IN THE PUBLIC EYE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17699, 20 November 1925, Page 6

IN THE PUBLIC EYE.

NOTES AND ANECDOTES. blind and therefore suffering under what to many would be an insuperable handicap. Charles R. Allen, son of Sir James Allen, High Commissioner for New Zealand in London has written two books. has had several plays produeed in England and has won several awards for his poetry. Mr Allen. who lost his sight whilst studying at Cambridge, was awarded the bronze medal for poetry by the Panton Club two weeks ago, and a few weeks before that was placed first in the Poetry competitions at the Festival of Art and Letters, being awarded a medal. When he published Ins first book. “ The Ship Beautiful.'' Mr Allen gained the favourable notice of the English critics and has since published a book of poems, also well received, and has another book in the hands of the publishers at the present time. Mr Allen composes straight on to his typewriter, doing all his writing without as- [ sistance. Mrs W. B. Montgomery, of I Little River, is a sister.

♦ w WITH his faithful little terrier Gordon G. Denniston, secretarv of the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association, is a. very wellknown figure in Christcbureii. But during the past week or so he lias had very little time to waste, lor he has been exceedingly busy preparing for the Royal Show, which finished last F r i day. Now, however, the worst of the work is over and he has time to breathe again. The work of a secretary is never very easy, and if he happens to be secretary to a body like the Agricultural and Pastoral Association, the duty of organising a show nearly always falls on his shoulders, and it takes a man with considerable ability, equanimity and patience to go through with it successfully. The fact that Mr Denniston is very popular speaks for itself. Mr Denniston, who is an old boy of Christ’s College, is a member of the Canterbury Rugby Referees’ Association, and at one time represented Canterbury in football against South Canterbury. Olago and Southland. Before coming to Christchurch and joining the Christchurch Club’s senior fifteen, he played for Pirates in Dunedin.

IJOLDING highest rank'in the Police Force of the Dominion to-day, ' Commissioner A. H. Wright is to retire in January, after V 4-3 years’ service. Mr Wright, who has been Commissioner since 1922, was born in Gloucester. England, on April 8, 1861, and came to New Zealand in 1882. - kil ’*en he enlistee! the police lorco at Invercargill. The following year he became a member of # the clerical staff at invercargill, being there eight years before being transferred to Dunedin. He was mad© a first-class ' constable in 1893, going to the clerical branch in Wellington; in 1898 he was promoted to sergeant, to sub-inspector in 1906. and chief clerk of the Department. to inspector in 1911. and given charge of the Thames district; to superintendent at Dunedin in 1915. and transferred to Auckland in 1919, where he remained until 1922. He was an officer with a very creditable record, wide experience, knowledge, sound judgment, and good capabilities generally.

“JJADIO is now being groomed for the service as the 'canned picture/ ” declared C. Francis Jenkins, inventor of television, in an address ;iil llbston recently. “That is, radio is to be a substitute for the picture film, eliminating the time interval of the motion picture recording process, so that we see a distant performance as it actually takes place.” This feature of the new invention is only one of many. Audible radio has alreadv changed our social order, and those who have listened to great personages talking over the radio are numbered in millions. Oh Tuesday listeners-in heard the speeches at the opening of the Exhibition at Dunedin; wirnThe new development, television, they would have been able to see and hear all that took place at the cerepiony. According to Mr Jenkins, the apparatus for radio vision is very simple, consisting of a little box. plugged into the radio set like a loud speaker, containing a small motor and a flickering motion picture attachment will cost in the vicinity of £l3. Mr Jenkins asserts that radio vision is an accomplished fact, and, therefore, refinement is all that remains to be. done before one will be abltf to see reproduced on a small white screen in the home what actually’- happening at a distance.