UNIVERSITY EXTENSIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 102, 21 July 1927, Page 13

UNIVERSITY EXTENSIONS

THE SUN'S SYDNEY LETTER

“CATHEDRAL OF LEARNING” INFLUX OF MOVIE STARS SYDNEY, July 15. Mr. John G. Bowman, chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, who reached Sydney by the Sierra, will smile at the efforts of Sydney University to raise £250,000, of which only £12,000 is on hand, for extension of Alma Mater’s activities; for Mr. Bowman comes from a city which raised £2,000,000 by public subscriptions in four weeks, for the purpose of building a “cathedral of learning” on the campus of Pittsburgh University. The population of Pittsburgh is about the same as that of Sydney, though there is more money in Pittsburgh. But the difference in the resiionse is staggering. Mr. Bowman said that the cathedral will be 500 feet high and have 50 storeys. For its architecture the cities of Europe were ransacked, and the result appears to be something between a sugarloaf rock formation and a colossal organ, though its beauty and symmetry are undeniable. In the raising of the millions required, the organisations of business firms were used to reach all induistries and all classes. Influx of Theatre and Movie Stars Back from Suva after spending- some weeks there “shooting” scenes for the screen adaptation of Beatrice Grimshaw’s “Con of the Coral Seas,” Mr. Norman Dawn, producer of pictures, landed in Sydney yesterday, bringing with him three Hollywood stars who have been taking part in the new picture. The chief of these is Edith Roberts, who is claimed to be one of Hollywood’s best-dressed people. Another is Edmund Burns, a matinee idol, athletic and handsome. The third, Walter Long, is Cecil B. De Mille’s leading screen villain.

The company, which incluides Jessica LLarcourt, an Australian actress, will complete the picture at the studios in Sydney, after which the Hollywood team will make for home.

The most charming stage personality to reach Sydney from New York is Margaret Lawrence, who also arrived m the Sierra. She will play a season of high-class comedies for J. C. Williamson, Ltd., though her plays have not yet been selected. During the war Miss Lawrence was engaged at a fee of £6,000 for forty weeks to play the wife in “Tea for Three,” but it ran for over a year and she handed £ 7,000 to the Cross funds, to benefit which the season was organised. Chasing Mechanical Hares

Racing greyhounds after mechanical hares is becoming the rage in Sydney. Last Saturday night the track at Epping was surrounded by a crcHfrd of 25,000 spectators, who had paid their ~s 6d or 4s 6d admission. Bookmakers were present and betting was keen. As one man put it, the hounds run straighter than horses, since they go for their lives without a jockev to interfere. Still, the question of condition enters into the question. Eight hounds race in each event, and they are confined in kennels with gratings m front through which they can see the mechanical hare doing its “preliminary.” At a signal, when the hare Is about 40 yards past their kennels, the doors fly up and the dogs leap out after their prey. On its steel arm, driven by electric power, the hare speeds up to 40 miles an hour, jumping swaying as it goes. Once round is the distance. Then the hare flashes under a gate which swerves the dogs into a cul de sac where their owners receiv'e them. And very indignant clogs they are, yet always keen to run in the next event offered them. Motors For Central Australia

Apart from main transcontinental fines there is little doubt that there will be no extension of railways into tfie heart of Australia. Motor transport will do the running from the railheads. To study the needs of the interior, Mr. H. W. Gepp, chairman of the Migration and Development Board, is starting out on a five months’ tour in a motor-waggon. There is a tendency to sneer at a man on £5,000 a year doing this, but Australia’s lack is mainly able expert men, to advise and direct her public services. Recently attempts were made in Queensland to move Sheep by motor-trucks from the drought districts. Some of these were fairly successful, but others caused great mortality among the famished sheep. This is one of the questions to be investigated, for if sheep can be moved rapidly to good agistment in droug-hts, it will mean millions of pounds sterling to Australia.

Anther Bridge for New South Wales With the Sydney Harbour Bridge rapily approaching the stage when the great span will commence to curve across above the ships, the news that Lang has at last agreed to cooperate with Mr Bruce in building a bridge across the Clarence at Grafton in order to facilitate trunk railway -ravel,between Queensland and the New South Wales and Federal railway systems seems to suggest a surfeit of great works. Yet another big project is in view namely to hold an exhibition lr l to cele hrate the completion of .the harbour bridge and city electric railway, the latter also being one of the urgent works now well on its way to completion. Those who sneer at tlfis activity as being a vote-catching expedient are beside the mark. They are too big for that. It means that Mr. Lang is playing high cards, to win or lose in generous style, and if he wins, he will be safe for some years. That is the veiw of many who believe that the Labour Party may stay in power if it plunges on projects for the advancement of the state and Australia. After all the old Nationalists were a halfhearted party.

Ocean Travellers Mulcted on Railways

New Zealanders who come to Sydney to join Home liners should stick to their ship, and not attempt to travel by land to join her at Melbourne. The New South Wales Railways Department has a system of charging for excess luggage which can only be described as banditry, so terrific are the charges. To illustrate this, here is an instance. A lady, with her son, was proceeding to join her husband in Africa. In New Zealnd the agency through which she travelled failed to notify her that the Ulimaroa was off the run, and she found too late she could reach Sydney one day after her ship had sailed for Melbourne. So she went by rail to Melbourne. Between them they had 300 lbs of luggage. The excess was £6 4s. Being overseas travellers, they were entitled to half-rates, and have to pay £ 3 2s. for a mere handful of luggage. This was not an exceptional case. Every night there are scenes at Central Station when these amazing charges are extorted. New Zealanders please note. —WILL LAWSON