A LONG AND HONORABLE CAREER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7823, 16 May 1905, Page 2

A LONG AND HONORABLE CAREER.

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, May 15< ■ A few days ago Captain Wheeler (formerly of the Union Steam Ship Company) celebrated his 75th birthday, ami at a meeting of the Shipmasters' Association of New Zealand to-day, he was presented with a purse of sovereigns in commemoration of the event. Accompanying the presentation was a letter in which ine following passage occurrod : * our many sterling qualities mid upright character have wo# for you the esteem and rpgard of your brother shipmasters throughout the colony and it is felt that some slight mark of the regard in which you are heW may In- appreciated bv vourscli an an expre;.si 0 n 0 ( Koo d ' idling nv4 appreciation of one who fluvniß the course of a lonjr uni lioaourable career has upheld the status' of the cloth." Captain Wheeler, hi replying, gave an interesting review of tho trials of master mariners in the early days. He arrived in. New Zealand as chief ofttcer of the s s Lord Asjhley in 1858, nnd ho recollected well the difficulties which the captain of that vessel experienced in picking up (lie light at Nelson. Tiwre "ore then only two Jights on the . w coast, one at Welling tojiand the other at Nelson, and lk.h<, T*. not 10 1,0 cou 'P a 'c'l to the v i? u , re now t0 bc found on the New Zealand coast. I'assengera 111 tliose days Utt'ly kn u \v what an [aiixioiiji time the captain of a vessel ■® ii m u? C .', >tns: h < s and 1 ht thought it spoke volume# for the 1 tore awl skill exercised that so few mishaps occurred. All Ihe time ho I had been running on tho coast he had lKvar met with a serious mishap, and had never lost '