OLD COUNTRY GOSSIP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17233, 12 April 1930, Page 3

OLD COUNTRY GOSSIP

LESS TALK-FILM i’ROFITS. Ii * Mr. Walter Payne, chairman of (lie ' London Pavilion .Ltd., speaking at the | annual meeting, said, ' ‘Talkies’ came in with a. good deal of flamboyant adver--1 tisement and Hollywood hysteria, bill the critics and the public are now sliow- * ing more discrimination, and (lie results s to the theatres are much less profitable 1 than they expected.” Mr. Payne afterwards said to a DailyMail reporter: “Ip to now people have flocked to the cinemas to see talk films * because they wete new. but if Holly- > wood wants to hold the British public k it must put real art. real stories, real 1 drama into its productions. If they rlo not Start making better films soon the ordinary theatres will benefit.” i I LUXURIOUS AIR-UN'HRS. I _ ) 1 The first of a licet of ten huge airliners is nearing completion at the works , of the Handley-Page Co., near London. Each plane is designed to carry 40 pas- \ sengers. They will be used by Imperial Airways on their European, Indian and South African routes, and will be the largest and most luxurious air-liners m the world. Hitherto the maximum number of passengers carried has been .14, and they have been accommodated in one cabin. The now machines will have three separate compartments, about which passengers will be able to stroll, even when the 1 biers are travelling at ICO miles an hour. These compartments will include two lounges, with comfortable armchairs, and a cocktail bar with space for a dozen people. The petrol will be carried in tanks built into the wings, and as there will be no danger of fire in the cabins smoking will be allowed for the first time in any British airliner. At present Imperial Airways have accommodation in their fleet for 195 passengers at one time. With the now fleet this will he increased 1 to 595. BANK OF ENGLAND INNOVATION Ihe Bank of England, guardian of (tin most sober and conservative financial traditions in tho world, lias astonished London recently by ail announcement that it lias come to terms with an organisation representing (he newest outlook in finance It is acquiring a block of shares in United Dominions Trust, Ltd., which is tho principal Company in Britain engaged in financing instalment purchase. The ainopnt of the bank's investment is £250,000, which is to be subscribed for ;i neiv ir-tsue of shares in Ihe Trust by a. subsidiary of the bank. Securities Management Trust, Ltd. This new departure by flic bank has caused much wonderment. Hitherto the bank's governor bus been visualised by most industrialists as a usurer totting up bills for tho provision of 1 credit to the nation. They are now asking themselves whether lie is to become a heaven-sent rcconstructor of industry. For the investment in United Dominion Trust is do | scribed by the directors of this concern as a “contribution to the development- of Britisli industry by encouraging the sale of British goods and fulfilling n need which has long been felt by manufacturers in marketing their goods. ’ The hank’s innovation has generally received approval for its courage in encouraging instalment finance and as an action properly attuned 1o the needs of the time. 'The news, has some interest for Australia, because about, six months ago (lie managing director of United Dominions Trust" Mr. .T- Gibson .Tarvie, announced his intention to visit the Commonwealth with a.'view to extending his company’s interests there. If it docs, its activities will probably mostly concern the extension of greater Facilities for the hirepurchase of British motor cars. I ALL LONDON IS TOE SKATING. LONDON, Feb. 5. It is not often that a, whole city is animated by the same craze. But all London has' suddenly fallen in love with ice' skating, dancing has quite had its nose put out of joint, and everywhere yon go tho talk is of outside edges, ot ice waltzing, and ieo hockey, the number of bruises that have been collected at the last visit to the rink, tho different methods employed by the experts, and the rival merits of the rinks which are springing up all round London with mushroom-like rapidity. When the Grosvenor Road Ice Club opened in Westminster a few years ago, people never realised that this one rink would lead to such a craze for skating all over London. Grosvenor House followed on the Ice Club with a wonderfully up-to-date and well-appointed rink of its own, and these two have so far a monopoly of the West End. i Around London enormous rinks have | been opened, where you may skate morning, noon, and night if you like, and may enjoy this privilege very inexpensively—much less expensively than dancing, it is interesting to note. , Richmond has a now-famous ice rmk. ( the old Palis do Danse at Hammersmith ( has just been converted into a rink, and was opened the other day with much j pomp and circumstances. Another big . rink lias also been opened at Goldcr’s j Green, and there are further rinks at , Wimbledon and Cricklewood. Half the , fashion talk in the papers nowadays « concerns itself with tho correct clothes - for skating wear, the shops devote , whole windows to tempting displays of j skates and skating boots. We have all , gone skating mad. Women have a special reason for - liking ice skating, since it is Said to | lie remarkably good for the figure, and I you achieve a slim silhouette much | more effectively by skating than by the | most rigid dieting. Men, too, find that, j skating is a very healthy exercise. Many , business men h’avo now acquired the , energetic habit of starting the: day with half an hour’s skating, and there is one j woman doctor who is seriously consul- j ering tho idea of beauty culture con rues, | to bo given on the rink from 8 till 10 j in,, tho mornings. Doctors say that skatirig is much healthier than dancing. , For one tiling, Hie air of an no rmk is crisper than that of a ballroom, and | there is no dust. And the exercise itself j is very good for one. 1 Ice parties aro the newest form ot j fashionable entertainment. The ice | carnival at Grosvenor House was gen- j erally agreed to bo one of tho most sue- ( ccssful functions of tho winter season. , and bored young men whom distracted | hostesses can hardly drag to. dances, . will come with the croatest alacrity when | ieo skating is mentioned. Nor may tho craze end with skull rq V J A certain London architect says that 1 if we have ice rinks there is no reason ] at all why we shouldn’t have snow rinks. | where we could practice ski-ing. He hopes soon to built a snow rink corn- • plete. With a ski-slope, leap and run, 1 where we can all indulge in winter 1 snorts with tho greatest enthusiasm. Indeed, why need wo ever go to Switzerland in tho future, when we have all the amenities of winter sports within a penny bus ride of our front doors? 1

If.LOURI.SI.IING SPORT. There is never any depression in sport. “ Three mouths -before the Football Asso ‘ ciation Cup Final tlie applicants for scats at Wembley are enough to lill the ( stadium four times over; si;. necks before (lie Rugby internal muni helueeu England and .Sentlaud 40,0C0 people are ' seeking entry to 26.000 seals. And there is no doul.it that the majority of these people are not nu-re watchers, hut understand the game ami play it themselves. Those great “gales” are a healthy sign; and we may ion lidontly expect as sound- a tosi iiiimiy In I the Imu lshing state ~f British sport in record crowds for Ihe coming cricket Test mati lies against Australia. ANOTHER, ROMANCE IN “JOURNEY’S END." LONDON, Eel,, it. N c-t- another romance <4 the many . connected with “Journey’s End. 1 ’ greatest, of war plays.”’ has been disclosed line. Maurice Brown, producer, has revealed I that it was financed in its first- pmdttc- , tion by a. Yorkshire, millionaire and his American wife, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Khnhirst, who were entitled to take £200.000 profit- from it, but wlm would not touch a single end. because they wauled to help the theatre- and (he company. Mr. Elmhirst. who learned fanning in the United States. India, and elsewhere. married a- member of Ihe Whitney family and bought, a derelict estate in Devonshire. They- renovated' a. thirteenth century home called Darlington Hall, and now I hoy have made it a centre for sociological, artistic and educational experiments intended to revive the. dying English countryside. Their children are educated side by side with the children of small farmers; they are planting trees, start ing local institutions, and plan a coin plete rehabilitation of English farming. . “They arc two of the most self effacing people I know.” said Maurice Brown, telling at a London banquet all about them. “Devonshire rather sniffed at them when they went there firsl. hut, when they began to carry off prizes with their farm produce I hey were taken more seriously. They are not. cranks nor faddists, hut they are founding a. university of new ideas 1--revolutionise country life in Britain. Thev are the people who made the production of ‘Journey's End’ possible.” SAVILI'.i; ROW HORRIFIED. LON I Mh\, l-'e.b. ii. There is horror in .Seville Row and dismay runs rife through Bond Slreei. And it’s all because the Right Worshipful Master of the Gobi and Silver \YynDrawers Go., one of the aneieql livery companies in London, has dared to sug gest that men’s evening dress might well lie brightened bv a iittlc gold braid on (Hie trouser legs to assist the Old World 1 craft of gold wjuje drawing and thus add to the prosperity of his ancient guild. Seville Row and Bond St reel tailors, who set fashions for civilised men the world over, barely saved themselves from a nervous collapse when they heard oi it. ''Unthinkable,” said one of these dress czars wln-n lie was told of what had been plotted by the wyre drawers. “Why, the Englishman is ihe most eon servative creature in the world, so lar as his tclotlies are concerned, lie hates to ho conspicuous and he resists change 111 the smallest detail. Gold stripes on the trousers indeed, just imagine it, what? Why, we had the greatest dil'iiculty to got even black braid considered for evening dress purposes, and many men even now would rather be, mistaken for waiters than wear it. The only hope is it' the Prince, oil Wales took to it. Even then. it. might, not work, for the Prince of Wales recently wore a sweater under his dinner jacket, at a Imxing match, but T. haven’t notk-ed anyone with sufficient courage to follow his daring example. Forty years ago I. saw two men at a public dinner in London with gold braid on their waistcoat's. I don’t know what happened to them, bill 1 never saw them again.” Evidently they must have come to a had end. Yet. wln-n one thinks of Oxford “hags” and plus font's, which were driven lately from an Australian golt course liv tho infuriated mob, and lastly of Premier MacDonald s Windsor uniform—well, it leaves one wondering where tho Englishman’s hatred of con spiyuousness in dress 'comes in. TOC H CARRIES ON. None who witnessed the ceremony of the lighting of the lamps of the new branches of Toe H by the Prince of Wales at tho annual festival in Ihe Albert Hall could help being impressed*. Here is a movement which, in less than 10 years, has put a, girdle round the earth, has attracted to itself thousands of young men, and earned the approval of forward-looking people everywhere. The original Talbot House—Toe .1! is the army signallers’ abbreviation —was a kind of rest, house behind the lines in the Yprcs salient, presided over by an “innkeeper,” the Rev. P. B. Clayton, whom the Prince of Wales, in his speech, referred to affectionately as “Tubby.” It was “Tubby” who, several years after the war, caught the idea of reawakening the old comradeship sense and organising it, not in a “war comrades” club, nor even in a “social service” organisation, but as a kind of family circle composed of young men, drawn chiefly from the ranks of the post-war generation, who would periodically meet, together in an atmosphere entirely free from distinct ions <>! rank, polities, or sectarianism. Neither was it If) he exclusively English Already there are branches (to whom is granted a “lamp of maintenance”) in tho United Stales and South America, besides those scattered throughout (InBritish Commonwealth of Nations. Moreover, Toe II has received a Royal charter.

How is this success to he. accounted for? The explanation lies in the tael that the founders of this organisation have endeavored to base it, on a. spiritual foundation. Not only must rank' lalaid aside in enterin',, its membership, but self seeking as well. Tho period of probation passed, the newly enrolled member finds himself pledged henceforth to uphold an ideal of cheerful, selfless service, and to carrv out. faithfully anv task allotted to him by the “job-master.” The points ol his compass are : “To 11 1 irile fairlv, to love, wisclv. to witness humbly, and to build bravely.” Small wonder that optimism prevailed at the Albert Hall proceedings. The opportunity for unselfed service afforded by Toe (I to young men everywhere is evidently meeting with the response it deserves.