CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3101, 26 January 1909, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

—.—_* AN APPRECIATION OF NEW ZEALAND. (To the Editor). Sir,—Before leaving the shores of this hospitable land, will you allow me, through the meduim of your columns, to express my thanks to the large number of kind friends, too i numerous to correspond with individually, throughout the Dominion who have contributed towards making my stay such a pleasant one. From Auckland to the Bluff 1 have received the utmost kindness. 1 landed at Wellington on November 4th an entire stranger to the country and unknown to anyone in it except Mr C. W. Palmer, the indefatigable hon. secretary of the Navy League in Wellington, I shall leave behind me, when 1 sail for London on the 28th, many kind friends to whom my gratitude is due and to whom it given. That there were plenty of enthusiastic Navy Leaguers in New Zealand I knew well before I landed. I can only hope, after all the assistance I have received from the Press, the Railway Department, and the Union S.S. Company of New Zealand, that I may have been successful in increasing the membership of the branches of the League throughout the Dominion, and in creating an additional interest in those two great services, the Royal Navy and the Mercantile Marine, upon which the whole fabric of the Empire rests, and in whose cause the Navy League considers it an honour to work. May I hope that all branches of the League in this country will undertake the following three things : (1) Place the Navy League wall map in all schools, and, if the Minister'for Railways will sanction it, in all important Railway Stations. (2) Give prizes for essays on naval history in all schools. (3) Take the children from different parts of the Dominion down to the ports to visit any warships which may be lying there. I bid farewell to New Zealand with extreme regret, as it has been largely responsible for restoring me to health and vigour; but with the consolation that I leave behind me many who will be working here, as I hope to continue to work at Home, in the great cause of Imperial^Defence. "The Fleet of England is her All in All." "Her Fleet is in your hands." "And in her Fleet her Fate." I am, etc., HENRY T. C. KNOX, ' late Lieut. R.N., Organising Lecturer Navy League.