People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20502, 2 January 1935, Page 8

People and Their Doings .

Frank Bellamy Has Made Three Centuries in His Last Five Shield Matches : Mr Albert Bidgood Was Trained by a Famous Band Master.

M* ALBERT BIDGOOD, who will be the manager for the J. C. Williamson Picture Corporation when the Crystal Palace re-opens, in his musical and theatrical career has had varied experiences ranging from playing for a vaudeville turn in w'hich Charlie Chaplin took a part for thirty shillings a week, to conducting a band in St Paul’s Cathedral, London, for a church parade at which King Edward was present. Mr Bidgood was trained as a band conductor by Lieutenant-Colonel M’Kenzie Rogan, late of the Coldstream Guards, and the bands which came under his baton in London included the Plaistow Military Band, the Poplar Borough Band, the Hertfordshire Yeomanry, the Beck ton Gas Works Military Band, the West llam Imperial Band and Albert Bidgood’s Military Band. Orchestral Band and Dance Band. Lord Robert and Lord Methuen both took a personal interest in Mr Bidgood’s studies of military music. Incidentally, the long list of orchestras for which he was pianist before he became so well known to theatre patrons in Christchurch included the Mildmay Park Working Men’s Club, run by the family of J. Fuller, sen. J> RESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S appointment of Miss Josephine Roche as assistant-Treasury Secretary came at an opportune moment when the specialists on social insurance in the States were criticising the President’s policy. They wanted social insurance, plenty of it, and quickly. Miss Roche is an outstanding experimentalist in social insurance through the operation of her coal properties. She was first offered the post of chairman of the National Relations Labour Board, but she informed the President that her coal mine in Colorado offered such an opportunity for experiment in the labour field that she could not bear to leave. She was then offered a better field of operations in the Department of Health, where she probably feels that she has a freer hand.

FRANK BELLAMY, the Canterbury hero

of the Wellington Plunket Shield match, goes from success to success with scores of i 7, 49 and 113 in representative cricket this season. In batting he has made three centuries in his last five Shield matches, the two in the 1933-34 season being 124 against Auckland and 132 in the Otago fixture. Bellamy is now in his third season of big cricket and has a great chance of winning the Redpath Cup and securing a place in the New Zealand team to go Home. A picture of neatness both in his appearance and in all his work on the cricket field, he makes the game look easy with his left-hander’s grace. Apart from his batting Bellamy’s low left-hand bowling is always liable to be dangerous on the right wicket, as Wellington found to their cost when the Canterbury man took five wickets for 31. This is easily his best bowling performance for the province as previously he had taken only odd wickets, his last season’s average being one for 41.

a notable year batting in club cricket, which was continued in representative games, for he played eight innings for 358 runs with his highest score 132 and an average of 44.75. Apart from his efforts with the bat and ball Bellamy for years has been iri the first flight of slip fieldsmen, with an exceptionally safe pair of hands, as has been again exemplified in the matches this year. gIXTY YEARS AGO (from the "Star” of January 2, 1875) : New Year's Eve.—The ushering in of New Year was observed at Port on Thursday night in good style. Shortly before midnight, the bells in town and on shipboard commenced to ring, guns were fired, and a brass band paraded the streets. For a long time the shower of rockets from the ships was incessant, and had a beautiful effect. The display made by the Merope is worthy of particular attention. From every yard and high in the trucks there was a blaze of blue lights, finishing up with showers of rockets. The usual watch-night service took place in the Wesleyan Church. The largest marine engine, in the world.— The Messages de Cronstadt says that on the 30th ult., the engine of the new armourplated double turret-ship Pierre le Grand was tried in the basin at Cronstadt. This colossal engine is of 1400 horsepower nominal, and is the most" powerful that has ever been placed in an armour-plated vessel, 1350 horse nominal being the power of the engines in the English ships Minotaur, Northumberland and Agincourt. The engine worked from the first moment admirably, and was worked for eight hours without any necessity arising for stopping it.

educated at the Addington School, where he showed early promise and was chosen by the Sydenham Club for free membership as the boy at the school with the outstanding cricket prospects. lie worked his way up through the lower grades and seven years ago entered the first grade for Sydenham. In his earlier days he was a steady batsman, but was chiefly noticeable for his work with the ball. However, he polished up his batting considerably on taking his place in the first-grade side. In the 1932-33 season he first played for Canterbury, having three innings, the first of which was a bright and workmanlike G 6. Last season he had