THE PASSING SHOW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 190, 14 August 1933, Page 6

THE PASSING SHOW.

(By THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.)

"Rouseabout" (he seems to be a new "Rouseabout") in the "Melbourne Herald" tells a touching tale, here retold briefly. He strolled into a theatre just before THE TRUST. the curtain fell. A come- • dian had entertained the people excellently. The scribe found hun standing in the wings clothed in his grotesque costume, looking on to the stage most anxiouslv. The last turn was that of a smart o-irl who* did a Spanish dance. The audience applauded wildly. So did the grotesque comedian. "She'll be all right!" shouted the comedian to the scribe. "It's in the blood. And the yarn came out. The comedian had promised his actor . brother in France (both beinrr soldiers) that if anything happened to the brother "he should just see that the kiddie gets her chance when she grows up." The actor-soldier father was killed at Pozieres, and the brother was glad that the girl made good that night.

PERSONALITY OF THE WEEK

Mr. Edward Varley Hudson, 8.A., speaking of Auckland "Music Week," says that primary and secondary school concerts, massed choruses and individual WO. 399. school musical work, have aided music in Auckland as it has never been helped before. Mr. Varley is the conductor of the Municipal Choir and will conduct the Primary Schools' Massed Chorus on Tuesday and on Thursday the Choral and Orchestral Concert. He was born in Suffolk in the historic town of Bury-St.-coming to New Zealand in the sailing ship Patala to Lyttelton in 1880. He is still very young in heart. He was educated in Christcburch, becoming a teacher and subsequently headmaster of the Normal School at Auckland. He retired from last September. Has lectured at the Training College on speech training and voice production. "My hobby," he says, "is music." In the old volunteer days Mr. Hudson was a lieutenant of the Napier Rifles and later captain of the Hastings Company and a major commanding school cadets "in Loveday's day." There are six in a grown-up family—four boys and two girls. "I am still a student," says Mr. Hudson.

It is regretted that the drawing accompanying the personal note in this column on Saturday was- inserted in error. The drawing now appearing is of: Mr. E. Varley son.

The prevalence of fire literature in this otherwise uninflammable column induces the entry of a portly citizen, who, being sworn, ■ saith that he was a FIRE MANUAL. Mount Eden fireman in

the.days prior to powerdriven and even horse-pnlled engines. His memory is clear about the Prospect Terrace conflagration attended by him and his comrades, who hauled the manual engine to the scene with fair hopes of saving the burning dwelling. The branchman ran across to the hydrant with the hose to connect up. The hose lay along the road, plumped out with the water, the nozzle was directed on the fire —and the local milk cart came along, rolled over the hose, wliich burst instantly, and cut off the supply, handicapping the gentlemen who had run a long way with that manual. And by the time the brigade had borrowed a few buckets—there was a gap in Prospect Terrace.

Mr. Lincoln Ellsworth, the world-famous explorer with the sunny smile, characteristically declares that during tho two months he will stay in New Zealand IN TRAINING, prior to his Antarctic flight he does not intend to stay around the towns. So he goes to the mountains to find tho ice his soul lovoth or the snow he adores. A facetious Aucklander, sitting near a large heater and embowered in a heavy coat, muffler, gloves and other gear, !says that preparation for an Antarctic flight can be bad in almost any Auckland houso in winter. He thinks that if any city dwelling , was too tropic for an Antarctic explorer, a really conscientious man might prepare himself by camping in an openwork singlet on the top of a hotel roof, his bare feet in iced water. Selected servants might, he thinks, be detailed to move towards him en queue, bearing slabs of ice to cool the fevered brow, while waiters hurtled in with cones of ice cream. By the way, Mr. Ellsworth is already among tho ice of the National Park training for larger coldnesses, but it is complained that there is less snow thereabouts tiian in former seasons. Still, refrigerators might be installed in the local hostelries.

Maybe you read "The Riding Master" (English, of Cheltenham), by F. B. Forester, in Saturday's "Star" Magazine Section. Cheering to M.A.T., who caused " OLD ENGLISH." F. B. Forester to remem-

ber the old school and Old English by a familiar par. Yes, Old English would have rubbed his eyes if he could have read either the par or the subsequent article, for in the earlier days of that famous riding school New Zealand was known less even than now, although Mr. Price sold New Zealand mutton in High Street—and English's pupils rode out of the Promenade and turned up past that shop in High Street without a glance. But what one wants to say is that Old English was tho father of Reggie, who began to ride at the age of three and was a horsemastcr some years later. Reggie went to school at "Butler's," in Victoria Walk, glorious with chestnut frees ("obly pnkers"), and the school was not far from the Riding School, .where the preliminaries of equitation were taught on tan under a wide roof, and there was every kind of jump. A selected few of Butler's boys, under tho tutelage of Reggie, had all the advantages of horse tuition without the horrid necessity of paying for it, and the tan was often strewn with the' fallen. Many a man who afterwards poked about foreign scenery with ironmongery, wallets and rolled overcoats hanging from self and saddle owed his first steps in equitation to Reggie. Reggie was a sportsman and in matters of personal schoolboy honour the English tan was always available for settlement (per fist) 0.~ slight differences. No, none of the pupils from tho celebrated Ladies' College ever saw this branch of Mr. English's business, but one feels certain that Miss Dorothea Beale, the famous head of tho famous college, knew a thing about it