People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 365, 5 March 1932, Page 8

People and Their Doings.

The Oldest Clevggman and the Oldest Cgclist : Patel Released from Prison : Lindbergh Fills an Emotional Need : Career of Professor Belshaw.

in Christchurch, did not know the Rev Thomas Jasper Smyth, doyen of all our Anglican clergymen? He was not only the oldest of the Anglican clergyman —he was probably the oldest cyclist in Christchurch. For years after he had passed the span at which most men cease to trust themselves to the vagaries of a bicycle, his tall figure, surmounting his bicycle, was familiar in the city streets. Despite his great age—he was ninety-two when he died —his erect figure retained its suppleness, and he had a vigour that was the envy of much younger men. His interest in the service of his church did not wane after his retirement, and he presented the extraordinary spectacle of a man refusing to put his work aside, even at four score and ten. The clergy attending the annual Synod were always delighted to find him back again, still as keen as ever, and as ardent as ever in his advocacy of all that he believed made for the welfare of the church and the faith. To the man in the street no less than to his brother clergy the life of thiS wonderful man has been an inspiration. It was given to him to serve mankind for a longer period than is permitted to most men, and he employed usefully to the end his unique opportunity.

■yiTHALBIIAI jaVERBHAL PATEL, former president of the Legislative Assembly in India, who has been released from prison on an undertaking that he will abstain from participation in any disobedience movement, has taken a leading part in non-co-operation and Swarajist movements in the past. He has been closely associated with Gandhi—the Americans, in their expressive idiom, have called him “ Gandhi’s boy friend.” Patel studied English law and

eventually set up in practice in Bombay. He was originally an uncompromising opponent of the Reform Bill, and in 1919 visited England as a representative of the Indian National Congress before the joint select committee on the measure, refusing to support this instalment of responsible government. Patel later became an advocate of non-co-operation and was the first Swarajist (home rule) president of the Bombay Municipal Corporation. In 1923 he was elected by Bombay city to the Assembly, where he was made deputy leader of the Swaraj party. Patel took over the leadership of the civil disobedience movement in 1930, and his imprisonment followed his active support of this cause. 9 JJERE is a pen picture of Lindbergh as an Englishman sees him: The hero of the Machine Age, Viking of the Air, Idol of the Nordics. Six feet two inches. Very slender, with square shoulders and magnificent chest.. Cold blue eyes that suggest they are fixed on distant icebergs. Ancestry mixed Swedish, English and Irish. His father an impenitent Liberal, who believed passionately in democracy. His son has a hatred for the crowd that amounts to ap obsession. The mob reviled the father for his pacifism. It worships the son. Lindbergh fills an emotional need of the American people. They think of him much as the British think of the Prince of Wales. Thousands of women adore him. That used to try him sorely. He was not interested in any girl,' till he met Anne Morrow, whom he married in Mexico. He does not smoke, drink, or play cards, is usually silent, eats heartily. Is a Lutheran. At twenty-nine still looks a boy. A silent country boy absorbed in machinery. Has intense powers of concentration over long periods. Nothing can distract him from the job in hand. Looks after every detail of his plane himself. Loves to live dangerously. Four times has saved his life by parachuting from a 'plane in flight.

PROFESSOR H. BELSHAW, Professor of Economics and Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at Auckland University College, who, in association with other North Island economists, has suggested the plan which is published to-

day for relieving the Dominion’s economic troubles, has taken a prominent part for some years in the discussion of the country's economic problems. After graduating, Professor Belshaw took first-class honours in economics, doing research work on the dairy industry. There-

after he wrote a pamphlet, in conjunction with Dr Condliffe, on “Rural Credit in New Zealand.’* Proceeding to Cambridge, he did research into “ The Reactions of Industrial Depression on Agricultural Industries.” On returning to New Zealand he wrote an article on “ The Economic Position of the New Zealand Farmer,*’ in which he dealt incidentally with the high price paid for New Zealand farm lands. This excited a good deal of controversy. Last year a book from his pen ■was published (through Heffer, of Cambridge), on “ The Provision of Credit for Agriculture.” In public life he was on the secretariat of the inter-party committee which sat in Wellington in September, 1931. This experience gave him an unrivalled contact with the evidence placed before that special committee, and gave him a special insight into the economic condition of New Zealand. Since that time he has had the opportunity of discussing the Australian situation with Australian economists.