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Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 132, 14 June 1901, Page 1

General “ Polly ” Carew, whose selection as Federal Commander-in-Chief was recently urged by the Australian forces in South Africa, has the reputation of being one of the few men who shaved every day while in South Africa. Even in a forced march or in the midst of a fight he was always smart. But he is as little a carpet soldier as his Commander-in-Chief, and the rank and file of the Guards worship him. Strange to say, before he started for South Africa his doctors told him he was very delicate, and’ advised him to give up work altogether. He did not take thenadvice, and after a hard campaign he is in the best of health. Although what we call middle-aged, he is accounted the handsomest man in the army, and his smile is seraphic. Captain Dicldns, of the United States warship Brooklyn, in imparting some of his personal views to an interviewer, said, as a passing stranger, it appeared to him that New Zealand needed people and plenty of them, and he wondered that immigration was not continuous. By undertaking the management of the public services, and‘keeping hold upon the land, there was’,too much-of the paternal element, he thought. “ What people want,” remarked.the captain, “is an independent spirit, and not a feeling of dependence onlthe State,”