People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 43, 20 February 1931, Page 6

People and Their Doings.

Mr J. S. Barrett Was Raconteur Of Note : Visiting Flying . Officers : A Scared Business Man : Auckland's Floating Cabaret.

THE LATE MR J. S. BARRETT, as well as being widely known as a cricketer md racing man, was famous for his excelent and seemingly inexhaustible fund of short stories. His witty comments served not only to make a meeting laugh, but often drew it back to a discussion of the essentials. Mr Barrett belonged to the St Albans* Cricket Club for a number of years, and he was a very capable batsman and quick scorer. . When

playing in a junior cup team, years ago, he was put on to bowl and managed to take two wickets for no runs. This was the only time that he bowled during the season. At the annual meeting, when the report and balance-sheet were before the members, the discussion was beginning to wander when Mr Barrett rose, and, drawing the attention of the meeting to the report, protested that it was quite incorrect because during the season he took two wickets for no runs and the feat was not recorded in the report. The remark was greeted with laughter, but it had the desired effect. 9 9 STORY goes that at a Dunedin race meeting, years ago, Mr Barrett had a horse in the hurdle races. The horse won its race on the first day, and the next day it was handicapped at over twelve stone. On the second day, Mr Barrett met the handicapper —■** Allow me to congratulate you, Mr Henrys, for giving my horse sufficient weight to enable me to ride him myself,” he said. The horse won again, and the following day the two men met in town. “ Good morning, Mr Barrett,” said Mr Henrys. “ It’s a pity that the race meeting is over, for if there had been a third day and your horse was in the hurdle race, I would have given him sufficient weight to enable both of us to ride him at once.” JN HIS eighty-second year, the Hon John Collier, whose pictures of realities as he saw them delighted our fathers and mothers in the ’nineties, has brought together a collection of his work in the Haymarket. There is the portrait of Mr Bernard Shaw, which was refused by the Royal Academy two years ago for reasons tinstated. It is certainly very like Mr Shaw, and a friend of Mr Collier’s has suggested that it was rejected by the Academicians on that account! Then there are the famous “ story ” paintings of the young man

receiving his death sentence from his doctor, and of the anarchist meeting in Soho. There are pictures of nymphs and pixies, a sprite flying down the vale with flowing hair which would certainly have caught in the laurel bushes long before Pan could have overtaken her. But Mr Collier paints, as he says, what he seef, and certainly when he was painting these pictures the nymphs who came to the artists’ studios were beautiful, as Mr Collier saw them, and had long manes of ruddy-bronze hair, such as Mr Collier loved to paint, and we once loved to see in his pictures. Q? 32? HISTORY of the Britannia, the last of Auckland's paddle ships, which is now to be converted into a cabaret ship, reads like a minor romance of the sea. At one time the Britannia was the pride of the Devonport Ferry Co.’s fleet till they replaced it by a more modern vessel and it was sold to the Takapuna Ferry Co. for a few thousand pounds. The company spent thousands more on it. but still found it totally unsuitable. When the Takapuna Ferry Co. was about to wind up its affairs, the boat was sold again, this time for the trifling sum of £3. After lying in the harbour’s Rotten Row for some time, it was taken up the Wade River and used as a house boat. It has now come back to the harbour to be used as a cabaret boat. “ T WAS NOT taking a short cut,” said the newsboy whose photo, snapped while he was jumping ashore from the steamer Ilaleric, appeared in the “ Star ” yesterday. “ A nigger chap looked at me. I did not like the way he looked and thought I had better get ashore.” It is well known that in recent years seafaring Hindus and Malays have become quite “ cheeky ” to Europeans, and in these days not even the sherangs have the same power over them as in former years. The Malays, who are partly educated, are particularly argumentative at times. The opportunity of “ putting the breeze up ” a newsboy would appeal to a Malay. An amusing story is told of a Christchurch business man who was the guest of the captain at dinner on board a ship manned bv Hindus. A special Hindu mess-boy stood behind the guest’s chair attending to his wants during the meal. But the business man became suspicious of the man’s constant attention, and, fearing attack, kept handing him “ backsheesh.” This, of course, made the Hindu more attentive than ever, with the result that the guest scrambled through the last course in a state bordering on terror. But the meal w T as a complete success so far as the mess-boy was concerned.

QAPTAIN JONES and Flying Officer Owen, who are passing through Christchurch to-day by air, are undertaking a tour of New Zealand in the interests of aviation generally. Captain E. J. Jones, M.C., D.F.C., Chief Aviation Officer of the Shell Company, served with the Australian Flying Corps during the war as Flight-Commander with No. 3 Squadron, A.F.C. He later commanded long distance artillery reconnaissance flights, and was awarded the M.C. and the D.F.C. On his return to Australia, he joined the Australian Air Corps, which formed the nucleus of the present Royal Australian Air Force. He entered the Civil Aviation Branch tvhen it was formed in 1921 as Superintendent of Flying Operations, and later became Deputy Controller of Civil Aviation for the Commonwealth. Captain Jones joined the Shell Company in August, 1929, since when his activities have been mainly confined to the administrative and developmental side of aviation throughout the Commonwealth. Flying Officer Harold Owen, in conjunction with Flight-Lieutenant S. J. Moir, made a two-way flight from Australia to England in 1928-9, flying a Vickers-Vel-lore freight-carrying machine. Flying Officer Owen joined the Shell Company in 1929, and in view of his extensive experience with all flying conditions in Australia, is regarded as a first-class authority on cross-country flying. He is a well-known figure amongst the Australian Gliding Clubs. 9 JpROM THE “ STAR ” of February 21, 1871.—Flax and Gum. A correspondent of the San Francisco “ News of the World,” who signs himself “ Pakeha Maori,” says:— “ A very large quantity of varnish is annually consumed in the United States. Kauri gum is understood to enter largely into the composition of the best varnishes. Inquiry is now being made here about the prices of Kauri gum, and I think the merchants of Auckland, if they would bestir themselves in this matter, could develop quite a trade in it. American ingenuity is proverbial, and if a few good specimens of Kauri gum. with price, etc., were sent over here for experiment, it is more than probable that it might yet be extensively used in this country. Something might also be done with New Zealand flax. The value of this commodity is limited only to the difficulty of obtaining machinery that will extract the gum from it. A few bundles of green flax sent over here by each steamer, for experimental purposes, might result in the discovery of the much-needed machine.”