FROM "PUNCH"

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 42, 18 August 1925, Page 9

FROM "PUNCH"

MEMBER OF STAFF AT AUCKLAND.

(»X TELIOIUPB SPECIAL TO TBl POSr.l

AUCKLAND, This Day. The letters "A.P.H." are known to all readers of "Punch." They are the initials of Mr. Alan P. Herbert, author and humorist, who has- been a' regular contributor to the famous London journal for 15 years. Mr. Herbert is one of the younger members of the party, being 34 years of age. He was a student at New College, Oxford, and took first-class honours in Jurisprudence, in 1914. He was called to the Bar in 1918, but he has never practised the profession of Law. During the war, Mr. Herbert joined the Royal Naval Division as an ordinary seaman, and saw service at Gallipoli, where he was. wounded. He had further service in France, concluding his war activities as-a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer . Reserve. After the war he became private secretary *to Sir Leslie Scott, M.P., who was Solicitor-General ia the Coalition Government. He remained with Sir Leslie for two years, and still assists him in election campaigns. Free lance journalism, however, began to take up all his time, and he has pursued it since with considerable 'success. Last year he was taken on the.staff of "Punch," which means that once a week he attends the fanjous "Punch" dinner, when the 13 elect; discuss the principal cartoon for the week, and the general make-up of the journal. Mr. Herbert has written several novels.

When the interviewer sought Mr. Herbert out on the Aorangi he found him deeply absorbed in arranging places for a private dinner party on board. Each card bore a terribly bad sketch. He explained that he had not so far learned to sketch, but was persevering.

An inquiry was made about the methods of "Mr. Punch," and whether his "learned staff of clerks" got as much fun out of the paper as does the rest of the civilised world. He replied that the weekly cabinet meeting, held to decide what the cartoon should be was the most solemn affair in Great Britain. "And," he said, "if it has anything to do with tho Dominions we are doubly solemn, because we are scared about making mistakes. Every aspect of the subject is discussed, and the title written before the artist begins."

Mr. Herbert was reminded of one of his humorous stories, about the wonderful cheque, crossed and recrossed, and covered with every kind of device for preventing payment. It ran something in tins vein: "Pay so nnd so (sink him) the sum of six guineas (and no more), etc." The real joke of the thing ia that the actual chequel that illustrated the story was presented at a bank.