“Lasca” Remembered By Former Entertainer

Press, Volume C, Issue 29480, 5 April 1961, Page 8

“Lasca” Remembered By Former Entertainer

“Lasca,” a poem inquired after by Mrs Mary Duncan in the correspondence columns of “The Press” yesterday. brought back many memories for an 81-year-old Christchurch man. Mr J. Birch. "I used to recite it on the stage in Australia,” he said. "It is a long poem. It has to be done dramatically and with a Southern drawl. It takes 15 minutes to do it properly. “It is the story of a cowboy living, in a city. He is sick of city life and would like to be back in the old days on the prairie. In the poem he tells of a girl called Lasca and a stampede of cattle.” said Mr Birch. Mr Birch’s stage name was Jack Melford. He was born in Christchurch and attended the East Christchurch School. Later he went to Ashburton and when he had left school he worked on the Ashburton newspaper—both as a typesetter and a reporter. He shifted to Christchurch again when his father became the licensee of the Waltham Arms Hotel. He held the lease himself for some time. From Christchurch Mr Birch went to Melbourne. He worked as a stage entertainer. weight-lifter and elocutionist and took moving pictures td the smaller towns. To make the pictures move

he had to crank a handle. "We got into trotible because one of our Aims was called ‘Bums and Johnson Fight.’ but it only dealt with their training for the fight. We had a few chaps complain," said Mr Birch. “It was good, though.” Mr Birch represented Victoria at Rugby and played against the Wallabies. Mr Birch came to New Zealand and enlisted in the 3rd Auckland Mounted Rifles for the Ist World War. He served in Gallipoli and the Sinai Desert. Through an injury he was invalided back to New Zealand. Occasionally, he has recited “Lasca” and another poem called "Rosie" to New Zealand audiences.