People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19133, 28 July 1930, Page 8

People and Their Doings.

West Coast Girl Had Never Seen A Lamb : Cochet Has Always

Been Tildens Master At Tennis : Wall’s Bowling Coup Will

Be Popular : Clearing The Snow From The Streets.

SNOW STORMS are rare enough, even in the southern cities of New Zealand, to make them a complete novelty to many of the younger generation. Children of three or four years of age have seen their first snow in Christchurch this season, and to-day’s storm is doubly rare because snow does not usually fall in the day time, but comes quietly in the night time, and is succeeded ordinarily by brilliant sunshine.

Children in drought areas of Australia are sometimes three, four, and five years old before they see their first rainfall. It is all a matter of environment. There are a number of West Coast Training College girls in Christchurch at the present moment, one of whom confessed yesterday, when the mortality of lambs in the early spring was under discussion, that she had never seen a lamb in her life. And yet she had probably discussed lamb and mint sauce very frequentlv from her early youth.

«§? JJENRI COCHET, who has vanquished Tilden and . defeated American hopes of winning the Davis Cup, is the most picturesque figure in the f : tennis world, and he will be a national hero at the moment, because America’s hopes of winning the cup were so strong that Tilden, who had three times expressed his determination not to play in the team, was lured on to take his place because of his remarkable form at Wimbledon. Incidentally, Tilden’s ranking of the world’s best players is upset, because he placed Borotra first, and he beat Borotra in the Davis Cup contest. As a matter of fact, Tilden is the luckiest man in the tennis world this year, because Cochet threw away the Wimbledon Championship by giving way to his well-known proclivity to “fool about” in minor matches. Cochet has always proved his mastery over Tilden, and he was really the first Frenchman to show the world that Tilden was beatable. That was in 1926, in the fourth round of the American championships. His win pointed the way to the capture of the Davis Cup in the following year, and incidentally disposed of the tradition that French players were temperamental and rmreliable. r J , HE NEW Government lighthouse steamer Matai, which will sail for New Zealand on July 31, brings to mind her old New Zealand namesake the M'aitai (corrupted to Matai) which w r as in the San Francisco trade early in the war. The old Maitai had an adventurous career. She was formerly the Huddart Parker Miowera, and was bought by the Union Company in 1913. While under the command of Captain R. Carson she had to take shelter in San Diego to escape a German raider. Under Captain C. M'Le'an, who died last year in Melbourne, she *was totally wrecked on Christmas Day, 1916, on a reef at Rarotonga during bad weather.

rpHE SENSATION of the latest cricket test in England is the recovery of Wall who, in the early stages of the tour, looked like becoming a passenger. His team mates have been waiting anxiously for him to come off as a fast bowler, and he could not have selected a more sensational moment for his great coup. When no wickets were down for 108, he captured England’s three best batsmen, Hobbs, Sutcliffe, and Hammond, before a dozen runs had been scored.

Wall, is a giant in stature, and he has the ability to swerve both ways, and to make the ball fly—that is, kick up—off the pitch. He is noted for a big heart, for he can keep a length all day against disheartening conditions.

9 9 9 M R E. SOMERS, assistant city engineer, who has charge of the whole of the work of the outside gangs employed by the Works Department of the City Council, had a busy time this morning getting the men organised on the job of clearing away the snow. Mr Somers came to Christchurch from Perth, Western Australia, where snow is unknown and frosts are exceedingly rare. He was on the job at an early hour and put practically all of his men on the work of clearing the foot crossings in the busiest parts of the city. As a result, pedestrians did not have to trudge through snow and slush at the intersections. 9 9 9 N° DOGGETT'S COAT and Badge race would appear complete without a scion of the Phelps family taking part, and the famous riverside firm was represented in this year’s race by Ted Phelps, a son of Mr J. T. (“Bossie”) Phelps. Ted Phelps went over from Monte Video where he holds an appointment, specially to compete in the world’s championship, on May 31 last, which he won from Bert Barry, and in this race. The Phelps family have supplied six winners of the famous Thames watermen's race from London Bridge to Chelsea. W. Phelps won in 1875, C. Phelps in 1884, “T.E.” in 1919, “J.T.” in 1922,• “R.W,” in the following year, and the winner in 1928 was J. L. Phelps. The race was founded in 1715 by Thomas Doggett, an actor, in honour of the House of Hanover, “in commemoration of his Majesty King George’s happy Accession to the British Throne.” The prize, was a red coat with a large silver badge bearing the white horse of Hanover, and the race had to be rowed annually on August 1, on the Thames, by six young watermen who were not to have exceeded the time of their apprenticeship by twelve months. The race is still rowed each j-ear, but the conditions have been modified. The winner last year was C. F. Tavlor (Blackwall).

STRONG RESEMBLANCE to Mr Gladstone was a characteristic upon which a certain Londoner used to preen himself, but it was not so with Professor Wall’s father. He was like the famous statesman in appearance and when he was walking through the streets of London it was quite common for people to mistake his identity and stop to cheer him, much to his anger. In relating some of his father’s history at a meeting on Saturday evening Professor Wall said that he had spent most of his life in Ceylon, where he was a strong supporter of a move to give the Europeans greater governing powers. He saw Mr Gladstone several times on the matter and was given fair promises, which, however, never came to anything. It was this that made him such a strong opponent of the G.O.M.

999 IVTR H. G. WAKE, who has been elected President of the Junior Tennis Association, has the distinction of being most widely and popularly known, not for his fine record in the teach-

ing profession, or for his text books, but for the fact that he has a daughter who is now the holder of the New Zealand championship tennis title, and also for the fact, which is of local rather than of Dominion interest, that he insists on playing tennis with a “tin” racket. lie carried this implement round the

world on his recent tour and played with it at Nice, where, by all accounts, his service was untakable to many of those with whom he played. Mr Wake's interest in junior tennis has always been keen, and no better man could have been selected for the office of president. 9 9 ® rpuE FIRST TIME Professor Wall saw one of his sisters was when he passed through Perth on his recent trip to the Old Country. She was then aged seventynine. The Professor, who was born in Ceylon, was one of a family of fifteen, but he very seldom saw his brothers and sisters, and it was not until he was twenty-one that he recollected seeing his mother. He gave these examples at a meeting on Saturday evening to illustrate one of the great drawbacks of a planter s life in Ceylon—separation from his children, who in turn when sent to England were separated from one another. 9 9 9 MR VERNON MARCH, who died rcccntly, was one of the seven brothers who have been engaged at Farnborough, Kent, in executing the great Canadian National War Memorial, He was the designer of the memorial, and his design was chosen from 12/ which were submitted to the Canadian Government by sculptors from all over the world.