People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19119, 11 July 1930, Page 8

People and Their Doings.

Mr C. M. M'Gregor’s Experience With A Glider : Rear-Admiral Evans's Viking Queen : A Photo Kingsford-Smith Treasures And A Trophy He Always Loses .

WHEN KINGSFORD-SMITH came back from the war, his family naturally expected him to open up his kit-bag and display an array of trophies. Actually, except for the uniform on his back, he carried but one relic of \ the war. Before he- enlisted, Miss Nellie Stewart had given him her j photo, and this he treasured throughout the war, and drew forth from his pocket, battered, but still intact, when he reached home. It still goes with him everywhere. During the flight across the Pacific it was under his pilot’s seat, and afterwards his mother had it covered with mica to save it from further damage. In every subsequent flight, Miss Stewart’s photo has been his mascot, tucked under the seat of his ’plane. It was under the seat when he crossed the Atlantic. 9 9 9 QNE TROPHY which Kingsford-Smith might have been expected to treasure was his Military Cross, awarded for his work with the Air Force in France. Once he left it, pinned to an old coat, behind his bedroom door, in a boarding-house. It ■was returned to him. but he had not learnt his lesson, and soon after dropped it in a taxi. Again it came back. His mother tried to persuade him not to take it to England with him on the present trip. -‘Might want it,” said Smithy, and slipped it into his pocket. “He’s sure to have lost it now,” says Mrs KingsfordSmith. is rather scared about going bald before his time, and already his flaxen hair is wearing a bit thin. On the second attempt to fly to England, he turned up at Richmond with his hair well plastered with olive oil. He takes oceans in his stride, but baldness—that’s another matter. 9 9 9 is once more gaining a great deal of attention in other parts of the world, and it is interesting to recall that five years ago glider tests were made at the Wigram ’drome. How these came to an end is a story which relates to Captain M. C. M’Gregor, now pilot of the “Chocolate ’Plane,” and one of the best airmen in the Dominion. The glider was built at Sockburn and was flown here, speed being gained by towing the apparatus behind a motor-car. The towline was fitted with a quick release, so that when the glider went into flight, it could be disconnected. One day, however, the release did not operate and the glider nose-dived into the earth. Captain M’Gregor was the pilot and he was tinlucky enough to get his jaw broken. From that day to this, interest in gliders has been lacking among local airmen.

JpURTHER FUEL will be added to the discussion on the question of Sunday observance when this subject comes up for debate at the Lambeth Conference. One of the Australian divines, the Bishop of Wangaratta (Dr Hart), who is a delegate to the conference, has indicated that he is a churchman of the new school, and believes that young people should enjoy their Sunday afternoon with tennis and other sport if they wish. “A clear conception of the Golden Rule on Sunday afternoons is far more commendable than interminable prayer marred by one mean thought.” With the other delegates of the Conference, Dr Hart will attend the thirteenth centenary commemoration services of the introduction of Christianity into East Anglia, at Norwich. © © ® QN THE SUBJECT of Sunday games, it is related that over thirty years ago, when very hard things were said of the Sunday golfer, the late Lord Balfour was staying with some friends who had a private park that enclosed golf-links, and one afternoon a game was proposed. Balfour demurred, on the ground that, whilst he saw no harm in the exercise, it might give public offence if news went abroad of how he spent his Sunday afternoon. He was assured that he would be unobserved: but presently some villagers appeared, exercising their immemorial right of passing through the park. This annoyed him, for if he had been just an obscure Mr Balfour, he might have taken his Sunday exercise unperturbed. The case was different with the First Lord of the Treasury, and Leader of the House of Commons. He was consoled by a fellow-guest who, standing near the group of onlookers, overheard the conversation. “Who’s he?” one asked, pointing to the future Premier. “Don’t know,” replied the other., “Anyway, he’s a duffer at golf.” © W © JJENJAMIN GREY DAVlES—known the world over as Ben Davies, was given a dinner recently by musicians from all over the British Isles. He is considered the musical marvel of the age. Although well over seventy, he still sings with the same ease and beauty of voice that were his peculiar charm twenty or more years ago. He was born at Pontardawe, near Swansea, and famed as Wales is for its voices, never has the little principality sent forth' a greater singer to fascinate the world. After leaving the Royal Academy of Music, he sang for three years with the Carl Rosa Company, but his real chance came in 1887 in Cellier’s “Dorothy,” in which he played one part for over two years. Mr Davies has sung at all the principal English festivals, and his success has been as great in America as in the Old Country.

JJEAR ADMIRAL EVANS, who is to act as judge of the best floral decorations at the Royal Motor Yacht Club Ball, to be held at the Ambassadors, Sydney, on July 15, has accepted the club’s invitation on one condition —that his wife acts as co-adjudi-cator. The Admiral himself tells how he first met and fell in love with the Norwegian beauty w'ho later became his wife. It happened just after the return of the illfated Scott Expedition in 1913. The Admiral was invited to give a lecture to the Norway Geographical Society, and it was during his forty-eight hours’ visit to Oslo, when he met King Haakon and Queen Maud and the small Prince Olaf, that a small dinner party was given to the members of the Antarctic Expedition by Tryggve Gran, the Norwegian ski expert. At that dinner the Admiral sat at one end of the table and Gran at the other. The girl who sat on his right side had that day become engaged, but the Admiral found the girl on his left far more attractive and sensible, and long before the dinner was over had become engaged to her. The war interfered with the romance for a few years, and the meetings of the two were few and far between. A convenient refit of one of the destroyers he commanded enabled the Admiral to get married in 1916 to the lady to whom he always refers as his V iking Queen. 9 9 9 JJEE-KEEPING IS THE HOBBY of Mr George Thurston, who is to contest the City Council vacancy in the interests of Labour. He has developed his hobby and it has proved to be a profitable one. For many years, Mr Thurston has been secretary of the Amalgamated Engineers and Allied Trades’ Union, and is national secretary of his organisation. He has stood on three occasions for the City Council, and each time has polled well, although not securing a seat. 9 9 9 IITR A. V. ALEXANDER, the First Lord of the Admiralty, who has been talking in millions on the expenditure on the Singapore Base, was for many years a Baptist lay preacher. Always a Tree Trader, his tour of Australia with the Empire Parliamentary delegates in 1926 strengthened his views as a result of what he saw in the Commonwealth. He has impressed a long series of Select Committees and Royal Commissions on trade and industry by the able way in which be marshalled his evidence. He is considered second only to Mr Snowden and Mr William Graham in his mastery of economic subjects in general and tariffs in particular.