Who’s Who on the Aorangi

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 597, 25 February 1929, Page 16

Who’s Who on the Aorangi

Carrying 420 bags of English and American mail for Auckland, 128 passengers for New Zealand, and 158 through passengers, the R.M.M.S. Aorangi, arrived at 3.45 p.m. yesterday and berthed at 5.15 p.m. Excellent weather was encountered throughout the trip from Vancouver.

A new member of the United States Consulate at Auckland has arrived to take the position of assistant ViceConsul. He is Mr. W. B. Cochrane, of Philadelphia, who is accompanied by his young wife. Mr. Cochrane entered the United States Navy in 1924 and visited New Zealand in the following year as an ensign in the battleship New Mexico. Then he entered the State Department of the Foreign Office at Washington and studied for six months, awaiting a consulate billet. “They must have given me this part because they heard me talk of New Zealand,” he said. “The Fleet in 1925 thought it was a little bit of heaven, and I am delighted to return.”

“I left Auckland for China in 1908 and have been away ever since with the exception of two holiday trips.” Thus Dr. H. R. Friedlander, now of Shanghai, who has arrived to spend a month’s holiday in New Zealand. Conditions in China, he said, were far from settled. He was unacquainted with the position since January 12, but he knew that China’s troubles were by no means over. At the same time he was inclined to discredit some of the reports of the appalling conditions said to exist.

Miss Peggy McKechnie, well known on the American stage, is on her way to Australia, though it is possible that she may tour New Zealand. Miss McKechnie has just completed a tour on one of the big American vaudeville circuits.

Mrs. A. and Miss P. Townsend have been spending a few weeks in Honolulu. They travelled on the Aorangi when she last sailed from Auckland for Vancouver and returned on the same boat.

Representing the Atlantic Union Oil Company, Mr. A. C. Galbraith, of Los Angeles, is making a business tour of New Zealand and Australia.

Mr. A. R. Baker, a through passenger, is managing director of Baker, Perkins, Ltd., a firm of British engineers.

Dr. J. W. Harper, dentist, of Hartford, Connecticut, is fisherman, poet, and journalist as well. He intends to spend two months in pursuit of North and South Island trout and salmon.

Though he was approaching New Zealand for the first time and knew it, therefore, by repute only, he passed the time during the journey by writing Maoriland verses. Dr. Harper is a free lance journalist, carrying introductions from the “Hartford Times.” While in the Dominion he will gather material for a series of articles.