People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18940, 10 December 1929, Page 8

People and Their Doings.

Bishop Cleary’s hobby: Bowlers and their trophies: Mr Sterling rides in state: A “betting telegram ” that was held up.

Mr H. H. Sterling, the " * General Manager of Railways, went south this morning, he had his .first trip in the new railway carriage that has been specially built for his

own use. Similar in general design to the car built for the Duke of York’s tour, this luxurious carriage is a remarkably fine production of the Addington workshops. Besides a large saloon equipped with comfortable

furniture, the car has two sleeping cabins, a shower room, fitted with hot and cold water, and a kitchen, equipped with a modern gas range and all necessary fittings. The carriage will be used as Mr Sterling’s home when he is in the South Island, and he should have no grounds for complaint regarding the comfort of his home. *.♦ ♦«.* ♦.* •T'HERE was a period in the sporting history of New Zealand when the giving of cups and other challenge trophies was availed of by commercial concerns for the sake of publicity and nothing else. But there has been a reaction against the practice, and nowadays most challenge trophies bear the names of men who are looked up to in the sport that has claimed so much of their time. Particularly is this so in the case of the Steans Cup, on which South Canterbury and Christchurch bowlers concentrated their energies on Saturday. Mr F. J. Steans was president of the Christchurch Centre when the games were inaugurated, and he said nothing to any body about a cup until he was ready to hand it over. Bowlers are not very strong on trophies, but the Christchurch Centre has three that it values, the Steans Cup, for competition against South Canterbury, the Barnett Tiki, for competition against Wellington, and the Red path Shield, for competition against Otago.

late Bishop Cleary was well known as a linguist, but what was even more remarkable than his mastery of seven languages, was his mastery of seven systems of shorthand, which he wrote very accurately, as might have been expected from one whose longhand was singularly small and neat. Most men, even in journalism, are content to learn one system imperfectly and let it go at that, and Bishop Cleary’s accomplishment was therefore a striking index of the mental alertness that could make a hobby of so intricate a subject. Twenty-five years ago, when he had learned Pitman’s, Sloan-Duployan Script, and one or two other systems, he took up Gregg Short-

hand, which was then being pioneered in New Zealand by Mr J. Wyn Irwin, now an inspector of schools for Canterbury. To Mr Irwin he wrote that the system was “the simplest, most scientific, quickest to learn, and easiest to remember.”

No system of shorthand is very easy to learn, and least of all to read accurately when written at high speed. That is why comparatively few persons can master even one system. But shorthand is as old as antiquity. Cicero used it, and down the ages we have Pepys and his diary and Charles Dickens writing Gurney shorthand when he was a reporter in the Press Gallery of the House of Commons. Today there are literally hundreds of systems, but none that can greatly simplify the problem of taking down rapid speech. The only perfect recorder is the gramophone or phonograph, and that has never been applied to the reporting of speeches.

TITR M. F. BARNETT, the donor ot the statue of Captain Cook which is to be erected in Victoria Square, has for many years been prominently connected with the government of the ;ame of bowls in \'ew Zealand. lie was president of the old New Zea* land Bowling Association in 1913, and in 1916, after the formation of the Dominion Bowling Association, he was again elected president. He has also been a member of the council of the association, and of the Christchurch Centre for a long period, and is regarded as one of the best authorities in New Zealand on the laws of the game. Although he has occupied the position of president of the Canterbury Bowling Club on four occasions, he has never been elected president of the centre. At last night’s meeting of that bodj£ he presented an honours board containing the names of all those who had occupied the position of president since its formation in 1906, and regret was expressed that his own name did not appear among them. « *: ONE of the most amusing incidents of Mr Barnett’s bowling career, and one that can well be re-told when jthe subject of telegraphic betting is jhnder discussion, relates to a visit he once paid to a fellow-bowler, the Rev W. Hayward, who was in hospital recovering from an illness. While the two bowlers were exchanging reminiscences, a nurse came to the bedside to say that a telegram Mr Hayward had dictated a little earlier in the day could not be accepted because it related to betting. Of course Mr Barnett pricked up his ears, and the story came out.

It appeared that the foundation stone of a Presbyterian church was being laid that day at Rangiora, and . e con £ re £ation, as usual, were invited to lay their offerings on the altar. Mr Hayward, who would have been present but for his illness, wired to the local incumbent: —“ Please put a pound on for me." fact that the telegram was from one Presbyterian minister to another did not seem to impress the telegraph office favourably, and back it came. Mr Barnett smiled. “ Leave it to me, he said. “ I'll send the pound.”