ALL SPORTS OF PEOPLE

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 913, 11 January 1918, Page 4

ALL SPORTS OF PEOPLE

WE had a visit dast v week-end from , Mr. Bartlett Provo, one of New Zealand's very ' oldest veterans and sports. He was wearing the scarlet coat, of the Dunedin City Guards and upon his manly breast there hung three silver medals attesting his service, in the cause of his sovereign and country. Although going on merrily for his 79th year he is still a .valued member of., the "Otago Baly Times" Btaff in Dunedin, and is both mentally and physically as sound as a bell. Over 50 years ago Mr. Provo was a member of the Ist Waikatb Regiment (Colonel Pitt's "Ist Four Hundred" as they were called) and served in the Maori wars from 1863 to 1868. Only three of the old corps are now living. Immediately he took his discharge he joined the Volunteer Forces, and for drill and rifle shooting he has won many prizes , in Auckland, Napier, and Dunedin during the last half-century. .. »' . * * . ■ * Mr. Provo left the "New Zealand Herald" in Auckland in 1875 to join the "Guardian," which was then being started in Dunedin, and two days after landing in Dunedin he won the District Rifle Championship. He was also an enthusiastic 1 oarsman and •cricketer, and at rowing particularly both in Auckland and Dunedin carried off many trophies. Mr. Provo is one of the founders of the game of football in Australasia, haying played in the first match between Ballarat and Geelong, and also in the earliest Rugby matches in Auckland with Alf Whitaker, Tom Henderson, Charlie Dacre, Ned Dunnet, , and others. In addito ail' this, Mr. Provo is one of the oldest printers in New Zealand, and is still bubbling oyer with the good animal spirits which have characterised him throughout life. "While in Wellington, Mr. Provo had occasion to call upon the Minister of Defence, to whom, as an oild volunteer officer, he is well' known. He has offered his .services on several occasions, and since the war began he has been of considerable value as an unofficial recruiting agent and drill instructor. 9 * * * After surviving a thousand dangers in the thick of the fray on the "Western Front and Gallipoli, Major Harold Howden was killed by a small fragment of shell while breakfasting with his fellow-officers well behind the . lines. Major Howden, who was on active service with the Australian ' Forces, was formerly traveller for Kempthorne, Prosser,. and Co., I/td., "in "Wellington. He was best known to his many frends as "Son" Howden. When in Wellington he boarded at the Y.M.C.A. He left New Zealand in 1913 to'take up a position with a wholesale dental firm in Sydney, and it was while there that he enlisted with the Commonwealth Forces. He won his commission for gallantry' on the field at Gallipoli. He. was awarded the Military Cross for more gallantry at Pozieres, and his O.C. thought so much of him that he had him sent to the. senior officers' class at Aldershot last year, where he gained a brilliant

pass and a special recommendation was made that he should not be sent back to a company but should be made second in command of a battalion. Major Howden, was a native of Melbourne. # * «■ * ■ The following striking tribute is paid the late Major Howden by a comrade in the A.1.F.:—"1 really believe that he was one of the bravest and best Liked men in the A.I.F. The old Melburnians and this brigade absolutely worshipped him. He was the only man in the Army I have never heard a bad word about. His death was out of the line. He was bite by a fragment of shell, which, in ordinary times would not have made a man leave his battalion, but unfortunately it got him in ; the main artery in the neck, and the bleeding could not be stopped. Ten minutes after his death my men came to me for permission to buy and place a wreath on his .grave. They had £12. Most of the men are on a Is a. day." «• ® it © The head of the new British Aviation Department, Lord Rothermere, is the second member of the Harmsworth family of journalists. Harold Harmsworth has been the financial genius of the family and is as assertive as the proprietor of "The Times" is retiring and addicted to swank as his elder brother is to soft collars and plain living. He is a tremendous toiler, has imagination and initiative and is an adept in high finance. He has a string of dailies in the English provinces and controls the "Daily Mirror." Under Viscount it became a top> heavy proposition. Alfred transferred Harold. The property vvas put on a severe business basis and profits jumped to tens of thousands within a year. The same constructive pushing temperament ought to develop Britain's fifth arm. * * * * Michael Moore, an old resident of Napier, died there in the hospital last week at the age of 72. Forty years ago Mr. Michael Moore was a wellknown skipper of coastal vessels in New- Zealand. In his young manhood he cut some ice as an oarsman, and was a member of the Wellington Rowing Club when its crews were carrying off cups and trophies galore. He was a member of the famous •?'Dolly Varden" crew, which was "on top" in 1876 and for many years thereafter. Mr. "W. Hearn,, of Wellington, is now the sole survivor of that famous crew. Michael Moore afterwards shifted to Napier and became a hotel-keeper there. One of his sons, Mr. R. Moore, is still a" resident of the Empire City. His other children are: Mr. W. Moore, now on active service in France; Mr. J. Moore, of Melbourne, and Miss Moore, of Napier. * * * * Henry Ford, who has boomed the Ford motor car throughout the world, amassed a huge fortune and built up a tremendous manufactory, is a , goodlooking thin-faced ascetic of 54. Evidently his devotion to business has wrecked his digestive apparatus. But his spoiled digestion hasn't lessened his force as "a live wire." He pays supertax on a. private income of £7,000,000 per annum and he bosses an army of 41,000 hands. How is. that for high ?. Henry Ford is how out to eclipse the fame won with his motor car by turning out. a farm tractor that shall simply revolutionise farming. The tractor itself is a small piece of machinery about the length of a Ford motor car. It can be used either as a stationary engine, or to propel ploughs, mowing machines, reapers and binders. The 1917 pattern, which Mr. Ford is building for England for the purpose of fighting the submarine men-

ace, is 25 horse-power. It is literally true that a boy or girl with neither mechanical nor agricultural knowledge can drive it. ' Lord Northdliffe says that he mounted the tractor when he was visiting Detroit the other day and ploughed a half-mile furrow with ease and accuracy at a speed of between three and four miles an hour, and no time lost at turning. Mr. Ford's idea is that when the war is over and things are normal again these tractors may be sold ' to farmers at £100 each. Thus no farmer need be too poor to own one. Henry Ford is highly popular with his work-people. Haw could it be otherwise when he makes it a cardinal . point that the minimum wage on his pay-sheet is £1 a day? * * •* # The Australian Natives' Association is working up a demonstration to limit the wearing of uniforms among officials who, as things are, are enabled to make a bold pretence that they are soldiers doing warriors' work on the strength of the khaki they are disguised in. The A.N.A., with a certain amount of reason, reckons it wrong that men on the civil side of the De*-"' fence Department should be permitted to live under, false pretences and a khaki-covering. Many of these men, the A.N.A. declares, if they are not actually shirkers, are certainly very far from fighting for their country. * * * • # Mr. J. Joynton Smith, Sydney's new Lord Mayor, confesses that in his hot youth he "did in" £90Q0 on a betting system. He has a better system now—he owns pony race-courses. ■» ■» ■» ' * Little Cecil Haines, about the brightest child New Zealand ever turned loose on the stage, hasn't forgotten the Free Lance. From Sydney, where she is- playing in the "Peter Pan" * Company at the Criterion Theatre, she

sends a card conveying "My Best Wishes to the Staff." The Staff rises promptly to heartily reciprocate the wishes and to stretch out the glad hand to little Cecil ,far across the Tasrnan Sea. May. her .life be full of happiness. * •«• * . * Joynton Smith, Sydney's new Lord, Mayor, who not so many years ago kept the old Tramway Hotel at Newtown, Wellington, has cut some ice since he shifted his moving tent to New South Wales. He founded the South Sydney Hospital 10 years ago, he established the Imperial Arcade Electric .Company about the same time, and three years later he was called, to the Legislative Council of New South Wales. He is the principal owner of the Victoria Park racecourse' (which, he says, is the finest racing track in •the world), and he has been President of _ the' Rugby Football League for quite a- number of years. Joynton attributes much of his success to the fact that he possesses "a. sporting spirit." So by the way does Hugh I>. Mcintosh, who' found that "boxing pays." • : . * * *. # At any rate, J oynton Smith ' was telling a. press interviewer the other day that "Before I was 30 I had accumulated in New Zealand a fortune of £10,000 by dint of hard work and business. I was" imbued with the idea of going to England and turning, the £10,000 into millions by follo.wing a system of backing horses. .I carried, out my progz'anime with this exception —that the millions are still as far off as. ever they were. In 1896 (Ormonde's Derby year) I began operations under the system, and visited every racecourse in. the United Kingdom. The resulti was that at the end of the season I had lost £9000 out of the £10,000. Thus I was; forced te>< the conclusion that, though the system, was a success on paper, in • practice it did not wort out. I packed up my belongings and stole silently away to recommence operations in the money-making art with ' a nucleus of £1000- —all that remained from the wreck." From that £1000 he has succeeded in restoring his fortune. • «■ * •» * '• Dr. Peter Lalor, of Melbourne, denies with scorn and indignation the Trade Hall suggestion -'that his grandfather, Peter Lalor ("the old Rebel"), who led the miners at the Eureka Stockade, Balllarat, in the Fifties in their battle" against the military, if now alive would have voted against Conscription in the recent' Referendum. He writes: "On behalf of my family and my brother, who ■ was killed, in Gallipoli in April, 1915, I wish to repudiate the infamy of this suggestion. My grandfather, the late Mr. Peter. Lalor, proved by his life he would never have countenanced . the cowardice of the betrayal of our soldiers, or have consented to the brand of shameful desertion placed on the fair fame of the Australia he loved and fought for. . . . It is an insult to even suggest that my . grandfather would have voted with such as these or have associated himself with any action that would have caused the Germans to hoist over their trenches—as they did last year, and certainly will 'do again in a few days—a notice, 'Scum of the earth, your mates have turned you down.' " <

(of Wellington, awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery), and hiß -wife. Private Edwards is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Edwards, 67, Waripori Street. Wellington South, and before enlisting was in the employ of the Wellington Corporation|Tramways. — Zak, photo*