SOCIAL NOTES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19803, 19 May 1934, Page 20

SOCIAL NOTES

Mr and Mrs W. Johns, Prebbleton, are visiting friends at Albury. Mrs S. Hollander, Christchurch, is staying at Bidwill Plats, Bidwill Street, Miss Lilian Harper, Christchurch, is on a visit to the Hermitage. Miss’ Peggy Unwin, Church Street, left yesterday on a visit to Kaikoura. Mrs Gladstone Robinson, “Oakwood,” who is on a visit to Dunedin, is expected home to-day. Miss Vera Pike, of Nile Street, who has been staying in Waimate is returning to Timaru to-day. Mrs Gregan “Brookdale,” Hunter, who has been spending a holiday m the North Island has returned home. Mrs Hancox, who is on a visit to her sister, Mrs G. J. Wallace. Albert Street, will return to Christchurch to-morrow. Mrs Macfarlane, who is staying with Mrs A. C. Wigley. “Opuha Lodge,” Park Lane, will return to Christchurch to-day. Mrs Arthur Wigley, “Opuha Lodge,” Park Lane, is spending a few days in Christchurch, and is staying at Warwick House. Mr and Mrs J. C. Guinness, “Farmieigh,” Ealing, and Miss Menzies. who are staying with Mrs Edgar Jones, “Otiritiri,” will return home to-day. Mr and Mrs F. G. Hall, who have been spending a holiday at Hakataramea and Mackenzie Country, have returned to Christchurch. Mr and Mrs Bruce Murray, "Godley Peaks,” Mackenzie Country, who were staying at the Grosvenor, returned home yesterday. Mr and Mrs Geo. Burns of Caversham, Dunedin who have been spending a holiday in Timaru returned home yesterday. Mrs J. McClure (Rangiora), Miss Shaw (Christchurch), Mr and Mrs F. Simpson (Christchurch), and Mr and Mrs G. Chalmers (Waipukurau) are staying at the Dominion. The Misses A. M. and C. M. McLay, Dominion organisers of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, leave on Saturday by R.M.s. Rotorua for London. They will represent New Zealand at the World’s Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which meets in Stockholm in July and also at the International Temperance Congress in London, Scotland, and Palestine, are included in their itinerary.

The engagement is announced between Gerald Herbert Emerson, of the Indian civil service, eldest son of Sir Herbert Emerson, Governor of the Punjab, and Hazel Shiriey Everard Upton, only daughter of Sir Thomas Everard Tichborne Upton, of Alresford, Hants. Sir H. Emerson was appointed Governor of the Punjab in 1933, after being Secretary to the Government of India Home Department since 1930. He entered the Indian civil service in 1905. Sir Everard Upton had a large practice as a solicitor in a Calcutta firm up to the time of his retirement in 1932, and is a director of numerous companies. He was born in New Zealand in 1871—son of the late Thomas Everard Upton, J.P., of Ashburton—and educated at Christ's College. A great deal of his life has been spent in India. Lady Upton was a daughter of Lieutenant-colonel J. M. Carpendale, Bth Bengal Lancers. As the nine of diamonds was played, at a bridge party in Timaru, one of those at the table remarked, “Ah, the curse of Scotland.” Later, at the supper table, there was an interesting discussion as to the origin of the phrase. The legend that during the reign of Mary Queen of Scots a thief succeeded in forcing nine gems from the Scottish crown was discounted by a student of Scottish lore, who had a much more interesting and romantic explanation. He said that the nine of diamonds refers to the arms of John Dalrymple, first Earl of Stair —“on a saltire azure, nine lozenges of the field” —and that his acquiescence in the Massacre of Glencoe caused his name, and his coat of arms, to be execrated throughout Scotland. A third explanation was that diamonds imply royalty, and that every ninth King of Scotland was a tyrant, and a curse to his country. Yet another possible reason given was that a game in which the winning card was nine of diamonds became popular in Scotland during the seventeenth century, and that it led to the ruin of many young nobles. “I wonder how they would have got on at contract bridge,” remarked a wag.