People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 300, 18 December 1931, Page 8

People and Their Doings.

“Ready Money” Robinson’s Connection with Gore Bay : How he Preserved his Authority with the Kanakas : Sydney Bridge will Save 1000 Years of Time.

of “Ready-money” Robinson are revived by the grounding of the Breeze at Port Robinson, or Gore Bay as it is called, for Port Robinson, where the old wharf and landing gear have now been demolished, is in the bend of Gore Bay. There is a delightful old home there, now the residence of Mr Andrew Tweedie, that was at one time the home of “ Readymoney ” Robinson, who got his name by purchasing a huge tract of country from Waiau to the Hurunui, including the Cheviot Estate, for ten shillings an acre, and paying the money in cash under an armed escort. ag are still told of this hard-headed old man bringing Kanakas over to New Zealand to assist in the loading of wool by surf-boat at Port Robinson, and it was an incongruous fact that the old man’s authority in the eyes of the Kanakas was very firmly established by the fact that although he entered the surf, like themselves ,with nothing on but a shirt, he preserved his dignity by keeping a tall silk hat firmly fixed on his head. Gore Bay is a very favourite holiday and picnic spot with a great many Christchurch people, who find the air very clear and bracing, and the view along the coast magnificent. 3S? “ STAR ” READER who has just returned from a trip to Taranaki where the pastures have been affected by the dry spell, forwards the following: “ Egmont, the pride and glory of Taranaki, does not display her charms without indulging in a certain chaste reserve. For days on end she (if mountains are of the feminine gender) wraps herself in her fleecy mantle of cloud, veiling her beauty from the eyes of the ardent observer. It may be days or weeks before she relents, and with a dramatic change of mood stand undraped, in pristine purity and natural loveliness. All day long Egmont may observe a coqxiettish reticence, but sometimes in the evening the clouds roll by, and there she stands, magnificent, majestic, marvellous. The setting sun illumines the snow slopes and touches with fairy gold the shapely cone which, like a glittering diadem, crowns the glorious summit. The eye never tires of this vision of beauty, and memory will always treasure the recollection of the perfect mountain.”

CABLES mentioned that the late Sir William Orpen, the famous painter, left an estate valued at £159,200. He made perhaps the largest income ever enjoyed by a painter. He used to complete a portrait in ten sittings, and as he worked every day in the year he may be assumed to have turned out about thirty-six portraits a year for each of which he received a fee of from £2500 to £3OOO. His income could not have been far short of £IOO,OOO a year. Orpen was once offered £IOO,OOO to go to the United States to do portraits of wealthy Americans, but he refused the offer. “If they want me to paint them,” he said, “ they must come here.” m & CELEBRATIONS will attend the opening ceremony, on March 19, of the colossal bridge spanning Sydney Harbour, the largest one-span bridge in the world. Up to now Sydney, North with South, has been served by ferry steamers. The chief engineer of the bridge (Dr J. J. C. Bradfield) makes this computation: If the. 42,000,000 people, who, it is estimated, will cross the bridge during the first year it is opened, saved only one minute per journey, as against crossing by water, this would collectively represent sixty years of time; but as each passenger will save at least twelve minutes per journey the equivalent will be 1000 years. ® ® 9 GLANELY, the Hon Thomas Egerton and Captain Charles Moore have been elected members of the Jockey Club, the supreme authority controlling horse-racing in Great Britain. For many years Lord Glanely has been one of the most popular owners on the Turf. He has raced horses for more than twenty years, and has always been a lavish supporter of racing. Since the war he has been one of» the boldest buyers of blood-stock and has built up one of the most valuable stud farms in the world at Exiling, Newmarket. He won the Derby in 1919 with Grand Parade. Mr Egerton, who acts as steward at several meetings, is a brother of Lord Ellesmere, a very active member of the Jockey Club. Captain Moore is a member of the Turf Club, the governing body of Irish racing, and a prominent breeder. He bred and sold as yearlings Zionist, Money Maker and Santorb.

gIMPLE CHRISTMAS CARDS are gaining in popularity over the more ornate forms of greeting, and on these the sentiment is generally expressed with equal simplicity: “ With kindest thoughts and best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.” But one much modernised edition of the time-honoured sentiments conveys a wish for a Christmas with: “ Lots of snap And ginger in it, Somethin’ doin’ Every minute.” A more dignified legend in prose will appeal to many women. “I am thinking of you to-day,” it reads, “ because it is Christmas and I wish you happiness. And tomorrow, because it will be the day after Christmas, I shall still wish you happiness; and so on clear through the year.” The first English Christmas card ever printed was designed for Sir Henry Cole, first director of the South Kensington Museum, in 1843. It shows in. the centre a family group round the wassail bowl, and in the side panels studies of the Nativity. The card was reproduced by lithography, and in 1846 a thousand copies, coloured by hand, were issued for public sale. There may be stfay copies of these preserved in old albums. 4 32? gIXTY YEARS AGO. (From the “Star” of December 18, 1871.) Board of Education.—Dr Turnbull said that he had just that moment handed his resignation as a member of the board to the Provincial Secretary, as he found it impossible to attend the board with that regularity he should desire. London.—Walter Montgomery, the actor, has committed suicide. Shafto Robertson, the actor, on the passage to India, fell backwards through the engine-room skylight on to the top of the cylinder. He was picked up insensible, died after a lingering illness of one week, and was buried at sea. Notice. —Ladies’ straw and leghorn hats cleaned, dyed and altered to the latest fashions. Feathers cleaned and curled, etc. Also gentlemen’s leghorn and tuscan hats cleaned and altered. Address: Mrs Bean, High Street. Acclimatisation. —We are sorry to learn that of the 63 rooks and jackdaws 24 hedgehogs and 19 starlings shipped on board the Robert Henderson, only two jackdaws and one hedgehog have arrived alive.