People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18958, 2 January 1930, Page 8

People and Their Doings.

G.C.M.G. And K.C.M.G. : Lord Jellicoe’s New Residence : Princess Mary’s Shopping : Woman The Preacher The Ambergris King

JF YOU GO to Stewart Island you will hear of Adam Adamson, the Scotchman, probably under the name of the “ Ambergris King,” but it is not likely that you will see him. A telegram announced that he was reported missing, but he has since turned up at his destination. Mr Adamson earns a comfortable living by scouring the deserted beaches at Doughboy Bay and Mason’s Bay for ambergris. Others have tried to emulate him but with little success, for he seems to have acquired an extra sense for locating the stuff. He is single and fifty and asserts that he gets more real pleasure out of life than most people. Perhaps he is right. He spends a hermit’s life for eight months of the year, by which time he has a tidy sum packed away in the shape of evil-smelling, questionablelooking chunks of a putty-like substance. Then he strikes camp to taste the neglected pleasures of civilisation once more. ALDA, who has just retired from the Metropolitan Opera stage in New York,

visited her home town, Christchurch, fh the winter of 1927, travelling to New Zealand from San Francisco on the Makura. On board the boat she kept very much to herself. She practised daily, but in a part of the ship where she could not be heard by the passengers. She did not take part in

any of the concerts on board. So far from enjoying her trip to New Zealand, she declared, at the end of her concert tour, that she would never return, as the concert halls were too cold and draughty. AUCKLAND writer’s criticism of the Auckland cricket team that met Otago in the recent Plunket Shield match, and his complimentary reference to the selection of the Canterbury team, provides the opportunity to congratulate the Canterbury selector, Mr H. B. Whitta, on the step he has taken to create a practically new eleven from the young players so abundantly in evidence. He deserves every credit for his courageous action which, from all appearances, will be a matter for allround congratulation later on. In his day a batsman of high degree, an alert and sure fieldsman, and one

who could “do a bit” with the ball when required, Mr Whitta added to these excellent qualities a sound knowledge of the pla> r ers and a keen and analytical mind in matters pertaining to the grand old game. gIR JOSEPH WARD’S honour of the Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael

and St George (G.C.M.G.) and the Hon M. Myers’s Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (K.C.M.G.) have the following distinctions in decoration: The Star of a Knight Grand Cross consists of seven rays of silver spreading like the Badge, with the narrow ones of gold between*. In the centre is the figure of St George with the motto. The extremities of the four arms of a cross protrude from beneath to halfway across the rays. That of Knights Commander is smaller and of only four rays. The ribbon of the order is Saxon blue with a scarlet stripe. The Order is assignable to any person who has rendered valuable services in either Colonial or Foreign affairs. It now comprises the Sovereign, the Grand Master or principal Knight Grand Cross, a number of Royal princes with foreign persons of distinction and the Knights and Companions. The Prince of Wales is the present Grand Master. 'T'HE INCLUSION of Miss Maud Royden’s name in the New Year Honours makes me think of a remark of Samuel Johnson’s after he had been to hear a woman preacher. When asked what he thought of it he likened it to a dog that stands on its hind legs. “The marvel is not that it is done well, but that it is done at all.”

has always exercised a very powerful lure on that well-known friend of all New Zealanders abroad, Lord Jellicoe, and news to hand by mail to-day states that the popular former Governor-General and Lady Jellicoe have now’ taken up permanent residence—almost permanent resience—at Princes Gardens, hard by the Albert Hall. Princes Gardens—the gardens are in the centre of a square—are made up of about fifty houses, all on the large Victorian scale and requiring a big staff of servants. Number 19, where the Admiral will live, is next door to the house occupied until a year or so ago by Lord Darling. Sir Austen Chamberlain lived at 40 with his father until he set up a house of his own. Twenty-five years ago, as to-day, this very peaceful “square” was occupied largely by peers, members of Parliament and the better-off merchants. :c PLEASING picture of Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood, who is to move into the Lascelles ancestral home shortly, is sent to us by our London correspondent. Princess Mary, she writes, visited the annual exhibition of work by disabled soldiers and sailors at the Imperial Institute, Kensington, the other day. The first stall she passed was that of the British Legion poppy factory, and a young man proudly stepped forward and presented her with a buttonhole of artificial golden orchids which had been made on the stall. The Princess was amused by the little carved sets of the Winnie the Pooh family, and bought the first one to be sold. She laughed as an attendant played a family game called Bombardo with coloured ping-pong balls and a spinning top, and described the imaginary players as mother, father, Rosie, Billie, the next-door neighbour, and father’s best friend. The Prince of Wales, she was told had one of these games. Princess Mary spent nearly threequarters of an hour at the exhibition. Among her purchases were a rocking foot stool, a toy elephant which wriggles like a snake, a child’s wicker suite similar to one presented to Princess Elizabeth, and a little boy’s jumper.