People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20477, 1 December 1934, Page 12

People and Their Doings.

New Zealand Author has Unique Collection of Victorian Court Pictures : Lord Nuffield Saved Oxford’s High Street : Great Jockey's Fiftieth Birthday.

CTEVE DONOGHUE had his fiftieth birthday on October 15. He celebrated the event twenty-four hours ahead by winning the Grand Criterium on the Aga Khan’s colt Pampiero at Longchamp. The race is the principal French two-year-old contest. Steve won by half a length from C. Elliott on Corrida. Mesa, ridden by the Australian, W. “Togo” Johnstone, was third, three-quarters of a length behind. The win was Donoghue’s second in recent French races, and as he is almost as popular on the Continent as he is in England, there were many backers of Pampiero “ because Steve is riding it.” Donoghue has been riding regularly for thirty years, and still his judgment of pace and his ability to balance his mounts for the final stages of a thrilling finish are as brilliant as ever. *o^ NEW PEER, Lord Nuffield, formerly Sir William Morris, of motor-car fame, is one of the most enterprising captains of industry in England—covirageous and public-spirited into the bargain. It has been said that there is a risk of his commercialising Oxford: but Oxford’s spires dream on, while Lord Nuffield’s model works and model town in the outskirts do nothing to detract from the beauties of the ancient city. More—it was Lord Nuffield who saved its High Street—“ the most beautiful street in the w r orld ” —from being disfigured by electric trams. This was in 1913, when he was Mr William Morris. He had applied to the council for a license to run buses, and was ignored. He therefore bought a fleet of buses, and a corps of skilled drivers arrived from London by night, so that the day should break on a perfectlv running service. Within an hour after the service was in faultless progress there was a detective on every vehicle, asking who had put it on the road. To take money on the buses would at that stage have been illegal; but, coupons for rides were on sale in the shops en route. The council took legal advice, which was to the effect that the innovator could be

h sent to gaol; but the council feared to l take such a drastic step. Instead, they instituted a line of opposition buses, which 1 Mr Morris blanketed by running one of his j own vehicles fore and aft, preventing the , j council buses from securing a single pas- , I senger. Eventually the council bought s their opponent’s line. “ Just as well they did,” said he. “If they hadn't, I should t have been bust! ” And he revealed how once he had a ’ cheque for £11.000,000 shaken in front of . his face “ for the Morris organisation and [ allied concerns.” lie refused it. S 3? rjMIE CELEBRATED Dionne quintuplets, charges of the Government of Ontario and since last May Canada’s most famous family, approached a combined weight of forty-five pounds as they neared the end of their fifth month. At that stage they had outgrown the handicap of their premature birth in a farm house at Callander, in Northern Ontario, and were held to have the normal expectation of life possessed by infants of perhaps half their age. Snug in their quarters in the little hospital built for them across the road from their parents farm, the quintuplets survived a dangerous attack of intestinal toxaemia, had their first manicures, their first sun baths, and found they were being fed at four-hour intervals instead of every three hours. The Government is spending close to £2OOO to extend into the hospital an electric power line which will assure the babies still further against the vicissitudes of babvhood. An interesting incident was the appearance in the daily newspapers of an advertisement of a corn syrup with the statement of the Dionne trustees that this brand had been used in the babies’ food. There are five trustees in whom, under the Government, are vested the assets and financial concerns of the quintuplets.

«IR MICHAEL SADLER, who is retiring ‘ 5 at the end of the year from the Mastership of University College, Oxford, is to marry Miss Eva Margaret Gilpin, headmistress of the Hall School, Weybridge. The wedding will be the culmination of a fortyyears friendship. Sir Michael is seventy-three and his bride-to-be is in the sixties. Miss Gilpin founded the Hall School in 1898, but is retiring at the end of this term. She is a member of the Society/of Friends. Sir Michael, whose first wife died in 1931, said lecently: “Miss Gilpin formerly lived at Leeds with our relations, and later she lived with us at Weybridge and was a g 'eat friend of my wife.’* Sir "Michael added that Miss Gilpin had taught his son, Mr Michael Sadler, the author and publisher, as well as his son s children. ® gIXTY YEARS AGO (from the “Star” of December 1, 1874) :—- New Plymouth. November 30—The Natives living along the coast at Parihaka have been trying to change some waterwashed Sydney Bank notes. They say they found them in the pocket of a waistcoat washed ashore at the end of September, when a piece of wreck was washed ashore on Harriet beach. Fifteen notes were in one pocket, and three in another. The waistcoat with other clothes was in a seaman’s bag. and it is supposed now that the wreck reported was that of the Eleanor from Newcastle to Lyttelton. , Baseball.—Writing of the American game of baseball, the “ Hobart Town Mercury ” says:—This recently-introduced game appears to be gaining favour among a large number of our cricketers. It is intended to hold a practice game on the Cricket Association ground to-day, at which it is expected that several officers of the Swatara will take part.