People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20282, 17 April 1934, Page 8

People and Their Doings.

Some of the Old-time Red Funnel Steamers Just Show Their Bones Above Water : Man Who Heard Charles Dickens Read in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. Resides in Dunedin.

JjMVE STEAMERS that have outlived their seagoing value have one by one come to rust and rest alongside the Otago Heads mole to give extra stability to the stones with which the Harbour Board’s channel-deepening operations are being carried out. It was noticed by those who made the excursion to the heads that the remains of the Kahika have entirely disappeared, and nothing was seen of the Gertie or Pateena, though what the sea has left of those vessels can be discerned at dead low water. Portions of the upper parts of the Paloona and Moana are still visible, defying the ocean’s assaults, but are gradually vanishing. sS? si? sS? A CHRISTCHURCH message recording the fact that Canterbury has still living at least one resident who conversed with the great Charles Dickens, who has been dead these sixty-four years, elicits the news that Dunedin has a citizen who, if not correspondingly honoured by a personal chat on several occasions, heard Dickens give readings from his works in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. He is Mr L. W. Robinson, who is now eightytwo and who came to New Zealand in 1874 in the ship Invercargill. ® sg ROYAL FUNERALS are costly things, and the Belgian Government spent freely in paying last honours to King Albert. The funeral of King Edward VII. cost the British Government £40,500, which was just £SOOO more than was spent on the obsequies of Queen Victoria. The funeral expenses for the Prince Consort were returned at £SOOO. and those for William IV. at £16,000. The most expensive Royal funeral of modern times in Europe was that of the Emperor Wilhelm I. of Germany, which cost the Imperial Treasury £IOO,OOO and the city of Berlin £B6,(XK3. The costliest British State funeral * was not a royal one, but that of Wellington, which cost the Exchequer over £IOO,OOO. Nelson’s funeral came out at £50,000.

'J'HE OBITUARIES, coming so near together. of Herbert Chapman and Francois Descamps should be of great interest to the social historian as introducing a new force into the community (says the “Manchester Guardian”). Napoleon said grandly to Bourienne, “ You, too, will be famous; are you not my secretary?” But Bourienne’s reply was, “ Tell me the name of Alexander’s.*' And so we might say about those behind the scenes in big sport. We hear a great deal about champions in various spheres, but it is only now that we are beginning to recognise that the men who train champions may be more important than the champions themselves. 3$ sg KNOWS the names of jockeys who ride a prodigious number of races or win outstanding events, but no one bothers to ask who taught the “ champion jockevs ” their business. Everyone has heard of Sayers and Heenan. But who trained them? We hear more than enough sometimes of leading cricketers and footballers, but only if a coach happens to have been a great player himself do we hear anything of the men who make great cricketers. So it was in football till Herbert Chapman dominated the Arsenal Club. In future the makers of champions may be known and remembered. sS? LETTER was recently published in “ The Times ” from Lady K. Hilton Young inquiring into the whereabouts of her head of Nansen which was exhibited in Leeds in 1914. Lady Hilton Young was formerly Lady Scott, widow of the explorer, and her admiration of the great Norwegian must have been increased by the debt which her valiant husband always acknowledged to him. In “ Nansen of Norway ” there is a description of Scott’s visit to Nansen at Oslo in 1900 to learn what he could about sledge-making, which was unknown in England but which the genius of Nansen had developed into a new art in Norway.

IMPRESSIVE method of reminding Germany of the importance of a higher birthrate has been decided on by Herr Hitler. A 600-ton monument is to be built in the Arnswalderplatz. one of the largest squares in suburban Berlin. It is to be called “ the Fountain of Fecundity,” and will consist of an immense allegorical group in pink porphyry. The Berlin sculptor. Professor Lederer, is to execute the work. Further encouragement for larger families is to be found every here and there in all sorts of forms. All couples who are married at the registrar’s office at Dettingen. in Wurtemberg, for example, are in future to be presented with a free copy of Hitler’s masterpiece, “ My Fight.” Meanwhile, German women on the Czechoslovak frontier have complained to the leader that they are finding it difficult to obtain husbands, so many Germans in this region having married Czechoslovak women in recent years—they say the Czech women are better cooks! As usual Hitler is to the rescue. From now on every German who wants to marry a Czechoslovak bride must, if he cannot be prevailed upon to give up the idea, pay a fine of three hundred marks. ® 3$ CIXTY YEARS AGO (fro m the "Star" ° of April 17, 1874): Northern Railway.—This line was again opened for traffic yesterday to Rangiora, but passengers by the morning down train were subjected to an hour’s delay through the locomotive getting out of order. The driver could not take the train further than Kaiapoi, and a message was sent down to the meat factory for the locomotive which was engaged working the ballast waggons. It was run up to Kaiapoi as speedily as possible, and taking its exhausted fellow (No. 8) and the train in tow, it proceeded to Christchurch. Auckland.—A barque has anchored in the Rangitoto Channel, which is believed to be the Tone, from London, after a passage of 117 days; no immigrants.