PEOPLE IN PERSPECTIVE

NZ Truth, Issue 890, 16 December 1922, Page 1

PEOPLE IN PERSPECTIVE

Last week the spirit of T. W. Driver j left its mortal home and WITH THE went~to a place which SPIRITS its owner spent half a century m endeavoring to prove was out of communication with the earth. Tom Driver was more widely known as 'Robert Kudarz, his professional name as a magician and exposer of the methods adopted m the fakings of spiritualist necromancers. After Conan Doyle was through New Zealand, Driver leaped to his pen and contributed yards of matter to "Truth" as from his point of view, and after Bailey, the spirit medium, was on tour m this country, Kudarz did great business exposing the so-called production of apporis. One of his most successful nights on this occasion was when he attracted 3760 people to the Wellington Town Hall. He was ten years m Australia touring as a professional magician, and made many trips throughout New Zealand. His last tour was through the South Island m the early part of this year. Tom was. a compositor by trade , and had worked' at the case m a number of Wellington offices oft! and on for years back. The end came suddenly m his 65th year. He was working up till a couple of days before m the Government Printing Office. He. was a wellliked, genial, honest citizen. May the earth lie lightly on him. , 11 ii it We'll run down the list of the eight now Labor men alphaTHE RED botlcally. 11. T. ArmRIBBONERB strong, who walks to the seat labelled Christchurch East, is, like quite a few more Labor reps., a union secretary In his spare time, the notice over his door reading "Christohuroh Tramway Union." Bulls knew him as a small boy and later on he moved about a few and became fiaxmlll hand, bushwhacker, gold-miner, waterslder and also tolled along the railway Unas on jobs of work. He hopped into the whirl of union circles early and as a young chap was president of the big Waihi U-nion and v.p. of the N.Z. Miners' Federation. He has been some other things besides and just now is a member of the Christchurch City Council, tho Lyttelton Harbor Board, the Christchurch Domains Board, and tho Christchurch Technical College Board of Governors. W. J. Jordan, Manukau, hails from Kent, but ho has been out here for well on towards twenty years, m bush country or tho high timbers of town life. While he was m business m Wnntjanul he backed Moderate Labor Veitch with enthusiasm, but his exact label to-day is m doubt. He was badly smacked up In Franco and was given a talking job umong the educational departments at Sling. Ho goes on Sunday to preach as a lay clergyman. -F. Lnngstono. who knocked out R, w. Smith on the Walmarlno vote, has boon wrapped up m I^tbor talk and movement ever since he was old enough to make believe he knew about It. and probably he knows tho King Country better than any other two mon put together. He has travelled those parts on foot, ou horseback and most other ways, working and talking. Always has he been a militant worker for Labor. J. A. Lee, who came through for Auckland East, was, like Clutha McKenzie, givon more than a fair share of German strafo, for he lost a wing at Messines, but not before ho had rightly earned tho D.C.M. for conspicuous gallantry, somothlng to do with a machino gun ho tackled by way of diversion. He know Clutha McKenzie vory well Indeed over thoro, for they worked together m the compiling of tho

Chronicles of the , N.Z.E.F. ; he was 1 handed a special correspondent's pass m France on account of the job. Talk and argue! Ask any man who came back on his hospital ship about the debate between himself and one of Wellington's most slap-up lawyers. Lee gained every vote but one when the judgment count was taken on that debate. A good fellow. Lewis Mcllyrlde, the man who put Vigor Brown AND MORE RED to rout, is a GlasRIBBONERS ' gowlte and has been connected with Labor organisations ever since he finished his apprenticeship among the ships and engines. After a spell In Canada he came- out here In 1908 and held office m the A.S.E. and A.S.R.S. Took a fly at tho WanganuJ seat ln v 1919 and the Patea job at the last by-election. He's not too likely to change his party as Vigor, did. Bob MoKoon, tho man who beat "Hbppy" Mitchell, Is another Sootchman. this time fro' Edinburgh. He came out 15 years ago and settled down behind a grocer's counter m Wellington up to about seven years ago, when he gave up serving butter and such l oodatuff ■ and put In his whole time m the Grocers' Assistants' Union office. Ho had other union papers m his desk, Match Factory Employees' and Brewery Workors'j also, he was secretary of the Wellington Labor Representation Committee. Can talk, of courso. A. L. .Monteith is a New Zealander, for Woodvllle can produce tho original entries bearing upon his entry into the social whirl. In 1915 he was appointed secretary of tho Wellington Storemen's Union, and now ho is secretary for the Trnmmles. Had ago at Doc. Newman once before, but did not get through. Tom Seddon must have been surprised when J. O'Brien licked him by four hundred odd. 08. has been through life m several walks, swagged it through Queensland and learned a lot once upon a time. Coming over from Australia about eighteen years ago, he found a house to let on the West Coast and got busy among the mines, looking out new areas for the Government. He had a finger In the "Grey. River Argus" us secretary, and was tremendously" interested In co-operative societies. 110 has a perfect right to write Councillor before his nnnio when lie goes down to Greymouth. American Cousul-Clencrnl David " F. Wlibur is back from the FROM States he hailed from In 'MURR'KA the beginning and those who knew him welcomed tho return. "Truth" has no wish to appear unfriendly to Consul Wilbur, far from it, but puts the suggestion out In the best of faith and good spirit that tho country "would bo quite wlso to send him away again, Just for a two-way trip, of courso. Mr. Wilbur whllo on his brief trip through America must have done Now Zenland a heap of good service In the way of pleasing advertisement, if

what he had , to say to one Yankee paper man is what he said to others, which is very likely. Mr. Wilbur had a lot to say of the country, all of it of the sort to tickle pleasantly the New Zealander who hears or reads of it. He said too much to repeat m this column, but 'twas very pleasing, the more so as genuinely deserved. Now, If he had also said, a word about New Zealand's hotel accommodation the States as a whole might have booked passages there and then. Mr. David Wilbur Is a pleasing, comfortable sort of a man himself, good humored, essentially broad-minded, built on very generous proportions — a large chair always seems rathor small to offer hiiri— and Is a man with the best sort of head In the world, the cool "head that realises that there are twentyfour hours to most days and that most may be accomplished if tacklod m orderly fashion. If you should call at his Wellington offices and be ushered Into his room 'by a very 'Murr*kan young lady with the most acoent one could think upon he will receive you And liston quite a time before he talks, even though your grouch is against America itself. You can't bustle his brain and when he has finished talking he has sot things Just about right as far as ha can. David F. is about the right man for tho Job. Used to bo a newspaper man once, maybe that schooled his judgment early. n :t tt Although his natural instinct is to .shrink from publicity HIS WORD Mr. A. S. Bankart. of HIS BOND Auckland, the head and front of Campbell, Ehrenfried and Co., can't help being written about just now. He is the Immensely competent man who took tho business reins from tho Hon. Arthur Myers when that gentleman went to England last year. , Mr. Bankart is an Englishman whose forbears were Swiss. Ho came to New Zealand fresh from a famous public school as a young man and being peculiarly llablo to the softening Influence of excellont fellowship has been a favorite- wherever ho has been. This means largely Auckland, where the firm whose destinies ho guides Is headquartered. In his moro expansive moments Mr. Bankart may say that almost every "activity of a man who happens to havo some worldly wealth Is misconstrued; but tho simple truth is that he himself indulges In philantrophy In an unobtrusive manner. During the Croat War Mr. BaukaTt endeavoured to obscure hts generosity, without completo success and Mrs. Hnnkart was ono of tho most popular of the "Queens" at a time when public Interest and admiration of popular favorites meant so much to patriotic funds. It Is rathor a good thing for a man to havo a reputation which Is expressed m the simple English, "His word is his bond." Both he and nhe havo been Home and •tsewhero lately. He even went and had a look at his birthplace and found the neighbouring

paddocks where he chased the festive ball replete with villas. The portly Mr. Bankart-p-there is no mistaking his figure and his curly < head, if you have ever seen them— is a leading light In I English Freemasonry In the Queen City and here again be finds some outlet for his habithal philantrophy. :: :: :i There Is no man m Britain's public life who has had a' more THE TWO variegated life than WINSTON Winston Churchill, CHURCH ILLS Just blown out by. the , electors of Dundee. It is said that when the other Winston Churchill was winning fame, with "Richard Carvel" and the revolutionary period novels which followed, the English Johnny of that name — ho Is of the , House of Marlborough — wrote over the Atlantic and suggested that tho American "should change his name," so as not td be confused with the one and only. The American naively retorted that he had never heard that there was another Winston Churchill! II ll II This young Porritt fellow, Arthur ' Espie, who has been' RHODEB' handed out the consider - PROTEGE. able honor of the latest Rhodes Scholarship, is an all-round 1 young chap without a doubt Tho considerations which count In the picking of the Rhodes student for the year are two, scholastlo attainments and athletic doings, and no university student who cannot lay claim to creditable records m both respects noed waste his time m hon- &£ lorI or Pt ptoAly glances of tho Rhode* Soholarehlp Committee, Arthur Espie fills both bills pretty well, m fact, very well. Twenty-two years ago he walled his first protests at Wanganui, and there ho grew up, wailing occasionally, but smiling more often as things grew up to look more possible, until he was old enough to dive into elementary learning m a private kindergarten school. Ho went through that fearsome ordeaj with such success ns brought congratulations upon his paronts, and then moved up on to the "Hurworth" preparatory school, doing not so badly once again, thank you. Then m 1914 his name appeared upon tho roll of Wanganui College. In 1917-18 he received tho Big Mention on prize day, dux of the college and In 1918 he picked up a university bursary. During his college years he had sandwiched m sport with books consistently, going In for anything In season enthusiastically. For a time ho taught a bunch of nippers at Croydon Private School at Wellington, and then caught the ferry boat for tho South Island and the train for Otago 'Varsity to inquire Into medlcme, also to wudo Into shell sports as running, foofball. tennis and swimming as enthusiastically as ever. Tho profs, down there kept an eye upon him on account of his examination papers and general excursions In the realms of Swat, but his fellow students watched him m athletics more closely, especially as It turned out that tho winning of tho University Athletic Shield at the inter-collcgo tournament at Auckland by Outgo last year was largely his fault. Also ho was sorted out as captain of tho senior B grado 'Varsity Rugby team last season, and thoro were no complaints coming from anyone. His Idea, when ho gots over to England, is to go ahead on medicine sorno more, not forgetting athletics, of courso.