CHRISTMAS DAY ON THE PHILOMEL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2699, 19 February 1916, Page 7

CHRISTMAS DAY ON THE PHILOMEL

INTERESTING LETTER. The Minister of Defence (thy Hon. iT. Allen) has received a letter from Captain Hall Thompson, of H.M.N.Z.S. Philomel, in which some points of p;e)i< eral interest are touched upon. The half ton of butted sent for the Philomel by the Tahiti, the letter states, arrived in very Rood condition. "1 trust," says Captain Hall Thompson, "the generous donors realise with what great appreciation it has been received, as butter had been an unknown quantity for a long time; in fact, ever since the last lot was finislied." Apparent ly, remarked the Minister, they had had no butter but what had been sent from New Zealand. "I am afraid all the Christmas gifts hare missed us, and cone on to proceeds the letter. "We spent our Christmas Day at sea again for the second time." Captain Hall Thompson convey 6 his thanks for the greetings received from j New Zealand, and remarks on the pleasure tho knowledge gave that they were in the thoughts of the people in tho Dominion. They found a difficulty iu obtaining Christmas fare, but the captain observed that when he went round the mess decks it appeared to him they wore all doing fairly well. "The ship's company have behaved most excellently since wo havo been up here, and I was recently privately congratulated by the Commodore on our freedom from crime and sickness. I think," adds the writer, "we may say we have a really good ship's company." Captain Hall Thompson thanks tho New Zealand Government on behalf of the ship's company for the generous way in wfiicli all requests from the ship liuve been attended to. Both the ship and the men arc, ho thinks, worthy of a certain amount of prido iu New Zealand. As to the ship itself he concludes by stating: "I can safely say llie ship is more of a success than has ever been anticipated by tho Admiralty."