People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20285, 20 April 1934, Page 6

People and Their Doings.

Mr John Masefield Will Attend the Melbourne Centenary : A Remarkable Record of Pilgrimages to Rome : The Origin of the Cherry Groves About Birch Hill.

recent death of Kathl Kopp at Oberammergau, at the age of eighty-three, has drawn attention to one of the most remarkable women of modern times. At sixty-three, the “ Kopp-Kathl,” as she was affectionately known, vowed she would make twelve pilgrimages to Rome, and she had already made ten at the time of her death. She began her task in November, 1913, setting out on foot with five pfennigs in her pccketbook. Wading through deep snow over the Brenner Pass she made her way to Italy, spending nights in Alpine huts, shepherds’ huts and even cemeteries. She entered Rome on Epiphany, 1914, and asked the way to the Vatican. People smiled, but Pope Pius heard of her coming. “ Let her be brought to me.” he said. “ The pilgrim who knocks at the door on Epiphany shall not leave without my blessing.” On the following clay Kathl was received by the Pope and started back for Oberammergau the same afternoon, reaching her home in two months. In July, 1914, she started for Rome again. At Trieste she turned back. The World War had begun. ® W JTOUR years later saw Kathl Koop struggling over the trenches and barbed wire entanglements of the Alps, reaching Rome after many weeks. Police found her on the steps of St Peter’s, and she was taken to hospital, where she stayed four weeks. When the Pope, now Benedict, heard she was again in Rome, he sent one of his servants to her with a greeting. Eight times after that the aged woman made the pilgrimage to Rome, saving from her tiny invalid’s pension for the visits. In the jubilee year, 1925, she took part in three pilgrims’ processions. The doors of the Vatican were opened to her and Pius XI. received her and gave her his Papal blessing. She became a familiar figure to the Swiss Guard and also to thousands of Italians on her route. Thousands of visitors to the Passion Play' called on her modest little home. Just as she was preparing for another visit, death claimed her at eightv-three on the twentieth anniversary of her first entrance into the Eternal City.

jyjß JOHN MASEFIELD, the Poet Laureate, will visit Melbourne daring the Centenary celebrations. John Masefield was born at Liverpool, England, fifty-eight years ago. He came from a home that

could not give him the benefits of an elaborate education. As a youth he ran away to sea, and. serving before the mast for several years, gained experience which is reflected in his writings Friendless and without money, he wandered for some time through the United States of America, working for farmers and as an ordinary labourer. Once he took a job as a bar-tender in New York. When he returned to England about the beginning of this century, he became a journalist, and later a poet. He has written more than fifty volumes of prose and poetry. Masefield is recognised as the 'eading poet of the sea. At his home near Oxford Masefield has a private theatre in which he presents classical plays to his friends. Here, also, he has a wild plantation as a sanctuary for birds. He is not unfamiliar with Australians, and in his book “Gallipoli,” he pays a high tribute to the Anzacs. ® W gIXTY YEARS AGO (from the “ Star ” of April 20, 1574) The New Police Depot.—The police have removed to a new depot near the Public Library, Hereford Street West. In the most westerly building are the Commissioner’s, accountant’s and storekeeper’s offices, and the record room. In the commissioner’s office all matters connected with the depot, and the general management, and the supervision of the several districts throughout the province, receive attention. Grahamstown.—When Major Gordon was here making his annual inspection of the Volunteers, he passed a severe stricture on the No. 1 Royals of the district, in consequence of which the company is going to disband.

QOLONEL E. B. MILLTON, of Birch Hill, who was invited by the Advisory Committee on Tree Planting in North Canterbury to give information at their meeting on Wednesday, has carried out a. large amount of tree-planting on his station. The cherry groves in his district originated from three trees planted about seventy or eighty years ago, the distribution of the seed being carried out by the birds and himself. Regarding the beautifying of the bridge-heads, he mentioned that these at the Ashley Gorge, Glentui, the Wash Pool and the Garry had been planted in the past, and he was anxious that the Ashley Bridge at Rangiora should receive similar attention. In this locality- there was scope for an avenue of poplars similar to the beautiful avenue at Kaiapoi. Conifers could be planted as a background for the poplars, and judicious use could be made of the golden willow and the palm lily or cabbage tree. Colonel Milltcn snowed specimens of the autumn foliage of trees which, if planted in stiitable localities, would do much to beautify the countryside. & s$F ALEXANDER KERENSKY, who was Prime Minister of Russia at the age of thirty-six, before the Bolsheviks obtained power, te:V in 'The Ciuc.iixiot; of Liberty ” of the methods by which Lenin and Trotsky rose to power, and of the violence of the Revolution. When Kerensky was overthrown he continued to live in Russia, but in 1918 the Bolsheviks set a price on his head, and he left by way of Murmansk, on a British destroyer. From England he went to other European countries, and now he publishes a Russian newspaper in Paris. sjp INVENTOR of the “comic strip,” which is now a regular feature of so many papers, is usually said to be Caran d’Ache, the wittiest of all French draughtsmen: but as a matter of fact Caran d’Ache, an album of whose brilliant work has just been issued in England after too many years, was preceded by the German artist, Wilhelm Busch, who invented Max and Moritz.