People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 197, 20 August 1931, Page 8

People and Their Doings.

What Eavesdroppers Overhear in Steamer Cabins : Lady Houston’s Spirited Correspondence over the Schneider Trophy : Miss Copplestone Intends to Travel.

JF THE FASHION set by Mr 11. S. S. Kyle, M.P., should spread, of recounting conversations overheard in cabins on the ferry steamer, there would be a brief season of merriment wherever stories were retold, but the cabins on the ferry steamer would soon become as silent as the grave. A Christchurch man recalls with some amusement a war-time experience he had between New Zealand and Australia on the old Manuka. In an adjoining cabin were two ladies, evidently mother and daughter, but the mother was very sick, as she well might have been on that vessel, and required much comforting. And the greatest consolation her companion could offer her was, “ Never mind, mother, when you get there you will be able to make a macedone of fruit for Ted.” If the unwilling eavesdropper had been a journalist, he says, he would possibly have made a pretty human interest story out of the mother’s voyage. But he has always wondered what sort of a happy reunion there was, and what became of Ted. sS? QF ANOTHER SORT is the bombastic cabin nuisance. One of these, one day, was telling a companion in the ferry steamer how ably he had conducted a case before the Arbitration Court and how he had “ put it over ” the opposition and impressed the judge with hiS arguments. But, sad to say, he had addressed the judge, according to his own account, as “ My Lord ” throughout the piece, whereas a novice would have known that “ your Honor ” was correct. And the newspaper man who was listening to the recital had a very shrewd idea of what the judge thought about him. Judges make amusing comments sometimes. When the late Mr Justice Sim, years ago, was hearing the Farm Labourers’ case, he was compelled to listen to endless harangues by two farmers who had a smattering of bush law and his attention wandered. Looking up from his notebook suddenly at one stage, his Honor remarked, half apologetically, “Yes, Mr , what point are you labouring now?”

W W ® GOOD FEW YEARS AGO a certain aviator, flying to Wellington, found himself at the Trentham racecourse, where he and his mechanic were accommodated with a hut to await the subsidence of a storm before returning to Christchurch. They spoke very freely to one another, and made some sport of a newspaper report on the flight. But at the officers’ mess that day, the airman was astonished to hear snatches of the conversation repeated, and the eavesdropper regarded it as a good joke that he had been sleeping in the next

cabin, and had overheard the whole conversation. But the aviator’s revenge was sweet. “ Why, you beggar,” he said, pleasantly, “ you heard it all, and you were too polite to cough.” 58? 58? 58? ]y£ISS LILY COPPLESTONE, who is waiting patiently at Gris Nez for suitable weather, in which to swim the English Channel, said to an English inter-

“ When I retired from amateur swimming in 1929, I became a swimming coach in the Education Department in New Zealand. Then I wanted to make a world tour. I was in Australia for about four months. From England I shall go to the South of France, on to India, and then to America. From there I plan to

recurn to New Zealand and Australia, followed by a tour of Chiha and Japan.” Miss Copplestone, who is described as having taken “ the golden sun tan of Australian beaches ” to England, said that three years ago she retired from amateur swimming and became a professional, holding fifty-one titles. Since then she had added to the list. In January of this year she won the world’s long distance record by swimming 331 miles in 81 hours, at Waikato, New Zealand. She had swum every New Zealand harbour, and crossed Sydney Harbour, a distance of eight miles, in three hours six minutes. In the endurance swim at Sydney, she was in the water for forty hours. ags ags OLD Christchurch resident who was watching the men working on the side of the road in High Street near the Bottle Neck, remarked to-day that he could remember when the gutter in that part of the city was just an ordinary dirt ditch. After that it was improved with wooden backs made out of totara. Then they put in the stone setts which are at present being replaced by the covered con&ete gutter. The stone used for the old setts was brought down by a bullock team from a quarry on Marley’s Hill. It sometimes happened, however, that the bullock dray got bogged in Colombo Street, and the drivers just dumped the stones they had on the dray into the holes. A gang of men working on Colombo Street recently came across some of these stones. In the ’seventies, he said, the Town Hall used to be in High Street just about where Wool worth’s is now. 4

DEATH of yet another pilot for the Schneider Trophy race should convince Great Britain that even although private persons may be generous enough to finance the race, the costly price paid in human lives is too great. In 1929 the Government of Great Britain decided that it would not again contest the race, but at the beginning of this year offered to lend the Government machines if a private person or firm would guarantee expenses, which in 1929 amounted to £IOO,OOO. Lady Houston thereupon telegraphed Mr MacDonald guaranteeing the amount, and at the same time wrote to Sir Philip Sassoon, president of the Royal Aero Club:— “ I beg you to set things going instantly. Tackle the right person and give the necessary orders without a moment's delay. IDo it this morning. Send the International Air Federation to the devil. Yours impatiently, Lucy Houston.” She declared that she was heartily tired of the “ lie-down-and-kick-me ” attitude of the Socialist Government.

sS? X° THESE spirited declarations Mr A. F. Montague, the Under-Secretary for Air, replied:— “ Lady Houston's announcement is another proof that many people regard the Labour Government merely as a hateful interlude in which only the barest pretence of social decency is required.” But Lady Houston was determined to have the last word:— " Poor Mr Montague," she wrote, "it must be a bitter pill to swallow, after doing everything to dish our airmt-n and prevent them from taking part in the Schneider Trophy race to find you are now dished yourself by a woman’s patriotism.** “ Not understanding the psychology of a Socialist Minister,” Lady Houston added, “ I imagined I might receive your congratulations. I at thought you would attempt to behave like a gentleman.” SIXTY YEARS AGO. (From the “Star" of August 20. 1871.) London, June 23.—A Berlin correspondent of a New York paper states that there are serious complications between Germany and England. Bismarck proposed to enter into a f° r the purchase of Heligoland. The British Government declined to sell it. Bismarck replied that the acquisition of Heligoland was necessary for the protection of the German coast. lie looked upon its possession by a foreign power as a standing menace to Germany. Lord Granville replied that England would study her own interests. The wish of Germany to acquire the island did not constitute a right to its possession. and it had never been under German rule.