People and Their Doinas

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 938, 7 December 1933, Page 10

People and Their Doinas

Mr L. A. Cuff Writes to an Old Canterbury Cricket Colleague from Launceston : Buried Treasure Hunt at Kaiapoi has Successful Issue.

RECENTLY two renowned ■ Canterbury cricketers got together after the lapse cf many years w’hen Mr Dan Reese dropped in on Mr L. A. Cuff at Launceston. They put in the morning together, and Mr Reese met his old colleague’s family and admired his grandson. Mr Cuff’s son, Alan, got his first century of the season on November 25, scoring 141 not out for Launceston against Tamar. He opened the innings and carried his bat after a last wicket stand of 108 runs. “ I hope it becomes a habit,” says Mr Cuff in a note to Mr Clifford Ridley, who with his brother, Mr A. E. Ridley, of Christchurch, helped to make cricket history in the province with Cuff and other notable contemporaries. Mr Cuff notes in his letter that the crack Tasmanian batsman, Badcock, aged nineteen, who made 1251 runs last season, and up to the end cf November had made 440 runs, might be picked to tour New' Zealand late in the season. Mr Cuff thinks that he might have been given a game in one of the trial tests. His letter conveys kind regards to all old friends. He writes: “ I enjoyed his visit very much, and I was surprised to learn how many of the old Canterbury cricketers are alive—Dave Ashby, Johnny Fowke, Wilding and others. They are a hardy lot.”

& $p 9 ■'PIIE DISTINCTION of being the first professional artist to go to the Antarctic falls to David Paige, a member of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, the main body of which is in Wellington on the Jacob Ruppert. Paige is a gifted New York artist, and, following the return of the first Byrd Expedition, he painted a number of remarkable Antarctic scenes solely from imagination, not even using photographs. Paige has constructed his cwn studio on the Jacob Ruppert, and is at present engaged on a picture of part of the Eds-el Ford Range, Antarctica. He has never seen the range, but he presents it in a strikingly vivid portrayal of the southern ice-bound regions.

is an old fable about a man who played a trick on his relatives by telling them that he had buried a treasure somewhere in his land. In consequence of the iirge to obtain easy wealth they dug the land over so thoroughly that, although there was never any treasure there, the effort paid a dividend in increased productivity. No farmer would ever believe that old fable, because the people who go looking for treasure are not usually agriculturally minded. Quite recently in the Kaiapoi district, following the death of a very old gentleman, a buried treasure huqt was begun, but after it was over the property looked more like a battlefield than a farm. the searchers at least had the pleasure of finding the treasure, for in a paint tin, buried about two feet under a pile of twitch, they found the proverbial crock—containing £6O in half-crowns. & 9 j £JIXTY YEARS AGO (from the “Star” j of December 7, 1873) : j Trout for Nelson.—The people of Nelson j are evidently determined to follow the ! ! example of Canterbury with respect to j the acclimatisation of trout. An appli- ; cation was recently made on their behalf to our Acclimatisation Society, who acceded to it—forwarding two hundred and fifty young fish to the sister province on Friday last. It is to be hoped that they arrive safely at their destination. Auckland, December 6.—An information was laid against the doctor of the ship Chile for assaulting and brutally ill-treating a female immigrant on the voyage out. The Crown Prosecutor conducts the case. Message from Dunedin.—The “ Otago Daily Times ” advocates a system of signals at Port Chalmers, so that vessels can come in at night. Trotting Match.—Yesterday morning a trotting match for £2O a side was held on the Ferry Road, between Mr Kirkwood’s bay pony Betsy and Mr Lorenza Zuch's dark brown horse Sailor. The distance was three miles. Betsy proved the winner by about fifty yards.

'JMIE ST KILDA branch of the Australian Labour Party is still gravely displeased with Mr Scuilin’s work as leader. At the meeting of the branch a week ago the following motions were agreed to:— 44 That this branch of the A.L.P. believes Comrade Scullin to be a perfectly honest but politically ineffective man: and, in view of the approaching Federal elections, urges upon him the absolute importance of his retirement from the political leadership of the movement, thus giving place to a leader worthy of the workers’ confidence.” “ While we believe that Comrade Scullin’s weak and disastrous leadership is unparalleled in the annals of Australian politics, we are convinced that he entertains the kindliest feelings for his fellowmembers of the working-class; but in these days of economic terror to the workers the kindly sentimentality of the mid-Victorian Liberal school is insufficient. Strong, resolute leadership only’ can restore to the workers a modicum of economic security.” IjJ? 32? r pHE OLD ADVICE to 44 be careful whom you’re bumping into ” was probably recalled too late by Joseph Legreco, of Tujunga, California, on November 3. His motor-truck became entangled with a sedan in a traffic jam at Le Canada. Unfortunately' for Joseph the owner-driver of the sedan was Jeff Willard, heavy-weight boxing champion of the world from 1915 to 1919. Willard was so annoyed that he took the law into his own hands. When the last mail left San Francisco, the exchampion was tinder arrest for having “ slapped down ” Legreco. m ® ® QNE of the party that were on Avalanche Peak when a snow slide led to the death of one of the climbers went back there the other day to find his ice axe, and he not only found his own, but another as well, and also the broken part of a third. There is still a good deal of snow where the fatality occurred, despite the lateness of the season.