FROM THE SPANISH MAIN

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12604, 15 November 1926, Page 7

FROM THE SPANISH MAIN

GOVERNOR-GENERAL’S BROTHER TWO YEARS IN ROMANTIC SEAS WEST INDIES AND DEPRESSION From romantic seas hearing names familiar in histories of tlm old buccaneers, Vice-Admiral Sir dames Fergusson arrived in Wellington by the Talnui yesterday. A brother of Sir Charles Fergusson, Sir James will spend four or five months in the Dominion. He has brought with him Lady Fergusson, who is a daughter of Mr T. C. Williams, of Wellington, a son and four daughters. “Cuba and Haiti were two great islands in the buccaneering days,” said Sir James yesterday. “And at Antiqua there is an old naval dockyard which they call ‘English harbour.’ It was the last place at which Nelson refitted his ships before he sailed for Trafalgar. The pipe which he watered his ships from was still spouting, and they. turned it on for me before I left. “I was on service with the Bth Cruiser Squadron in the West Indies, and was succeeded by Sir Walter Cawan last July. I had been out there for two years, and previous to that was with the Ist Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet. I have been to New Zealand twice before in 1906 and 1911, between appointments. I was here from 1872 to 1875, of course, but I don’t count that coming out. WANTS INTER-COMMUNICATION “The West Indies has been suffering from financial depression in common with a number of other places. They export fruit and sugar mainly, and' the prices for sugar have been more or less going down ever since the war, while wages have gone up. The main problems are those of access, they are badly handicapped by lack of inter-oommunication. I remember the Governor of Antigua (the Leeward Islands) telling me that if he wanted to go to St. Lucia, which is only about 100 miles Rway, it was quicker for him to go to England and come out again, the service between his group and the other being so irregular. If they had the money I feel sure that the first thing they would do would be to establish a more frequent service. “There are still many evidences of buccaneering days strewn round the sens, and if one went about in a yacht they would he easily found. The Americans run two ships down into these seas, and they are very popular. They sail under the Panama flag to avoid the liquor question.”