The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1907-04-04
o. e. Hamilton Writes of His Trav-
els in New Zealand.

o. e. Hamilton Writes OF HIS lrdV-
els in New Zealand.
The many friends of o. e. Hamilton,
the we'll known evangelist, who spent
his boyhood days in this county, will
be interested in reading the following
letter written by him to his cousin
jerome Traupel and family, Mr.. Hamil-
ton has been an extensive traveller and
writes most interesting letter:
Dunedin, New Zealand, Feb. 6, 'O7.
Dear Cousins: Your good letter came
to hand on the last mail ship. Believe
me that l was glad to hear from you.
All letters look good, even business
letters, this far away, but yours espec-
tally. We have been on vacation
since writing. We in company with
others took tents and went to Stewards
Island. You will find it on any good
map, located just south OF the main
islands of New Zealand. Mr.. Garmong
and own two tents, one seating one
Thousand people with an acetylene gas
outfit in connection for lightning, and a
small one for camping out. We expect
to use the small one when going through
Palestine. We camped on Stewards Is
land. There were nine tents.
This is the region of so many peculiar
birds. l have in Des Moines now some
wingless birds, birds with t1ippers, like
that of seal, instead of wings. The
thigh bone Of Moa which is three feet
long. There are skeletons of them as
high as fourteen feet. While in the
woods on our recent trip, tied red
rag to the end of pole and whistled
quietly for awhile, when weka Ia wing
less bird) came out of the bush. |
would shake the rag until he began to
fight it. With another pole threw a
loon over it's neck and secured the bird.
They are the most inquisitive creatures
| ever saw and it gets them into trouble.
One day sea Penguin came ashore and
while asleep one of the party caught it..
Then there are the sea gulls and mutton
birds. The latter dig holes in the
ground for their homes. They are good
eating.
This is one Of the greatwhaling ground
of the Pacific. The ports and harbors,
before kerosene took the place of whale
oil, were filled from time to time with
whale ships. Frank T. Bullen, the
great writer on whaling, used to pull in
here to cut up his whales and boil
down the blubber. You should send
for his book entitled "The Cruise OF the
Catchalot'' 1t is a great book. Mr..
Bullen was whaler for years. heard
him lecture while here from England.
The book is true account OF his eX-
periences. The book store in Leon will
be glad to make inquiry about it and get
it for you.
A fisherman on the island sent me an
invitation to go out in his craft fishing
with him. He had good sized ship,
We went out about ten miles to sea,
threw our lines down about two hundred
feet and hauled up blue cod about as fast
as we could draw. Also two soldier
fish,. Among the most interesting
were two devil fish hauled on deck
Eight long Shiny arms with strong suck
ers. They are called OCTOPUS. One
of them caught it's suckers on the side
of the ship coming up and hung on I'M
til the tentacle began to tear as we
pulled. On the way over to the Island
or rather just before we started, Mr..
Garmong helped man to draw in a
shark. BY the way, just yesterday, the
electrical engineer of this city, while
out bathing in the beach, was bitten by
shark, tearing all the flesh off his
leg. He died last night. The unusual
thing was that the shark came up into
three feet of water. He saw the thing
coming but it came so swiftly. If they
are seen in time, and at the right time
one can get out of the way. You know
before shark can bite it must turn
over on it's back. And, too, it does not
dive, or rush forward swiftly until il
does turn on it's back, so that, if seer
before one may be safe. have IN Def
Moines, also the bones of the complete
mouth of shark, and the full set O
teeth. If you should be there any time
by going to 1147 oath. st. and asking
about them, the people will be glad te
show you. All the birds and animals
are in glass cases now.
After our return from the island WI
took a steamship to the west coas
sounds of N. z. The most remarkable
scenery ever saw. cannot take TIN
time to describe it here. Then W,
walked back over the mountains. Eacl
of us had swag on our backs and wer
dressed for the occasion. We looket
like tramps. 1t took us four days t.
make it. We used a compass. No on
lives on the way, excepting shee
man at whose home we stayed one night
We forded streams and climed noun
tains. We passed over two glaciers
There was time when all N. q. was i
ice-called the proglacial age. We had
great trip and enjoyed all but the bills
tiers on our feet. There are host c
parrots in the timber on the way. TIL
! longtail cuckoo from Borneo is seer
too, at this time of the year. 1t come
from it's native habitat to this countr
in the summer season.
The farmers began harvesting thi
week, and we are back to work. Owe
six hundred people have come into tn
church during our meetings in TIL
! country. We go to a new field to organ
ize church following meeting, an
] then will leave for Australia. If yo