus, 
thus providing stations and friendly ports of call all the way from Alexandria to the
northern end of the Adriatic.
Yet, while Venice and other Mediterranean ports had been gaining in wealth and importance owing to 
the Asiatic trade, from Asia itself came a force that was to bring about their
downfall or reduce them to comparative insignificance. When the conquering Mongols swept 
westward* they drove out of central Asia a small clan of Tartars or Turks. These established 
themselves in Asia Minor, and the year 1258 saw the birth of Osman, or Othman, the 
founder of the Turkish Empire, at Sugut (south of the Bosporus). From him his
followers took their name - Osmanlis or Othmanlis, corrupted by Europeans into Ottomans. Gradually 
absorbing neighbouring tribes, in two generations the Osmanlis had possessed
themselves of the whole of the northwest corner of Asia Minor.
But the old roving spirit and fighting instincts of their nomadic ancestors were still strong upon 
them; and the glittering domes and pinnacles of Christian Constantinople, across the
Bosporus, formed a tempting bait luring them to further conquests. They overran the Balkan Peninsula, 
and in 1453 Constantinople fell into Mohammedan hands. 

* See School Journal, Part III, April, 1910, pages 73 and 74.
 
Then began a fierce struggle between southern Europe and the invaders, and the struggle was all the 
more bitter 
because to the threatened commercial interests was added deep religious hatred, the Mohammedan 
Turk having for centuries been the traditional foe of Christendom.

Harmsworth's "History of the World."]
THE TURKS ENTER CONSTANTINOPLE.

It is little wonder, therefore, that, when western nations saw their
eastern trade hampered by the risks of a hazardous journey and by the heavy tolls paid to the nations 
along the land 
routes , they began to ask themselves whether it was not possible to find sea
routes to India and Cathay. This it was that sent Columbus and others westward across the Atlantic, 
and Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama eastward round Africa.
Again, France, Spain, England, and Portugal were becoming less subject to internal broils and were 
growing more wealthy and powerful. Their sailors were becoming more skilful
and venturesome, and the time was now ripe for the discovery of new lands and new routes to old 
lands. On the sea no tolls had to be paid, and henceforth the sea was to be the world's highway.

THE CHATHAM ISLANDS.
On the 29th November, 1791, Lieutenant  Broughton, of H.M.S. " Chatham," while sailing from New 
Zealand to Tahiti, discovered a group of islands and named them the
Chatham Islands in honour of the Earl of Chatham. He landed on the northern shore of the largest 
island near its eastern extremity, and, displaying the Union flag,* turned a turf
and took possession in the name of George III. He also nailed to a tree a piece of lead on which was 
inscribed, " His Britannic Majesty's brig 'Chatham,' Lieutenant William
Robert Broughton, commander, the 29th November, 1791," and in a bottle secreted at the foot of the 
tree deposited a paper containing Latin words to the same effect.
Most people in New Zealand have heard of the Chathams, but a great many have very vague notions as 
to 
where they are situated. They are 536 miles eastward of Lyttelton,
and it takes the small steamer that trades with them about three nights and two days to reach them. 
As shown by the map there are two main islands, Chatham Island and Pitt
Island. The area of the larger island is 222,490 acres but of this a large lagoon occupies nearly
46,000 acres. Pitt Island has an area of a little over 15,000 acres. The total number of islands and 
islets is about thirty.
The Chathams lie between 175' 40' and 177' 15' west longitude, and, as a New Zealand vessel has to 
cross the 180th meridian to reach them, you would naturally think that
we should be a day ahead of them in time - that is, our Tuesday should be their Monday, our 
Wednesday their Tuesday, and so on.

* This was not our present Union Jack, but the flag symbolizing the union of England and Scotland. 
The cross of St. Patrick had not then been added. For illustration see School Journal, Part II, May, 
1909, page 50, "First Union Flag. "

But the international date-line is pushed eastward of the 180th meridian in order that the day 
throughout New Zealand and its nearer dependencies may be the same.
At the last census (taken in 1906) the population was 399.* There are three schools on Chatham Island 
and one on Pitt Island.
The story of the natives of the Chatham Islands has been one that has always aroused interest. How 
came they there? whence 
did they come? and when?

* 197 Europeans and 202 of Maori or Moriori descent.

Any answer that can be given to these questions can only be the result of shrewd conjecture. The 
Morioris, as the natives were called, were
very closely akin to the Maoris and yet there were
marked differences which could be explained only
by assuming that for a very long time there had been
no intercourse between them. Compared with the
Maoris, the Morioris were of poorer physique, were
less warlike, were poorer husbandmen, and in
savage arts and crafts were less skilful. By some
it is thought that they came from New Zealand, - and this was probably the case; but by others it is 
thought that they migrated direct to the Chathams.
Wherever they came from, they must have had large canoes to enable them to cross the stormy 
Southern Ocean. But their new 
home produced no heavy timber, and consequently
they could not continue building giant canoes such as made it possible for the Maoris to undertake long 
voyages and venture 
considerable distances out to sea. Of the canoes he saw
Broughton wrote as follows: " The canoes we examined were more in the form of a small hand-barrow 
without legs than any other 
thing to which they can be compared, decreasing in
width from the after to the fore part. They were made of a light substance resembling bamboo, though 
not hollow, placed 
fore-and-aft on each side, and secured together by pieces of
the same wood up and down, very neatly fastened with the fibres of some plant in the manner of 
basket-work. Their bottoms, 
flat and constructed in the same way, were 2 feet deep
and 18 inches in breadth; the openings of the seams on the inside and bottom were stuffed with long 
seaweed; their length 
[was] 8 and 9 feet. In the stern was a seat very neatly
made, which was movable, of the same material. They appeared calculated
alone for fishing among the rocks near the shore, were capable of carrying two or three persons, and 
were so light that two men could convey them anywhere with ease, and one could
haul them into safety on the beach. Their grapnels [anchors] were stones. "
Such frail canoes could be used at sea only on calm days, but were probably much used on the lagoons 
and lakes that are so numerous and so extensive on the larger island. Out of
such timber as was available the Morioris did, however, build larger and stronger canoes than those 
just described, but they were much inferior to the great war-canoes of the Maoris.
As showing how scarce good timber is at the Chathams, it may be stated that all timber for building 
purposes has to be imported from New Zealand.
Some time after their discovery the Chathams became a resort for whalers, shipwrecked sailors, 
deserters, and escaped convicts from Sydney and Hobart, and the degrading
influence these men exerted upon the peaceable Morioris was a disgrace to civilisation.
But even a greater disaster was to befall them. In 1835 the fear of Te Rauparaha impelled a section 
of the Taranaki natives, who had followed that redoubtable warrior to the Manawatu
district, to migrate to the Chathams. It is said also that they were encouraged to do this by the 
report of a Maori who had visited the Chathams. He said that the Morioris were a
plump, well-fed race who would easily fall victims to the prowess of his countrymen. 
To carry out their design they seized a brig, the
"Lord Rodney," which was lying in Port Nicholson, and, keeping the second officer as a hostage, 
compelled the master to take across about 500 persons, including women and children. The " Lord 
Rodney " returned to Port Nicholson, and, taking on 
board seven large canoes and about 400 more Maoris, made another trip to the
islands.
Then at the Chathams were enacted scenes which were appalling even in those rude times. The 
Morioris 
had lost the art of self-defence, killing was forbidden by their laws, and the
sight of blood was repugnant to them. They therefore fell a ready prey to their enemies. Says one 
writer, " The Morioris . . . a most gentle and inoffensive race, offered no resistance to
the invaders, and almost the whole of them were killed and devoured in detail by their merciless 
assailants, a remnant only being spared to become slaves. Thus it was that the
Maoris constituted themselves masters of the soil."
Dr. Dieffenbach, a German who visited the islands in 1840, wrote, " The sealers who first visited the 
islands found the natives numerous and healthy, in number at least 1,200, and
they were received by them with a hearty welcome. . . . Now not ninety of the original natives 
survive in the whole group, and in a short time every trace of them will be lost." How
sadly has his prediction been fulfilled! Though it has been variously estimated that before the 
Morioris were stricken by the diseases introduced by the Europeans and were ruthlessly
slaughtered by the Maoris they numbered between 1,500 and 2,000, they are now practically extinct as 
a race, only two pure-blooded Morioris being left.*

* The appointment of a British Resident in 1855 placed the islands under some rule and put an end to 
oppression, and one detachment of Maoris after another returned to New Zealand, till in 1868 only 
twenty were left. In 1870 reserves were allotted to the Morioris, who have lived in comfortable 
circumstances ever since.

1. WHARF AT WAITANGI. 2. WAITANGI TOWNSHIP. 3. A "CLEAR," WITH KOPI FOREST IN 
THE BACKGROUND.

Many stories less gruesome than that of the conquest of the Moriori by the Maori could be told. Some 
of them are amusing, and others show that even in those rude days, when there was no law and might 
was right, the best that was in men often came out, but we must pass on to a brief description of the 
islands as they appear to the visitor of the present day.
Approaching Chatham Island in the little steamer
we miss the boldness that is so characteristic of much of our New Zealand coast. The southern portion 
of the island is comparatively hilly, but the highest altitude is only a little
over 900 ft. To the north the country is low-lying, though gently undulating. Entering Waitangi 
Harbour, at the south of Petre Bay, we catch sight of a few houses and a jetty. When
the monthly boat arrives or departs only the most necessary work is done, and from all parts of the 
island men and women congregate at the port. Our approach has been
signalled by the steamer's whistle, and when we drop anchor in the roadstead the people are seen 
stringing out along the beach - walking, running, or riding -  and collecting on the
little jetty. And every one of them seems to be the owner of ten dogs, and every dog seems to have a 
ten-dog-power bark. That is Waitangi when the boat comes in.
The Health Officer comes off, we get our clearance, and are landed in the motor-launch belonging to 
the ship. Friends and acquaintances shake hands, the latest news is eagerly
asked for, and the arrival and departure of the boat discussed, while the visitor places himself in 
the hands of his friends or goes to either of the boardinghouses, about half a mile
from the wharf, to obtain quarters during the vessel's stay at the islands. The length of this 
depends -upon the weather. The vessel has to go round the island, and has also to visit Pitt Island. She 
lands goods and mails, and takes in cargo, generally 
wool and sheep. If the weather is southerly this can be done quickly, but if a rough northerly is
blowing some days' delay may occur. In any case a few days can be spent on the island before the boat 
gets back to Waitangi, usually her first and last port of call.
The greatest length of the island, about 35 miles, is along the north; from north to south the 
distance is about 30 miles. Much of the island is swampy, even the tops of the undulations being
clothed with a close mat of swamp-vegetation. Through this the horse sinks up to his knees, 
particularly if weighted with a rider. When crossing such places a wise rider will dismount, for both he
and his horse can then cross in comparative ease and comfort, so close and matted is the vegetation. 
Great open stretches of fern country exist, and are called " clears." Dotted over these are
clumps of karaka (there called kopi) and akeake, the principal large trees on the island. Most of the 
streams (none of them can be called rivers) are coloured dark-brown owing to the amount of
peat in suspension.
There are numerous lakes on the island, and, as will be seen from the map, one of these, Te Whanga 
Lagoon, is of considerable extent. The track from Waitangi to the north-east of the island
crosses the lagoon, and, except when the water is very low, it takes about an hour and a half to ride 
the four miles, for the water is often over the horse's knees. The track is marked by poles
driven into the mud. These, however, are almost unnecessary, for the constant passing of horses has 
cleared away the lake-vegetation, and the ford looks like a silvery streak four miles in length.
On and about the lagoon are great flocks of black swans. These were introduced some years ago and

1. THE FORD ACROSS TE WHANGA LAGOON. 2. CARVING ON A
KARAKA-TREE. 3. ROCK-CARVING.
 
have increased enormously, though hundreds of the birds are killed annually and thousands of their 
eggs are gathered and used for food. The wild duck, which was at one time
fairly plentiful, is dying out, owing, it is said, to the feeding-grounds being occupied by the 
swans. The duck, with its short neck, can feed only in the very shallow waters,
whereas the swan, with its long, pliant neck, can feed in water where a duck would starve. 
Consequently, its food-supplies being cut off, the wild duck, like the Moriori, is
becoming a thing of the past.
A passage generally exists between the lagoon and the sea, but sometimes it is silted up, and the 
lagoon rises. When this occurs, and the waters rise inconveniently high, the
passage has to be opened to prevent the flooding of the adjoining pasture lands.
On the karaka-trees are to be found curious carvings executed by the Morioris, and much discussion 
has arisen regarding the meaning of these. Some authorities have thought
that the carvings represented deities, others that they referred to burial customs, but it is most 
probable that they were marks indicating possession, either of property generally or
of the particular tree with its rich crop of berries, these being readily eaten by the Morioris.
In a cave near the sea-shore there are also rock-carvings. These are very crude and quite unlike the 
skilful carvings of the Maoris.  They somewhat resemble a fish or a bird
repeated over and over again, and by one writer are thought to symbolize the shag, which was probably 
looked upon as a sacred bird.
The Chatham Islands are noted as an excellent fishing-ground. One has to go only a few yards from the 
shore to get a good catch of blue-cod and
hapuku (groper) in a very short time. It was while engaged in this industry that the "Duco " was lost 
last year.
Riding is practically the only means of getting about the island. For a few miles from Waitangi there 
is a fair summer road, but it soon resolves
itself into a mere bridle-track. Primitive and quaint are some of the Chatham Island means of 
locomotion, as will be seen from the pictures shown above.
When the time comes for the visitor to leave the islands he never fails to express his appreciation of the 
hospitality he has received from its people. Everywhere the stranger is welcomed, and, 
whatever his object may be, every hand is stretched to help him and every door open
to welcome him. Chatham Island hospitality is not readily forgotten.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT. - For some of the photographs used in illustrating this article the Editor is 
indebted to the kindness of Messrs. W. A. Matthews and J. J. Guest, of Chatham Island.

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.
On the 14th August last Miss Florence Nightingale, the heroine of the hospitals during the Crimean 
War, died in London. Before the news was received, an outline of her life had
been written  for Part II of the School Journal, and can be read in the numbers for September and the 
present month. We shall here refer more particularly to Miss Nightingale's
work in the Crimea.
When the news of the terrible sufferings of the soldiers, due to the lack of proper arrangements for 
their care and accommodation, roused the deepest feelings of compassion and
indignation in England, Miss Nightingale wrote to Lord Herbert, Secretary for War, offering her 
services in the Crimea, and, by a strange coincidence, her letter crossed one from
him asking her to go. 
With a band of thirty-eight nurses she reached Scutari, on the south side of the Bosporus, where a 
great hospital was situated. They were just in time to receive the Balaclava
wounded, and a few days afterwards 600 from Inkerman arrived. Within a few months Miss 
Nightingale 
had 10,000 sick and wounded in her care.
Nobly she gave herself body and soul to the
work, and the story of her labours at Scutari is
one of the brightest pages in English annals. She would stand for twenty-four hours at a stretch to see 
that the sick and wounded were brought in and properly attended to. 

THE HOSPITAL AT SCUTARI.

She regularly took her place in the operating-room to hearten the sufferers by her presence and 
sympathy, and then at night would make her solitary rounds of the wards, lamp in hand, stopping here 
and there to speak some kindly word to a sleepless sufferer. As the poet Longfellow says,
Lo ! in that house of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom And flit from 
room to room.
And slow, as in a dream of bliss, The speechless sufferer turns to kiss Her shadow, as it falls Upon 
the darkening walls.
The writer of a letter written from Scutari at the time says, " Wherever there is disease in its most 
dangerous form, and the hand of the spoiler distressingly nigh, there is this
incomparable woman sure to be seen; her benignant presence is an influence for good comfort, even 
amid the struggles of expiring nature. In these hospitals she is, without any
exaggeration, a ' ministering angel,' and, as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, 
every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the
medical officers have retired for the night, and silence and darkness have settled down upon those 
miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her
hand, making her solitary rounds. The popular instinct was not mistaken which, when she set out from 
England on her mission of mercy, hailed her as a heroine - I trust that she
may not earn her title to a higher though sadder appellation. No one who has observed her fragile 
figure and delicate health can avoid misgivings
lest these should fail. With the heart of a true woman, and the manners of a lady, accomplished and 
refined beyond most of her sex, she combines a surprising calmness of
judgment with promptitude and decision of character."
Gradually Miss Nightingale's work bore fruit, for her efforts reduced the death-rate from 42 per 
cent. to 2 per cent.
Miss Nightingale also visited the hospitals at the Crimea. Everywhere she was greeted with cheers 
as if she had been a victorious general. Hundreds of men who had returned
from the Scutari Hospital to the field of battle had experienced her loving care, and all had heard 
of her noble work. But when about to return to Scutari she herself was suddenly
seized by a severe attack of Crimean fever, and for some time her life was despaired of. When she 
recovered she went back to her work, and did not leave it until after the war was
over. Then, to avoid a great public welcome that was arranged for her, she travelled back to England 
under an. assumed name, and went quietly to her own home.
Of late years Miss Nightingale was an invalid. She passed most of her time on her couch, presenting a 
charming picture of a sweet, white-haired old lady. She had lost interest in
much that went on about her, but news from the nursing-world never failed  to enlist her attention.
All the honours showered upon Miss Nightingale were as nothing to her, her noble simplicity of 
character impelling her to do good for its own sake. But for all time
A lady with a lamp shall stand
In the great history of the land, A noble type of good, Heroic womanhood.

WHERE THE DAY CHANGES.
In the article on the Chatham Islands the " international date-line " was mentioned, and it may be of 
interest to trace its origin and significance.
When for the first time the world was circumnavigated by Magellan's little fleet, the bold navigators 
found to their surprise that, though the day of their return was Sunday according
to their own reckoning, it was Monday in Spain. For some time it was thought that there must have 
been an error in the records of the journey; but at last an astronomer pointed out
that, as the explorers had travelled westward round the globe, their days would on the whole be 
longer than if they had remained stationary, but they would appear to have lost a
day.
If, in the words of the old shepherd to King John, a person could
"Rise with the sun and ride with the same,
Until next morning he riseth again,"
he would, of course, have daylight all the time till he returned to the same spot twenty-four hours 
afterwards. He would have enjoyed a very long period of light, and would have lost a
period of darkness. If the same person rose with the sun but travelled eastward at the same rate, he 
would, in the twenty-four hours, experience two days and two nights, but each
would be of only six hours' duration.
As one travels westward, therefore, a day ("day" meaning, of course, day and night) is longer than 
twenty-four hours, and as one travels eastward a day is shorter than twenty-four
hours. This is well known to those who have travelled at sea, and the actual length of the day 
depends upon the rate at which the vessel is travelling to the east or to the west. On shipboard, 
observations are taken when 
the sun is highest in the sky, and that time is taken as noon. By this the
passengers set their watches, putting them back to 12 o'clock if the ship is travelling westward 
(thus making the day longer), and putting them forward to 12 o'clock if she is
travelling eastward (thus making the day shorter).
After Magellan's time it was seen that it would be necessary to fix some line along which the day 
could be changed. No one wanted this to be near his own country, and still less to
run through it. Imagine what inconvenience would be caused if the east coast of New Zealand reckoned 
as Sunday the day that was held as Monday on the west coast. So this line - 
the " international date-line," as it is called - was fixed along the 180th meridian. It was as far 
away as possible from the older nations, and for practically the whole of its length
traversed the open ocean.
The day in Europe is therefore the same as the day in America (though, of course, the time of the day 
is different). A traveller may go from London to Alaska and his days will still
be the same as those observed by his friends at home. But if he could steam across the narrow 
Behring Strait, which has a breadth of only fifty-four miles, he would find that while
he might have left Alaska on Saturday morning he would not arrive at Siberia till Sunday afternoon, 
though his steamer would have taken only four or five hours to perform the
journey. If, on the other hand, a person living on the eastern extremity of Siberia were asked to 
take tea on Sunday with a friend living on the western extremity of Alaska, he would
not need to take the steamer for Alaska until Monday morning.

MAP SHOWING THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE " INTERNATIONAL DATE-LINE."

But those of you who have looked at the 180th meridian and the date-line on the map on page 276 will 
say that the north-eastern peninsula of Siberia is east of the 180th meridian; and so it is. Well, though 
the 180th
meridian was originally fixed for the date-line along which a day could be lost or found, in practice 
the date-line is bent east or west to suit the convenience of the peoples
living near it. We see that from the north the line is bent eastward so that all people in Siberia 
may observe the same day. Again, the Aleutian Islands belong to Alaska, and
the people there want to have the same day as those in Alaska. The line is therefore bent westward. 
When we come to the South Pacific we see that almost from the
Equator to well to the south of New Zealand the line takes a sweep to the eastward. This was done in 
order that the islands closely associated with Australia and New
Zealand should have the same day as Australia and New Zealand.
Let us now see how this affects the Dominion of New Zealand. The Dominion, as you know, embraces 
some 
of the outlying islands as well as New Zealand itself. Some of
these are east of the 180th meridian, the chief being Chatham Islands, Kermadec  Islands, and what 
may be termed the Cook Islands group;- and, though it does not bear
on the subject-matter of this article, it is interesting to note that not far from the Cook Islands, 
and included within the boundaries of our present Dominion, is Palmerston
Island, the "San Pablo" of Magellan, the first island he discovered in the Pacific. It may therefore 
be said that the present Dominion of New Zealand was first visited by
Magellan nearly four hundred years ago. 
But, going back to our date-line, we find that we do not change the day going to the Chathams, nor do 
we going to the Kermadecs, but we go back  a day when going to the Cook Islands. If we cross the 
180th meridian on Wednesday we go to 
sleep that night and wake up on Wednesday. On the return journey we
drop a day - that is, we may go to bed on Wednesday night and, after a single night's sleep, may wake 
up on Friday morning. If the date-line were carried a little farther
eastward, to include the Cook and other islands belonging to New Zealand, the day would be the same 
throughout the whole of the Dominion.
We have described the present international dateline, but in former times the deflections were 
considerably greater. Up to the year 1867 Alaska belonged to Russia, and in
order that Alaska should have the same day as Russia the date-line was stretched eastward almost to 
the meridian of 140' west. You could then leave Alaska on
Wednesday, and by a single jump across the boundary could be in Canada on Tuesday. Nay, more, you 
could stand with one leg in Wednesday and the other in Tuesday.
In 1867, however, Alaska was bought by the United States, and the date-line was then drawn westward 
to its present position.
 Another great difference at one time existed. For ever three hundred years the Philippine Islands* 
belonged to Spain, and, in order that the day there should be the same as
in Spain, the date-line was made to stretch westwards a great arm thousands of miles long to grasp 
the islands. The Philippines, however, lie so close to Asia that the
confusion of days was found very inconvenient. The Governor-General therefore decreed that the 31st  
December 1844, should be reckoned as the 1st January, 1845, and with the expiring old year thousands 
of miles of date-line expired also.

* Ceded to the United States at the close of the Spanish-American War.

Now, apart from these little freaks in days that occur near the date-line, let us see what is the 
practice on board ocean-going steamers when crossing the 180th meridian. In
a few hours' steaming from New Zealand a vessel eastward-bound for England reaches longitude 180' 
east, and then gets
in west longitude. If she arrives at the meridian on a Wednesday she has two Wednesdays, and the 
week 
is consequently eight days long. If she is westward-bound, and
reaches the meridian on a Wednesday, the next day is reckoned as Friday,
and the week is only six days long.
The only exception to this rule is in regard to Sunday. Sunday is not dropped, nor are two days
reckoned as Sunday. If an eastward-bound vessel arrives at the 180th meridian on our Sunday, that day 
is taken as Saturday, giving two Saturdays in the week. If a
westward-bound vessel gets to the
meridian on Saturday, that day is taken as Sunday, and the Saturday is dropped. In this way 
passengers do not have two Sunday dinners in one week going eastward, nor
do they lose a Sunday dinner coming westward.

DATES FOR THE MONTH (October).-3rd-Wellington chosen as seat of Government, 1864; 4th-
Gold discovered at Coromandel, 1852 ; 8th-Captain Cook landed at Poverty Bay on his first visit, 
1769; 12th-Labour Day; 21st-Battle of Trafalgar and death of Nelson, 1805. On appropriate days the 
school flag might be, hoisted.

Whatever you are, be brave, boys; A liar's a coward and slave, boys; Though clever at ruses, And 
sharp at excuses, He's a sneaking and pitiful knave, boys.

ASIA.
V. TO THE INDIES EASTWARD.
The Prince who, Heaven-inspired, To love of glory roused mankind, And in unbounded commerce 
mixed the world.
-THOMSON.
"The time showeth the man," says an old adage.
Often has it proved true; and it proved true when Europe began to feel the need for the discovery of 
new routes to India.

PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR.

In this case the man was Prince Henry of Portugal, better known in the history 
of early exploration as Henry the Navigator.
Personal ambition had no part in his nature, but he was filled with a desire for scientific and 
geographical knowledge. He longed to discover what lay in the unknown seas
of the south, and to bring the teachings of Christianity to the heathen. So in 1419, when he was only 
twenty-five years of age, we find him forsaking the pleasures of the
court and taking up his abode on the bleak, inhospitable shores of south-western Portugal, at what is 
now known as Cape St. Vincent. There he devoted his wealth and his time to preparing himself and 
other daring spirits for the conquest of the sea. "Desire to do well"
was his motto, and never was noble motto more faithfully followed. He built a palace, a chapel, and an 
observatory, and gathered round him the greatest men of science and the
most skilful map-drawers of his day. In the neighbouring port of Palos he built new ships, and 
trained Portuguese sailors in the art of navigation.
In Henry's day very little was known of the west coast of Africa. Even the boldest mariners were 
deterred from exploring it by fables that if white men sailed far south they
became black, and by tales of sea-serpents, sea-unicorns, and waves of liquid flame, which were 
passed in awe-struck whispers from one to another. But Henry imparted
his enthusiasm to all, encouraging the faint-hearted and rebuking the legend-mongers.
Ship after ship did the energetic Prince send out to creep nearer and nearer the Equator without dire 
results, and, as ship after ship returned to Portugal laden with gold,
ivory, and other treasures, his service became more and more popular. Though the Prince himself cared 
nothing for wealth, love of gain impelled his sailors to penetrate
farther and farther into unknown waters, and he lived to see two thousand miles of the coastline of 
Africa explored.
Worn out by his great exertions, Henry died in 1460 on the cape where he had set his watchtower over 
the Atlantic. For forty years he had laboured incessantly to discover
the south-east passage, and, though in his own day his hopes were not fulfilled, he had raised 
Portugal to be one of the foremost maritime nations of the age, and had prepared the way for the great 
Portuguese advance on the Cape of Good Hope and on India 
itself. But he had done more. He had improved the mariner's compass, and had made skilfully
drawn maps of the places visited or discovered. His faith, too, had dispelled the legendary terrors 
of the unknown seas, and had shown to the world that remote ocean-tracts were no more dangerous 
than the waters that swept the coasts of his native land. Nor had he forgotten his purpose 
of carrying Christianity to the heathen. Priests accompanied all his expeditions, baptizing the
natives, and carrying the Gospel along the western shores of the Dark Continent.
The impulse thus given to navigation by Henry was felt long after his death, and impelled later 
adventurers to continue the search for the sea route to the east. In 1475 the Equator was crossed. In
1485 Diego Cam reached Walfish Bay, and, without knowing it, was within a few hundred miles of the 
Cape.
 The actual rounding of the Cape was reserved
for another bold mariner, Bartholomew Diaz. In
1486 he set sail from Portugal with two small
ships. Calling at different places on the way, he
pursued a southward course until he passed the
mouth of the Orange River. But, the weather becoming threatening, he stood well out to sea, as a
good mariner should when off an unknown coast.
Then the storm burst upon them in all its fury,
and for thirteen days they were driven south until
the weather became so cold that the sailors could
scarcely handle the ropes with their numbed fingers.
The weather clearing, Diaz turned his vessels eastward, hoping to again reach the coast. But, no land 
appearing above the horizon, he steered northwards, and at length found himself in a bay which
he called Cowherd's Bay because of the number of cattle he saw herded ashore. 

MAP OF AFRICA, SHOWING THE PROGRESS OF COASTAL EXPLORATION.

When future merchants traded to India they used to call in at this port on the outward journey to Goa, 
and so it 
came to be called A la Goa (Algoa) - i.e., " to Goa " ; and the port of call for the return journey 
was called De la Goa (Delagoa) - i.e., " from Goa."
For a long time it had been the custom of the Portuguese navigators to set up crosses at newly 
discovered places to show that they had taken possession. Sometimes they
would carve the King's motto on trees. Later they took out stone pillars sculptured in front with the 
Royal arms and surmounted by a cross. Such a pillar did Diaz set up on an
island in Algoa Bay, giving to the island the name Santa Cruz, a name that survives to the present 
day.
But Diaz did not even yet know that he had rounded the Cape, and had performed a feat that would for 
ever make his name famous. It was with bitter disappointment, and sorely
against his will, that he was compelled to abandon his enterprise and to return home, owing to the 
complaints and mutinous conduct of his crew. In vain did he seem to have
faced dangers and undergone hardships. Sadly he gave orders to put the ships about. But after passing 
a mighty headland, and seeing that the coast tended northward, his
disappointment was turned to joy. He now felt convinced that during the great storm he had rounded 
that mysterious continent, and had opened the sea-gates to the east.
 In December, 1487, Diaz dropped anchor in the
Tagus, and hurried ashore with his wonderful news.
Great was the rejoicing at his success. In memory
of his struggle with the winds and the seas off the
long-sought Cape he proposed to call it the Cape
of Storms (Cabo Tomentoso).
"No," said the King;  "let it rather be the Cape of Good Hope (Cabo de Boa Esperanza)," and the Cape 
of Good Hope it is called to this day.
(To be continued.)

JOHN FOX'S ESCAPE FROM THE TURKS AT ALEXANDRIA.
The escape of John Fox, an English gunner, from Alexandria was a piece of audacity that drew forth 
compliments not only from Queen Elizabeth's Council, but also from the
King of Spain and the Pope of Rome. Fourteen years had he been held captive by the Turks, and much 
had he seen and suffered that would cause the blood of a freeborn
Christian to boil.
In the year 1563 Fox had sailed from Portsmouth for Seville in the " Three Half Moons." Manned by 
thirty-eight sturdy men, and well equipped for defence, she had little to fear
from an ordinary foe. But near the Strait of Gibraltar she was surrounded by eight Turkish galleys, 
which quickly showed their intentions. Fly the English could not' and yield
they would not.
Perceiving the direness of their extremity, the owner exhorted them to bear themselves manfully and 
to trust in God. He also called to their minds the ancient worthiness of their
countrymen, and after a brief prayer bade them prepare for battle.
Then up stood Grove, the captain, and waved his sword in defiance at the foe, and his example was 
followed by the owner and others. On dashed the gallant little " Three Half
Moons " into action against overwhelming odds. Well did John Fox ply his guns; well did the archers 
shoot; but all was in vain. The Turks boarded, and after a desperate hand-to-hand struggle made 
prisoners of the few surviving Englishmen. They treated them with the greatest 
cruelty - stripping off their clothes and forcing them to work in the galleys
under the whips of cruel taskmasters.
Before long the owner and the captain were ransomed by friends in England; but the others, whose 
friends were poor, were left to spend the rest of their days in slavery and
misery. One by one they were relieved of their troubles by death, until at last, after fourteen 
years, only John Fox, the gunner, was left. He was a good barber, and by plying
this trade earned a little money. He was thus able to pay a small fee to the jailor when ashore, and 
was, with six others, allowed to walk in and out of prison with chains  on
his legs.
At length Fox devised a plan of escape. During the winter the Turkish galleys were laid up. Their 
masts, sails, and oars were stored, and their crews were allowed to spend
the time in their own homes. The slaves, of whom, in 1577, no fewer than 268 were Christians, were 
heavily ironed and placed in
prison.
Now, not far from the harbour and the prison there was an eating-house kept by a slave named Peter 
Unticaro. He was a Spaniard, and had been in captivity for thirty years;
but, as he had kept himself quiet and was not in the least suspected, he was allowed to keep his shop 
on payment of fees to the jailor. John Fox often called upon Unticaro,
and, feeling that his confidence would not be betrayed, he at length unfolded his plans for escape. 
He found that Unticaro was willing to share any risks, and by degrees the
six other prisoners who had their partial liberty were taken into the plot.
On the last day of December everything was ready. Files were procured, and the chief conspirators 
arranged to have their irons filed off next night at 8 o'clock. At the
appointed time they met at Unticaro's and made merry, in order that no suspicion should fall upon 
them. After a little while Unticaro went to the jailor, and, stating that
a friend wished to see him, asked him to come round to the eating-house. Telling his people not to 
lock the gate, as he would soon be back, the jailor went unsuspectingly.
In the meantime the others had armed themselves with such weapons as they had been able to procure. 
Fox's weapon was merely an old rusty sword-blade. Then they put
out the lights and awaited the jailor's coming. When the wretched man came near the house and saw 
that it was dark and silent he became at once suspicious, and turned
to go back. But his way was barred by Fox.
" What have I done to thee that thou shouldst seek my death? " pleaded he.
" Thou hast been a bloodsucker of many a Christian's blood," cried Fox, " and now thou shalt know 
what thou hast deserved at my hands." Then, putting all the fury of
fourteen miserable years of slavery into his blow, he struck the Turk dead.
Then Fox and his friends marched to the prison. Entering by the gate left open by the jailor's 
orders, they slew the keepers, securely closed the gate, and planted a cannon
against it. They then obtained the keys from the dead jailor's lodge, where they also found much 
treasure. This Fox would not touch, saying that it was his liberty he sought,
not infidel treasure. But Unticaro and two others carried off as much as they could stow inside 
their shirts. In the lodge they found arms also, and to these they helped
themselves.
Being now well armed, these eight felt very champions. Fox opened the gates, and, calling forth the 
prisoners, set some of them to carry masts, sails, and oars to the best
galley in the harbour, and the rest to prepare in other ways for their departure.
Fox and his companions had not yet completed their work in the prison. All warders that they came 
across were slain, but eight others retreated to the roof. Then began a fierce
contest. Unticaro and the two who had loaded themselves with treasure were so impeded that they were 
slain. Fox himself had his clothes shot through in three places.
One of the keepers was wounded and thrust over the wall of the jail. His groans drew the attention of 
some Turks who lived near by, and as soon as they understood the case
they raised the alarm, and Alexandria was up like a swarm of bees.
But the liberated prisoners had not been idle. At last the galley was ready, and all were on board. 
Sails were quickly hoisted, and, driven by a strong but favouring wind, they sped
on towards the two grim castles that guarded either side of the entrance to the harbour. Then came a 
storm of shot for a few minutes, and the galley glided out into the open
Mediterranean.
After twenty-eight weary days of toil, hardship, and privation the galley reached Crete, having 
fortunately avoided the Turkish vessels sent in pursuit. Fox was afterwards kindly
received by the Pope of Rome and the King of Spain. In 1579, however, he returned to England, where 
he received a pension for his services.
-Based upon an account by Hakluyt.

DATES FOR THE MONTH (November).- 1st - Old-age pensions became law,. 1898; 9th-King 
Edward VII born, 1841 ; 13th-Robert Louis Stevenson, the great writer, born, 1850 ; 16th-Suez Canal 
opened, 1869 ; 28th-First occasion on which New Zealand women exercised the franchise, 1893; 29th-
Education Act providing for the free and compulsory education of
children passed, 1877 ; 29th-Chatham Islands discovered by Lieutenant Broughton in H.M.S. " 
Chatham," 1790; 30th-St. Andrew's Day. On appropriate days the school flag might be hoisted.

A STORY OF THE CHATHAM ISLANDS.
[The following story was told to the writer by Mr. J. G. Engst, who since 1843 has lived almost 
continuously at the Chathams. Mr. Engst is now a very old man, but he still takes
a keen and intelligent interest in all that occurs, and is always pleased to recount his experiences of the 
"early days." As far as possible the exact words used by Mr. Engst
have been followed.]
These words go back to Germany, long ago,
when, with four others, I was sent
out to New Zealand as a missionary by a society in Berlin.
We were to go to
Nelson, but before
we reached that
place it was
already provided
for, and so at
Cloudy Bay we
were told that if
we were free to
choose a destination we could go
to the Chatham
Islands. We
therefore took a little vessel from Cloudy Bay and came to the Chatham Islands, landing on the 20th 
February, 1843.

MR. J. G. ENGST.

When we landed, a great mass of Maoris was there gathered to meet us, and each wanted a missionary 
at his own place - not for the sake of the Gospel, but for the sake of the
gifts we brought. Not knowing the language, we had to take our own counsel, and each went singly, 
one to one 
place and another to another.
 We became engaged with nothing else but
learning the language and working. As we
found that the natives wanted only earthly gifts,
we did not gather them in companies to read to
them or to preach to them, but - what we saw was
most necessary for them - we tried to break them
into a civilised life. We carried on trades in
which we had been prepared before we left the
Fatherland. I worked with wood as a cabinet-maker and carpenter, another was a cooper, another a 
blacksmith, another a painter, and the fifth was
the schoolmaster and music-teacher.
At that time there were on the islands from
1,200 to 1,500 Maoris and Morioris. Of these
there might be about 150 Morioris, for the Maoris had just about finished them. After they had made 
slaves of the Morioris they quarrelled
among themselves, fighting and killing; but, a short period before we came, natives from New Zealand 
brought word of the Book, and the
Chatham Island Maoris ceased to kill one another.
They had heard about the gifts brought by the missionaries, and they expected to get much out of our 
shipload of goods. As I have said, we did
not follow up their natural desires. We worked for them at our trades, and made them pay for goods. 
We showed them that Christianity
consists not in idleness and a desire for goods, but that they must work for the goods in an honest 
way. Their desires not being gratified, they
began to use all sorts of tricks to provide themselves with our things. They made food high in price, 
and tried to get goods through our hunger - and sometimes we were very hungry indeed.
But they would not let us starve altogether: we were too valuable to them.
We would not give way, and had it in our minds to show them that we could produce things for food 
ourselves. For this we wanted a bit of land,
and for it we had to pay very dear, not knowing that the natives had lately sold their land to the 
Government of New Zealand. We represented
ourselves to the Government in Auckland, and were allowed to keep the bit of land. When the place 
became colonised we were to pay for it the
common price at which the land was sold.
Then we worked. The carpenter made all sorts of wood accommodation and goods, from a house to a 
cabinet; the cooper made casks and all
things for the house; the blacksmith, who was an instrument-maker also, made firelocks for guns, 
axes, ironwork for the boats, a flourmill, a
windmill, tinware, milk-dishes, tea-kettles, knives and forks, spades, rakes, and other useful things.
After three years the society sent wives for three of us, to reconcile us to our condition. The blacksmith 
and I did not get wives, but this caused
no bad feeling.
When we came there was no grass cultivated, and there were no horses, cattle, sheep, or other small 
animals, except fowls and pigs, which
were obtained from American whale-ships. Horses and cattle we brought from New Zealand and from 
Australia when we bought a small vessel
built at the Hutt, near Wellington. She was called the " Revolution," and was about 50 tons. We used 
her chiefly for carrying people between
New Zealand and the Chathams; and, when gold-mining broke out in Australia, in one year we sent 
away 
1,000 tons of potatoes. The potatoes
were ours - grown by ourselves or received in payment for work, for now the natives much desired our 
services. Some of their children came to school, but not many.
I have said that just before we came the Maoris had heard the Word and had ceased to fight. No longer 
did they make food of 
men. Before the Maoris got the Word they killed and made food of
many, many slaves. After I had been there about a year I went to Ocean Bay. An old chief there had 
done this wickedness but a 
short time before. How I came to know the story was this: There
was living with the chief a New-Hollander* convict who had escaped. One day I looked round and saw 
a lot of quite new white 
skulls; so I said to this white man, "How came these skulls here? "
" I will tell you if you promise to say nothing about it. The chief had a lot of slaves, and he took it into 
his mind to 
give the inhabitants a meal. He set the slaves to work to make a great oven, and
then he killed nine of them, going among them with his axe, and the others had to cook them."  This 
was, I think, the last 
of this thing on the island, for the news of the Word had ceased this great
wickedness.
We built over twenty boats, and with them the natives did much work, and made trade with the 
whaling-ships that came to the 
island for food. At that time many whalers from America came. The
Americans and the Maoris could talk a little to each other, and made trade. French whalers came also.
Just before we came a French whaler [the
"Jean Bart"] arrived. The men could speak neither English nor Maori. Two parties of Maoris came to 
the ship to trade, and 
began to quarrel among themselves.

* Australia was then called New Holland.

The French thought that they were to be attacked, and drove some of the natives over the side of the 
ship, 
using whale-lances. They cast others down the hatches, fastening
them down. Then they up-anchored and began to sail away. The Maoris below crawled through 
passages and reached the guns in 
the cabin. They knew how to use the guns, and shot through the
cabin-windows at those on deck, and killed many French. The French put themselves into three boats 
and went away, nobody 
knows where - they vanished. The Maoris made after the three boats,
and were two nights and days at sea, but could not get up to the boats. They brought the ship back, and 
drove her into Ocean 
Bay. They took everything out, and put fire to her. The women got
some putty and ate it, thinking it was a kind of cheese.
Some time afterwards a French man-of-war came in and killed many Maoris. They got twelve of the 
chief men from Waitangi on 
board, and are supposed to have killed some of them, for the Maoris
said that they saw them hanging at the yard-arm. Some they took to France, and three were afterwards 
brought back to New Zealand.
Here is another story of the old whaling days: In 1845 an American whaler, the "Chelcia," from New 
London, struck at 
Tupuangi [in the northwest]. She had much oil on board. On the island there
were two whaling-stations. At each of these was a party in charge of a white man. One party bought the 
wreck for £100, and 
the captain of the " Chelcia " was free from all care. He went over to the
east side of the island, and fell in with the owner of the other whaling-station, who offered £200 for the 
wreck. The captain 
accepted this also. The first purchaser had twenty
men, the second purchaser had twenty-two men, with guns. Great harm was done before the dispute 
was settled.
It was a busy time while Te Kooti* and the Maori prisoners were at the Chatham Islands.

From a sketch by J. H. Kerry-Nicholls.]
TE KOOTI.

Te Kooti in 1868 was a sick, miserable man; here he was not well at all. I often gave him money. 
Captain Thomas, the Magistrate, did   not have a strong guard, and so the prisoners took it into their 
minds to get free at the first opportunity. The 
guards neglected their duty, for, thinking the Maoris
were contented, they built their ideas on a wrong foundation. A vessel, the "Rifleman," a 
three-masted schooner, was landing goods, and, finding the
opportunity comfortable for escape, the Maoris made provision at once and captured her. I had the 
charter of a schooner, the " Florence," which was in the harbour at the same time. 

*In 1865 Te Kooti was captured during the Maori war, and, ,with other prisoners, was sent to the 
Chathams.

The captain and the crew were made prisoners, fire was put on the vessel's deck, and she was cast 
adrift. But she burnt not, and 
drifted ashore. In the meantime other Maoris captured
the barracks. During their stay the Maoris had been made to build a prison, and into this they put 
the English. One of the white men was killed in a
matter of private revenge, but no harm more than in capturing them was done to the others. I was on 
shore when I saw the trouble. When I came to the barracks I found the Magistrate with his hands tied 
standing on the bridge over the ditch round the barracks.

Photo, W. A. Matthews.]
THE JAIL AT WAITANGI.

I went in to Te Kooti. " What is it that you are doing? "
said I.
" Come out, and I will tell you." And he took me behind the barracks. " We go," he then said, and 
asked me to go with them.
" You are on the wrong track; I go not. Call your men from the barracks and let go the prisoners."
But he would not. He led the Magistrate to the office, and compelled him to hand over £300 sent to him 
by the Government for salaries for the men and for other purposes. They
then put him in the prison. Then Maori men, women, and children marched in order and with rejoicings 
to the beach, went on board the ship, and cleared off all goods for room.
Brown, one of the settlers, got a key from a blacksmith, and opened the prison.
The vessel lay there all night, and went out the next day. But it came back, and then went off to the 
east coast of New Zealand. There Te Kooti's people did much wickedness,
killing and robbing white people.
Soon afterwards the Maoris who had come over in 1835 made up their minds to go back to Taranaki. 
They hired a vessel and went away. That accounts for there being so few
on the island now.

ASIA.
V. TO THE INDIES FASTWARD- continued .
VASCO DA GAMA.
With such mad seas the daring Gama fought For many a weary day and many a dreadful night; 
Incessant 
labouring round the Stormy Cape, By bold ambition led. – THOMSON.
Bartholomew Diaz had opened the gates to the east, and yet for ten years no one   passed through them. 
But while he was being buffeted by storms on the west coast of Africa,  Portuguese explorers, 
disguised as merchants, had set out from Alexandria down the east coast. One reached 
Ormuz, and thence sailed to Madagascar. During his travels he learned that
the east coast of Africa was not only easy of access, but that the Arabs carried on a flourishing 
trade between it and India. The Portuguese therefore know that, once Africa was rounded, there was an 
open road to India.
News of the discoveries of Columbus (received in Europe in 1493) seemed to bring Spain very near to 
the doors of India, for it had not yet been realised that a great continent, as
large as Africa itself, barred the way. Portugal therefore put forth every effort to equip an 
expedition that should arrive at India before the Spaniards, sailing westward, could obtain a footing and 
gather to themselves the great riches that were to be derived from the eastern trade.
But it was not till 1497 that a suitable commander was found. Sitting one day in his hall busily giving 
orders, the King of Portugal saw passing by a nobleman of high birth who was also a well-known 
sailor. It was Vasco da Gama. When called by the King he knelt at His Majesty's feet.
" I require service of you in which you must labour much," said the King. " I should rejoice if you 
undertake it."
" Sire," replied Da Gama, kissing the King's hand, " I will gladly perform any service Your Majesty 
may command, and so long as my life lasts I will perform it faithfully." And well he
kept his promise. .
About the middle of 1497 he set out with three small ships-the " St. Raphael " (commanded by 
himself), the "St. Gabriel, " and the " St. Miguel. " They were provisioned for three
years, and were accompanied part of the way by a store-ship. Great crowds lined the shores watching 
their departure. Scarcely daring to hope that they would see their friends again,
men and women wept, and priests and monks knelt in prayer. A Portuguese poet tells us that the sands 
were wet with tears. But the commander's eyes were turned to the open seas, and, with the Royal 
Standard floating gaily at 
their mastheads, the three ships set out on their mission.
It took them four months to reach the Cape, a journey that now occupies only a fortnight. Again did 
the Cape justify the name given to it by Diaz - the Cape of Storms - but to the
courageous Da Gama it was still the Cape of Good Hope. Night and day he shared the work with his 
men, 
enduring all their fatigues and hardships. Encouraging the faint-hearted and
angrily threatening the mutinous, he at last succeeded in weathering the Cape. "Then," as an old 
writer says, "great joy fell upon them, and they gave great praise to the Lord on
seeing themselves delivered from death."
Passing northward, on Christmas Day they named the coast along which they were sailing Natal, in 
honour of the day ("Dies Natalis " - the Day of the Nativity). Then they came to the
mouth of a large river, and, the ships being sadly in need of repairs, they sailed into it. So 
thankful were the men for a rest after their long and perilous journey that, as they dropped
the anchors, they exclaimed, "It is the mercy of the Lord." The river was therefore called the River 
of Mercy, though it is now known to us as the Zambesi.
The crews then proceeded to careen and repair the vessels, but the " St. Miguel " was found to be so 
badly damaged that she was broken up and used for repairing her consorts. In accordance with the 
Portuguese custom, Da Gama set up on shore a marble pillar on which was engraved, 
" Of the Lordship of Portugal, Kingdom of the Christians."
Mozambique, Quiloa (now Kilwa), and Mombassa were each visited in turn; but, the reception of the 
visitors not being favourable, a course was steered for Malindi, a trading city on
the open coast. News of their coming had preceded them: in their honour the Indian merchant ships in 
the port 
were gaily dressed with flags, and the welcome was most hearty and
hospitable. Presents were exchanged with the local chiefs, and the friendliest relations were 
established. Ascertaining the object of the explorers, the chief offered them pilots to
guide them to Calicut. The offer was accepted, and with renewed expressions of friendship the 
visitors sailed boldly into the open sea and steered for India.
For twenty days they sailed eastward, and then land was seen ahead.
" That is India," exclaimed the pilot; and his words brought joy to every heart. Prince Henry the 
Navigator's hopes were fulfilled, though he himself had not lived to share in the
triumph. Over the bow lay the land of romance, the land of promise to which all eyes had been turned 
for hundreds of years, and the land to which for over a century Europeans
had been trying to open a sea road. Vasco da Gama's heroic task was accomplished. Spreading his 
hands 
towards the blue heavens above him, he sank on his knees, though
in the depth of his great joy his feelings could find no utterance.
Calicut lay down the coast to the southward, and thither the ships were directed. To impress the 
Zamorin, as the chief ruler of Calicut was styled, Da Gama sent to him a
message stating that the Portuguese ships were only portion of a large fleet of fifty vessels sent by 
the King of Portugal to exchange gold, silver, and European goods for the
pepper, cinnamon, and other spices of India. This had the desired effect, and the King promised that, 
on proper payment being made, Da Gama would be supplied with whatever
he desired.
At that time Calicut was the principal port of India, and its trade was chiefly in the hands of the 
Moorish (or Arab) merchants of Cairo. These were not slow to perceive the
dangers that threatened their monopoly if the sea became the highway to India, and if newcomers 
gained the favour of the Zamorin. 

CALICUT IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

They therefore spread the report that these strangers, who said that their only object was peaceful trade, 
were really spies who had come to prepare the way for a general invasion; and the 
report reached the palace. A native of Seville, who as a boy had been made
prisoner by the Moors and had afterwards been set free, informed the Portuguese of the hostility of 
the traders, and advised them to proceed cautiously. Da Gama therefore sent
word ashore that he would not trade until hostages were received as a guarantee of peace.
These being handed over, trading began; but the pepper, cinnamon, and ginger sent to the ships were of 
the poorest quality.

" Notable Voyages," by W. H. G. Kingston.]
VASCO DA GAMA VISITS THE ZAMORIN.

In order to gain the goodwill of the Zamorin, these were, by Da Gama's
wishes, accepted without protest. This pleased the King, but the Moors pointed out that the Portuguese 
must be spies, and not 
real traders, as they could not tell the
quality of the goods they bought.
The Zamorin therefore began to treat the Portuguese with discourtesy. When Da Gama went ashore by 
appointment he was informed 
that the King had gone into the
country. He immediately returned to his ships, saying that when the King was ready to receive him in 
Calicut he would come 
again, and not till then. This quickly made
the King change his attitude, and word was soon sent that Da Gama would be received at the palace.
Bearing rich presents, and with a guard of twelve of his finest-looking sailors, Da Gama was graciously 
received - so 
graciously, indeed, that the Moors conspired to carry
him off. A false message that the Zamorin desired to see him was sent to him, and, being allured into a 
litter, he was 
carried some distance inland. But the plot was
frustrated by the Portuguese capturing some Calicut nobles and threatening to cut off their heads. Da 
Gama was therefore 
released. After a few days he set sail for
Portugal, which was reached exactly two years and eight mouths after his departure.
Great were the rejoicings throughout Portugal, and, indeed, throughout the whole of western Europe. 
The road to India had 
been travelled, and honours fell thick upon the
explorers. But in one city there was no rejoicing. Proud Venice was stunned.* "It is the worst news the 
city has ever received," was the cry.

* The Sultan of Egypt was equally moved, for the greater part of his revenue was derived from taxes 
levied on goods passing through his territory (see Part III, September,
page 251). Venice and Egypt sank their differences, and combined for common protection. Egypt was 
without a navy, and so the Venetians sent wood to Cairo. This was
carried on camels to Suez, where a small fleet was prepared for the purpose of attacking the Portuguese 
on their next visit to the Indian Ocean.

She had been the first city in Europe 
Till the unwelcome tidings came That in the Tagus had arrived a fleet From India, from the regions of 
the sun, Fragrant with spices - that a way was found, A channel opened, and the
golden stream Turned to enrich another. Then she felt Her strength departing.

RIVER-TERRACES.
One of the most striking features of the scenery of our country is the frequency with which the 
rivers are bordered with series of terraces, rising from the level of the water like broad,
irregular flights, of stairs, till at last they merge into the steep hillsides, or ascend to some 
elevated plain. You can see them on a magnificent scale in the valleys of the Waikato and
Clutha and alongside many of the rivers of Westland, but perhaps best of all where rivers like the 
Rakaia and the Rangitata have cut their deep beds through the mountains and across
the plains of Canterbury. As you travel in the train over the shingle beds of one of these wide 
rivers, you can see stretching far towards the hills the converging lines of terraces, which
apparently meet when the river narrows at its gorge.
Nearly every stream, however, whatever may be its size, furnishes examples of terraces, if they are 
sought for with an observant eye. Even the small heavy shower of rain frequently
show terraces as perfect as those you see in a large river-valley. They are only a fraction of an 
inch in height, an, inch or two broad, and perhaps a yard or so in length; but near a
large river you can see terraces two, three, four, or even five hundred feet in height, several 
chains broad, and stretching out in length for miles.
As you ascend the side of a valley with a complete series of terraces, and rise one step after 
another, you find that the flat parts vary much in width, and that the banks are
sometimes gently sloping, and sometimes so precipitous that you are glad to clutch at tufts of grass 
and small bits of scrub to aid you in your ascent. The steep faces frequently
consist of solid rock, and at times are quite unscalable by man. On the other hand, their top 
surfaces appear at first sight so remarkably flat and even that you wonder what natural agency can have 
done such work.
If you look more closely, however, you will see uneven places in the surface you thought so level, 
and will discern also a gentle slope in the same
direction as the current of the river which runs far below. This suggests a close connection between 
the river and the terrace. You notice, too, a little
above the water-level, extensive flats with low banks differing only in height from the imposing 
terraces above. Otherwise the flats and the terraces are
alike in structure and in form. It is easy to understand how the river has had something to do with 
these lower terraces, and therefore, in all probability,
it has had something to do with the formation of the higher ones.
The formation of these high terraces can be explained by our supposing that, thousands or, it may be, 
millions of years ago, the river flowed at a much
higher level, and that the top terraces were the banks, formed then just as those near the present 
river-level are being formed now. How, then, are
terraces near the level of the present stream formed? There are two principal causes of this 
formation - namely, a river can lower its bed by deepening
the channel, and it can raise its banks by depositing mud, stones, &c., in flood-time.
Let us consider the first cause. All rivers in flood carry a large quantity of material in 
suspension. This is evident from the muddy colour of the water.
But more than mud is sometimes carried down. You have no doubt heard, even above the roar of the 
water, the stones in some hill-torrent rolling over
one another and striking together; perhaps, indeed, you have crossed such a stream and felt the 
pebbles strike against your legs, or even felt a large
stone roll down against you. Now, as this material is carried along it rubs against the sides and 
the bottom of the channel. Little pieces are whirled round in crevices, thus scouring them out, sharp 
projections are 
smoothed away, and loose material is torn out from its place. The bed of the
stream, even if it is of solid rock, is thus gradually lowered. The action is very slow, but, if given time 
enough, it will accomplish great results. In this way a stream lowers its bed,
thus causing its banks to be higher and higher above its ordinary level.
But the river does more - it builds up its banks as well. You will have noticed that a river in flood 
frequently runs over the neighbouring flats, and, when the water retires, leaves on them a deposit of 
mud. Go up any river-bed where gorse and broom grow thickly, or where, the native 
bush has not been cleared, and, after a flood, you will find thick deposits of silt
lying among the bushes, If the banks are covered with grass, the same kind of deposit occurs, but it 
is not so thick.
The mud is deposited because the water does not flow so swiftly over the flats as in the deeper 
channel, and so drops a part of its load of sediment. The shrubs and grass also
strain the mud, sticks, &c., out of the water just as a sieve would. Thus after every flood the bank 
is increased in height, until only the very highest floods reach the top. At last,
owing to  this cause, and owing also, to the lowering of the bed of the stream by the scouring action, 
the bank is never overflowed by even the highest floods. The bank then
becomes a river-terrace, especially if its upper surface is nearly level.
  Sometimes a  river wanders about over the floor of
the valley, and alters the position of its main stream.
It may desert one bank and  take a course some distance away. It then forms a new bank in another
part of its bed, and  the old bank becomes a terrace.
This shifting of the river-channel sometimes results in parts of the older terraces being destroyed by the 
erosive action of the stream as it swings in and attacks a high bank.

LOWBURN TERRACES, FROM DEADMAN'S POINT, CROMWELL.
BROKEN RIVER, CANTERBURY, ON THE MIDLAND LINE OF RAILWAY.

 If the bank is composed of soft material, it may be removed very quickly after being built up slowly. 
This
depends chiefly on the set of the current, which may destroy the bank in one place and build it up in 
another. We can thus account for the frequent occurrence of short lengths of
terrace-formation: they are but the preserved remnants of former extensive terraces.
Streams, therefore, form terraces chiefly by cutting down their beds and moving about across the 
floor to the valley in which they flow. When we say that the river once flowed at the
level of the highest terraces, you must clearly understand that the river did not fill the whole 
present valley to their level. This would mean that in former times enormously deep and
wide torrents existed where we know they did not. When the river built up the terraces it probably 
contained no more water than is now flowing, but it ran at a higher level. Since that
time it has lowered its bed, so that its old banks are now quite deserted by the water, and form 
terraces.
River-terraces play an important part in the opening-up of new country. Along their even surfaces 
frequently run the roads that lead to the interior. At times they are covered with fine
forests, and, when these are cleared, the rich and well-drained soil produces heavy crops and sweet 
and abundant pasture. They are frequently the first lands taken up by the settler
when seeking for a place to found a home. Besides this, in gold-bearing country old river-terraces 
are the favourite prospecting-grounds of the miner. The gold was brought down
from the ranges of the interior and deposited among the sands and gravels in rich "leads," which meant 
wealth to the lucky discoverer. The rich claims near Collingwood, at Kumara and in other parts of 
Westland, were found principally in old river-terraces.

LAYING OCEAN GHOSTS.
A ship called the " Nina " is cruising about the Atlantic carrying in her hold some two thousand 
pounds' weight of gun-cotton and several hundred torpedoes. Her mission is to
dynamite the derelicts that are drifting up and down the ocean lanes of traffic.
By a derelict is meant a vessel abandoned by her crew, and left to pursue whatever course the winds 
and the waves may direct. Generally she is more or less waterlogged, and so
cannot easily be seen. Many a good ship has been posted as "missing " through having come into 
collision with a semi-submerged wreck of this description.
By mariners, derelicts are termed " ocean ghosts," and to "lay " such " ghosts " is the mission of 
ships like the "Nina." Especially is this the case when the wreck, as is frequently
the case, happens to be timber-laden.
There was, for instance, the " Drisca," a full-rigged
"tramp " ship of 1,200 tons, which was abandoned in mid-Atlantic. The hull was practically a solid 
chunk of wood, for she had been laden with Norway pine, and this had swollen and
jammed into a compact, water-soaked, impenetrable mass. Over fifty times was she reported, and at 
last 
a cruiser was dispatched against her, as though she had been an alien
enemy.
The naval experts decided to destroy her by means of torpedoes. Three torpedoes, each containing 
thirty-six pounds of gun-cotton, were accordingly fastened to the hull of the
derelict and exploded. But a considerable portion of the hulk remained intact. Five more torpedoes 
were then exploded before the back of the wreck was broken. Then the cruiser
rammed the derelict amidships. The cargo began sliding, and the two parts slowly settled. As they sank, 
the cruiser fired several shells into them as a finishing-touch.

NEW ZEALAND CONTRASTS.
Though one of the parts of the earth best fitted for man, New Zealand was probably about the last of 
such lands occupied by 
the human race. The first European to find it was a Dutch sea-captain
who was looking for something else, and who thought it a part of South America, from which it is 
sundered by five thousand 
miles of ocean. It takes its name from a province of Holland to which it
does not bear the remotest likeness, and is usually regarded as the antipodes of England, but is not.
It was taken possession of by an English navigator whose action, at first adopted, was afterwards 
reversed by his country's 
rulers; and it was annexed at length by the English Government, which
did not want it, only to keep it from the French, who did. The colony's capital bears the name of a 
famous British 
commander, whose only connection with the country was a flat refusal to include it
in the Empire.
Those who settled it meant it to be a theatre for the Wakefield land system. The code of land laws, 
however, which its 
settlers have gradually developed is a complete negation of Wakefield's
principle. Some of the chief New Zealand settlements were founded by Church Associations; but the 
colony's education system 
has long been purely secular.
From the first, those who governed the Islands laboured earnestly to preserve and benefit the native 
race, and, on the whole, 
the treatment extended to them has been just and often generous - yet
the wars with them were long, obstinate, and mischievous beyond the common.
The pioneer colonists looked upon New Zealand as an agricultural country; but its main industries have 
turned out to be 
grazing and mining. From the character of its original settlers it was
expected to be the most conservative of the colonies ; it is just now ranked as the most democratic. Not 
only by its 
founders, but for many years
afterwards, Irish were avowedly or tacitly excluded from the emigrants sent to it. Now, however, at 
least one person in eight 
in the colony is of that race.
It would be easy to expand this list into an essay on the vanity of human wishes. It would not be hard to 
add thereto a 
formidable catalogue of serious mistakes made, both in England and New
Zealand, by those responsible for the colony's affairs - mistakes, some of which, at least, seem now to 
argue an almost 
inconceivable lack of knowledge and foresight. So constantly have the
anticipations of its officials and settlers been reversed in the story of New Zealand that it becomes none 
too easy to trace 
any thread of guiding wisdom or consistent purpose therein. The broad
result, however, has been a fine and vigorous colony.
Some will see in its record of early struggles, difficulties and mistakes endured, paid for, and 
surmounted, a signal 
instance of the overruling care of Providence. To the writer it seems, at least, to
give a very notable proof of the collective ability of a colonising race to overcome obstacles and repair 
blunders. The 
Colony of New Zealand is not a monument of the genius of any one man or group
of men. It is the outcome of the vitality and industry of a people obstinate but resourceful, selfish but 
honest, often 
ill-informed and wrong, but with the saving virtue of an ability to learn from their own
mistakes.
-W. P. REEVES " New Zealand."


