People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19122, 15 July 1930, Page 6

People and Their Doings.

George Forbes Did Not Always Run Straight : Some Of The Prime Minister’s Contemporaries : Why The Mayor Wants To Stand For Invercargill.

W’HEN the complimentary banquet is tendered to the Hon Geo. Forbes next month, it is to be hoped that a place will be found in the toast list for a representa-

tive of his old school mates. Mr Forbes was at the Christchurch Boys’ High School in the ’eighties, and amorv> his contemporaries were many men now well known in Christchurch. Among them were Leicester, Harry and David Matson, T. W. Reese, Harry Thacker, as Dr Thacker was then known, W. F. Tate,

Dick Creswell, ex-headmaster of Wellington College, Andrew Kirk, Alec Dey, H. B. Burnett, secretary of the Auckland Harbour Board, and E. T. Norris, registrar of the New Zealand University.

YOU CANNOT FORECAST a man’s public career from his tactics on the football field. When the Prime Minister (Mr F'orbes) was playing half-back for the old East Christchurch first fifteen and for his province, he was one of the most artful dodgers on the football field, and he had a positive genius for cork-screwing and side-stepping. If there is one characteristic of his public career more outstanding than another, it is the fact that he has run absolutely straight from the beginning.

BEAVERRROOK i_v probably the most prominent figure in the British Empire at the moment, due to the immense publicity which has been given to his Empire Crusade. He is one of those astonishing men, numerous in this age, who seized the opportunity to amass enormous wealth in one heroic stroke, and used that wealth to achieve power. Like very many successful men, he is the son of a Presbyterian minister, born and bred in a remote colonial township in New Brunswick. Fame and fortune seemed very distant to Max Aitkin. He moved to Halifax, and from there to the wider sphere of Montreal. His savings enabled him to purchase a seat on the Stock Exchange, and the conservative Bank of Montreal asked him to investigate the prospects of an amalgamation of three cement companies. It suddenly dawned upon him that an amalgamation of all Canadian cement companies offered him the fortune he craved. In a trice he had carried it out, and, pocketing £1,000,(MX), sailed for England. Within a few weeks of his arrival, he had won a seat in the House.

'J'WO MEN—each the son of a clergyman, and born in the same town in New Zealand, within a stone’s throw of each other—met in Sydney on July 7. They were Mr T. R. Bavin, Premier of New South Wales, and Mr D. M’Gregor, one of the visiting party of New Zealand farmers, touring through parts of New South Wales and Victoria. Recovering in hospital after his recent operation, Mr Bavin was unable to welcome the Dominion tourists, so it was arranged that Mr M’Gregor should visit him in hospital. Mr Bavin’s father was a Methodist minister, and Mr M’Gregor is a son of the Manse. *

3? 3? 'J'HE LIGHTS of Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square, principally composed of electrical advertising signs of great attractiveness, have long been a lure to New Zealanders in London. The latest development is something in the nature of what in theatrical circles is called a “spotlight” shining on Nelson situated at the top of his great column, similar to the light on the Scott monument in Christchurch. This beam of light on Nelson, followed to its source, is found to emanate from some advertising signs affixed to a building opposite; and while we all much appreciate the illuminating of the gallant admiral, the cir-

cumstance does not seem entirely accidental or disinterested. As Shakespeare didn’t say; “Sweet are the uses of advertisement” ! Visitors sometimes ask if the architect (or should one not say sculptor) took the trouble to g ifve Nelson perfect features at a height where they could not be criticised. The answer is that the little figure is a perfect reproduction of Nelson, and the profile is supposed to be particularly good.

'J’HE REV J. K. ARCHER'S election to the Borough Council of Invercargill about the beginning of the war, gave him his first taste for municipal politics, and his present attitude towards the Invercargill seat is the result of a well rooted affection for the southern electorate. He lived there from October, 1913, to January, 1916. Coming from five years in Rapier, their first charge after their arrival in New Zealand in 1908, Mr and Mrs Archer found the

winters down there very long, though not as cold as Christchurch. The town lived up to its reputation for rain, but they did not get the severe frosts. The later spring seemed as if it would never come. From Invercargill they went to Wellington and then came to Christchurch. When Mr and Mrs Archer went down to Invercargill in March it was their first return visit for twelve years.

rr*HE of the ladway from Manchester to Liverpool is a reminder that Christchurch had the first railway in New Zealand. It was opened sixty-seven rears ago to Ferry Mead, a station near the Heathcote Bridge that no longer exists. The first driver was one Beverley, and the first fireman Jack Dickenson, who afterwards became superintendent of railways. There are many old Christchurch residents who were present at the opening of the railways. They include Mr W. H. R. Dale, a contributor to the •'Star,” and Mr R E. Green, who is at present having a holiday in the North Island.

@ 52? SSP tfR HARRY QUANE, who passed away A’ l *- on Thursday, retired completely out of the public life of Christchurch years ago, mainly on account of a long illness, but’ many old residents remember him when he was in his prime, a tall, handsome, fresh-complexioned, well-dressed man, with ’ pleasant manners and a genial and charitable disposition. To his familiar friends he was never known as , 'Quane," but always as “Harry Quane.” His best public work was in the early days, or, more correctly, the early middle part of Canterbury’s history, when, as chairman of the Railway Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, he pushed forward the scheme to unite Canterbury and the West Coast by rail. He said once that nobody but he, probably, knew the time and work he put into the scheme. He felt that a later generation had forgotten his services, but he found sufficient consolation in the fact that he had done something for the community.