People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19242, 2 December 1930, Page 6

People and Their Doings.

More Anecdotes Of The Old Mararoa : How A Voice Goes By Wireless To London : What Professor Wall Thinks Of New Zealand Literature.

IT IS not generally known that the steamer Mararoa was ashore at Lyttelton in the inner harbour. The vessel was coming in through the moles when it was discovered that the telegraph system to the engineroom had broken down, and before word could be sent below it was found necessary to run the ship along towards West Lyttelton. She dropped anchor, she was proceeding at such a speed that the anchor did not hold and she ran up on the embankment west of No. 7 jetty, just opposite the present New Zealand Shipping Company’s shed. Fortunately there was no great depth of water and the soft mud prevented her piling further up the bank. She was got off under her own power and her passengers landed at the ferry wharf. 9 9 9 THE MARAROA was the first triple expansion steamer to enter New Zealand waters .or to cross the Pacific Ocean. She did 15.8 knots in her trials. She was capable of steaming at 15 knots when she was taken off the ferry run in 1927. On her first visit to San Francisco her chief engineer, Mr M’Allister, was on board an American steamer, the Queen of the Pacific, and saw some brass eagles fixed as spreaders on her tail-rods. Mr .M’Allister admired the eagles and when he and his staff were entertained by the Marine Engineers’ Society of San Francisco, Mr M’Allister was presented with three brass eagles. The eagles were screwed gn to the Mararoa’s tail-rods. Several attempts were made at Melbourne and Sydney by the engineroom staffs of the American steamers Sonoma, Alameda and Mari to steal the much-prized eagles. Each time a raid was proposed, the Mararoa’s engineers appeared to have been warned by someone, or else they were suspicious and the eagles were always well protected. One of these eagles is believed to be in the possession of a late master mariner of the Union Company who resides at Wellington, and another was housed at the Dunedin office of the Union Company. 9 9 9 to coming out to New Zealand from Dumbarton the Mararoa made a trip to the Norwegian Sounds under the command of Captain J. Edie. She carried many of the Union Company’s officials and prominent people. Captain Edie retained command of the vessel for several years and was rightly proud of his ship, which was' the fastest and best-fitted ship in the Southern Hemisphere. Her hull and panelling are said to be almost as good to-day as when the vessel came out to the colony. 9 9 9 of the recent article on New Zealand novelists which appeared in the “Star”, Professor Arnold Wall, of Canterbury College, says: “I have read no New Zealand literary work of the fiction kind, except a little of Katherine Mansfield, who seemed to me much overrated. Years ago I saw books by Miss Lyttelton (G. B. Lancaster) which were of no permanent value at all. There must be plenty of short stories in the supplements to the big illustrated weeklies, but I never see them. “An author in this country has to compete with the world, and our population is so small that we can hardly look for genius or even high talent as yet. There are books of one 1 Hector Bolitho mentioned to me but not of much merit I fancy.”

METHOD by which the wireless telephone service between New Zealand and London is carried out is very clearly illustrated in this diagram. As one speaks into the subscribers’ ordinary telephone the conversation is transmitted from the New Zealand transmitting station at Tinakorl Hills, Wellington, and received at the Sydney switching

terminal of Amalgamated Wireless at La Perouse. From there it is transferred to the A.W.A. Transmitting Centre at Pennant Hills, Sydney, to be received at the Baldock receiving station in England. It is then automatically transferred to the London terminal, to be heard by the English subscriber on his ordinary house telephone. Conversation from England is ' relayed through the terminal switchboard at London to Rugby transmitting station, and is then transmitted to the AW.A. Receiving Station at La Perouse, near Sydney. From here the conversation is switched via the mixing panel to the Transmitting Centre of Amalgamated Wireless at Pennant Hills, Sydney, and then transmitted to the New Zealand receiving station at Wellington to be heard on the subscribers’ home telephone. Several of the engineers engaged in telephony work by Amalgamated Wireless at the Australian end are New Zealanders. 3£p 1? JJR GEORGE BERNARD SHAW is not allowing British International Pictures to deal as they elect with the talk-film of his play, “ How He

Lied To Her Husband.” The actors in the film are all being selected by Mr Shaw himself. The film is to be made on extremely unorthodox lines. A technique has been evolved in talk-films known as “ waiting for the laugh.” Each line which the director hopes will

make his audience chuckle is followed by a hiatus in the dialogue, for the director does not want his next line drowned in a gust of wholesale laughter. But Mr Shaw will not wait for his laughs. Shakespeare and Shaw, he told the studio people, demand to be played as they are written; he will not have his action held up for guffaws.

IT IS PURPOSED to pay honour to Viscount Cecil of Chelwood by having his portrait painted with a view to its ultimate inclusion in the National Portrait Gallery. It is believed that a large number of Lord Cecil’s fellow countrymen would be glad of some opportunity of doing him honour and publicly recognising him as one of the great creative statesmen of this age, since Lord Cecil’s both to his own people and to mankind at large are known to all. At the Peace Conference in 1919, his conduct of the debates and negotiations that took place was recognised by everyone to be the principal factor in securing agreement on the terms of the Covenant, and thus in securing the establishment of the League itself. He was a member of the Organising Committee that supervised the creation of the Secretariat of the League, and since the League began its work has been a delegate to every Assembly except two. As joint President with Lord Grey of the League of Nations Union, he has been closely identified with the efforts to secure the wholehearted support of the League by British people. These services received formal international recognition when he was made the first recipient of the Woodrow Wilson Peace Prize in 1925. But beyond all these services it is desired to commemorate Lord Cecil as the embodiment of a new international spirit, a spirit of conciliation which alone can exorcise the spirit of conflict. $8? IS? <§j? JNCLUDING BRITAIN, no fewer than sixteen countries are contributing to the forthcoming exhibition of Persian art which is to be held in London in January. Persia herself leads, of course, and the museums of Paris, Berlin, Brussels, The Hague, Vienna, Milan, Philadelphia, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Egypt, and Poland are sending examples. The Soviet Government also has definitely agreed to lend Persian treasures. These articles will be sent to London next month, and include priceless silver vessels belonging to the Sasanian period of Persian art. They are wonderful pieces of work. The Sasanian period dates from the year 250 A.D. to the year 640, and during that time the earliest traditions of Persian art were revived. The vessels which the Soviet Government are sending represent the high watermark of that artistic development. They consist principally of silver plates and ewers, and are beautifully chased with representations of animals and human figures. ® W 9 J?ROM THE “ STAR ” of December 1, 1870.—We regret to learn that Mr Francis Jollie, of Mount Peel, died yesterday. No particulars as to the cause of his death have yet come to hand. Mr Jollie was one of the leading pioneers of the settlement of New Zealand, having first resided in the Nelson province. He was at one time Nelson agent for the New Zealand Company, and has also taken a prominent part in the public business of the colony —having been for many years a member of the General Assembly. Mr Jollie always took a great interest in the active duties of a settler and his farm at Wakapuwaka, in the Nelson province was considered the model farm of its day. We believe that he was also the first cultivator of the hop in New Zealand, and from the beginning he made, the Nelson hops have already obtained a name in the market.