People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18960, 6 January 1930, Page 8

People and Their Doings.

Marjorie Gibson And Other Marjories : Tom Heeney Wishes To Meet Camera : Kitchener Discards The Tin Hat : Isitt Sisters In England : Corinna Relieves Drought.

MISS MARJORIE GIBSON, who has won the triple tennis title for South Canterbury, is a

cousin of Geoffrey Ollivier, who has given her a good deal of coaching. She is a daughter of Dr Gibson, of Timaru. She was partnered in the ladies’ doubles at the last New Zealand championships by Miss May Andrew, who has just won the three Can

terbury championships, but this partnership will be dissolved this year, as Miss Andrew will play with Miss Wake. Miss Wake won it last year with Miss Speirs (now Mrs Dykes), but her partner will not defend the title. There is a lot of uncertainty as to whether Mrs Dykes will play at the New Zealand championships at Wellington, and at present it seems as if she may enter only for the singles.

TT IS A striking coincidence that so many of our lady tennis players should be blessed with the same Christian names. Two Marjories fought out the final of the South Canterbury championship, and one is reminded that both the present New Zealand champion and the Wanganui champion (Misses Macfarlane and Myers) are Mrr. jories. And the name May is much in the limelight. One thinks of Misses May Speirs, May Tracy, and May Andrew, all of whom have held triple pro vincial championships and one, of course, the coveted triple New Zealand championships, and wonders whai name the next New Zealand champion will bear.

W sg? {~)TTO PELTZER, the famous German amateur middle-distance champion runner, is a doctor of economics and a man accustomed to speaking his own mind. It is not surprising, therefore, to learn from the cables that he has informed the Federal authorities that he will run only two races in Australia, because he has only four more races to go on his tour, and one of those must be run in New Zealand and one in America.

Peltzer, who was born at Stettin (Germany) 29 years ago, has proved himself to be the greatest middle distance runner Germany has produced—not excepting the late Hans Braun —while since 1926 he has been one of the outstanding personalities in the amateur athletic world.

It is expected that the visitor will have as his chief rivals in the Australasian championships at Melbourne on January 27, Whyte, “Bill” Hunter (New South Wales), holder of the Australasian half-mile record, and C. Stuart (New South Wales), half-mile Australasian champion.

gATURDAY’S “ STAR ** described the Corinna, now at the end of her working days, as the Union Company’s gold mine. She probably was to the company, but her travels along the coast were above mere money to hundreds of northern citizens, for she carried as deck cargo on every trip for many years huge quantities of the best Dunedin beer.

A few years ago, when the vessel was regularly on the Dunedin, Oamaru, Timaru, Lyttelton, Wellington. New Plymouth run, “eighteens” and “thirtysixers” were the most prominent feature of the vessel as she berthed in these ports. Much of it went to Wellington and some to New Plymouth, and if she was a day or two late with this very important cargo, there were many who looked to her arrival for the breaking of the drought. hJ <§jp 'JMIE HON L. M. ISITT. M.L.C.. who has just celebrated his seventy fifth birthday, has transmitted some of love of the struggle to his daughters. Miss Evelyn Isitt, who is on the staff of the “ Manchester Guardian,” once confided to a friend that her speciality in the reporting line was crowds. This she attributed to the advantage she had over others in her height. Here is a story about her out on another job. On one occasion in a country village she had “ landed a scoop.” She knew that the reporters of othe* papers were keen on the ;cent and that to get her “ story ” through ahead of the others she had to find a telephone in an apparently telephoneless village. She sought out the local police station and found a party line which she held till she got through. When at length she emerged from the box she found a queue of waiting to follow her. She looked them over in apparent surprise at finding them on the local police doorstep and remarked softly, “ What, gentlemen! Not all drunk and disorderly/*

w w w yjISS WINIFRED ISITT. another daughter, is mothering many New Zealanders in London, but her greatest thought is given to the little undernourished children of that city. There is a house just like all the other houses about the slum quarter that encircles Lambeth Palace, and it has been converted into a clinic for these children. They are given electrical treatment, massage, ultra-violet rays, and the mothers are instructed in their proper care and feeding. Girls from Bedford College. London, and from Oxford come regularly to give their voluntary assistance to Miss Isitt.. In this house where she works a visitor told me that she was taken upstairs to the top floor and invited to enter a room which was so low that she bumped her head on the ceiling. “ That,” remarked Miss Isitt, “might

be used as a bedroom or even a living room in any of the houses about here.** The woman who was instrumental in setting up this and similar clinics in London is Miss M’Curdy, who is travelling in New Zealand at present. She spending some time with Lady Ross in Dunedin, but we hope to see her in Christchurch before she leave* the country. m ’J'OM HEENEY, the New Zealand heavyweight, who is shortly going to London with his wife, has cabled his English manager begging him to arrange a contest in London with Primo Camera. Heeney, who was always one to relish contests with formidable opponents, is positively eager to face Camera in the ring.

I mention this, says an English writer, because I happen to know that Mr Jeff Dickson is anxious to arrange another contest in London for Camera—in addition to that fixed for November 18— before the Italian sails for New York. Heeney is coming

here as plaintiff in an action against a film company regarding the English picture rights of the Tunney-Heeney fight film. On the completion of the case he is taking a trip to South Africa to shoot big game and satisfy one of the greatest ambitions of his life. By the way, the first-class sleeper in which Camera travelled from King ■ Cross to Scotland was not big enough for him. . . As he could not sleep m a bed with his feet sticking out into the corridor, the bed was made diagonally across tha compartment. This gave him a few inches clearance! # 32? W CTORIES of the tin hat, or steel helmet, are recalled by the death in London last week of its inventor, Mr Alfred Bates, an art-metal worker. Kitchener’s greatness is challenged on the ground that he opposed these helmets early in the war, though they saved the lives of innumerable troops of all nations. In his new book, Beckles Wilson tells how Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Sloggett, Director of Medical Services, urged their introduction. Eloquently he pleaded before the Commander-in-Chief. Finally Lord Kitchener looked at hi* watch. “Sloggett,” he said, “you know jam have been talking b- nonsense for forty minutes/* However General Sloggett won, and the “tin hat” was issued to the troops.