People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 954, 26 December 1933, Page 6

People and Their Doings.

The “Spanish Prisoner ” is Still Hopefully Seeking Victims : Victorian Nominee for Presidency of British Medical Association : Duke of Northumberland to Visit New Zealand.

A UCKLAND RESIDENTS are being

again pestered with appeals from one of the many Spanish prisoners. The following letter, printed in stereograph and posted in Barcelona, is a typical example, and is an insult to the intelligence of the recipients. “ Dear Sir—Being imprisinoned here by bankruptcy 1 beseech you to help me to obtain a. sum of £75,000 1 have in Australia, being necessary to come here to raise the seizuse af my luggage paying to the Register of the Court the expenses of my trial, and recover my portmanteau containing a secret-pocket where 1 have hidden two checks payable to bearer for that sum. As a reward 1 will give up to you the third past: £25.000. 1 cannot receive your answer in the prison but you can send a cablegram to a person of my confidence, who will deliver it to me, addressed as follows. Awaiting you answer to instruct you all my secret: now ] sign only S. First af all answer by cable, not by letter. A. Badia. Lista Correos, 403, Sta. Coloma Fames, Spain. Conforme: Dunran. ’ The last two words of the letter apparently mean that the letter has been printed from an original with authority. One resident who has received a similar letter intends to forward it to the police at Barcelona, where, by the way, there is one of the most modern and scientific criminal investigation departments in Europe, and Signor Badia may be receiving a visit of an official nature in the near future. 41 J FEAR that in some cases we have seemed brutally frank,” said Miss E. R. Edwards at the Auckland Diocesan High School breaking-up, in referring to the school reports. “ It would be very unfair to gloss over weaknesses, and where only a plain word can be found to tel] a plain truth it makes ugly reading, but I know that you really prefer to have it. It is not possible to devise a term report that will convey exactly to every parent what mistresses have in their minds to say. What a word means to one person it does not always mean to another. We are using words that to us have some standardised value as a result of the comparison of all the children we have ever taught, but parents usually have of necessity standards based xipon no such comparisons, and the result is that words that express for us a very mediocre attainment or behaviour sound satisfactory to some parents, while to others words that express our satisfaction sound cool and critical. We have to use our judgment to the best of our ability.”

VETERAN of the tennis championships this year, although he does not look a veteran, is undoubtedly E. L. BartIcet, of Auckland, who is playing first man for the Auckland team in the Wilding Shield match and is . *v. paired up with Sturt in the doubles. Bartleet for years was the unluckiest player in New Zealand because he was contemporaneous with Ollivier, and ; was just unlucky enough on a couple of i occasions to be beaten when there was no other serious opposition in the field. Probably the most notable of these matches was played on No. 2 court at Wilding Park on January 3,192 S (the 1927 title), when Ollivier just won, 6-1. 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 9-7. This was a gruelling final in which with two sets all, Ollivier led 3-1 and 4-2, only to be level at 4-all. Bartleet led 5-4 and 6-5, but by a great effort Ollivier retained the title. ® T? ARTLEET, however, is on the roll of honour of New Zealand singles championships and he did not get there without an effort for he beat C. E. Malfroy at Auckland in a match in which Malfroy had every chance of leading by two sets to one, but had a critical service game wrested from him by a great effort on the Aucklander’s part. Bartleet won. 4-6, 7-5, 8-6, 6-4. Both men were extremely popular in Canterbury, but there was a general feeling down here that Bartleet richly deserved his win after having victory snatched from him two or three times previously. Q? ® 32? 'TUIE VICTORIAN BRANCH of the British Medical Association has decided to nominate Sir Richard Stawell for the position of president of the whole of the British Medical Association for 1935-36. The actual appointment by the Council of the British Medical Association in London will not be made until July next year, but the council has asked the Victorian branch for a nomination, and it is regarded as certain that Sir Richard will be appointed. One reason for asking Victoria to nominate a president was that the world congress of the B.M.A. will be held in Melbourne in September, 1935. Sir Richard would be the first Australian to be appointed as president. and it would be a fitting climax to a brill&nt medical career.

A son of the late Sir William Foster Stawell, former Chief Justice of Victoria, Sir Richard was born at Kew in 1864. Educated at Marlborough College, Hawthorn Grammar School and Trinity College, he holds degrees of Melbourne and London Universities. He served in the Australian Army Medical Corps during the war as a lieutenant-colonel, and is a member of the medical advisory committee of the Repatriation Department. He is an honorary consulting physician at the Children’s and Melbourne Hospitals, and a former president of the Victorian branch of the B.M.A. He was knighted in 1929. 0N HIS WAY to New Zealand, the Duke of Northumberland- arrived in Melbourne last week. His visit to the Dominion is for the dual purpose of fishing and recuperating from a serious attack of biackwater fever contracted while on a hunting expedition in the Belgian Congo. Henry George .Alan Percy, ninth Duke of Northumberland, is 21 years of age and a bachelor. He succeeded his father three years ago. The Dukedom was created an 1766. His other titles are Earl of Northumberland, Baron Warkworth (created 1749). Earl Percy (1766), Earl of Beverly (1790) and Lord Lovaine, Baron of Alnwick (1784). His English homes are 17, Princes Gate, London; Albury Park- Guildford: Alnwick Castle. Northampton; Syon House, Brentford; and Keilder Castle, North Tyne. Accompanying the Duke is Lieutenant-Colonel Ilenslowe, formerly of the Indian Cavalry. His Grace told Melbourne interviewers that he was “ greatly impressed by the freedom, the gaiety and the joie de vivre which seem to be such marked and happy characteristics of the Australian people.” He was resolved to return in the. near future see Australia properly. m ® CIXTY YEARS AGO (from the “ Star ” of December 26, 1873) : Auckland, December 24.—The Chile case creates great interest. The Court was crowded. The doctor has been hissed in the streets, and refused luncheon by one hotel. The witnesses for the defence say that the capstan was not high enough to permit the suspension of the woman by the arms so that her feet were off the ground. It was absolutely necessary to restrain her, she was so dangerously violent. The evidence in the case against the doctor of the Chile shows that he threatened to confine anyone touching or molesting her when fastened up to the capstan.