People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20519, 22 January 1935, Page 6

People and Their Doings.

When the Hospital Messenger had time to run a Successful

Shoemakers Business : Foot and Mouth Disease affects the King’s Show Entries.

JN THE LIGHT of some of the humours of hospital management in the early days, it is interesting to speculate on the effect the establishment of a medical school at Canterbury College would have had on the working of the Christchurch Hospital. In a valuable history of the Christchurch Hospital, Dr P. Clennell Fenwick quotes the report of an inquiry in 1878. made for the purposes of reform, which states: “ There was at the Hospital a messenger who received £6O a year and board, who had so little to do that he conducted with success a shoemaker’s business within the precincts of the Hospital, one of the offices forming his workshop.” U 'J'HE NURSES in those days had one benefit, which would, no doubt, have appealed to the medical students. The nurses drew a beer ration, one pint a day being their allowance. And the beer ration was evidently popular among other employees, for a later inquiry states that 41 pints of beer were missing at the end of the month, evidently an overdraft. The standard of education for nurses was not high, for the regulations laid down that “ nurses must be able to read and write. They must treat the sick with kindness, see that all the patients are in bed after the doors are locked, and put the gas down on retiring to rest.” As the author of the history remarks, apparently the question of fire did not occur, but one must feel concern for the safety of patients who were put to bed behind locked doors. 35? 3J? © r |HIE REASON why Sir Malcolm Campbell continues to call each new racing car he builds the Blue Bird is to be found in the story of his first Blue Bird, which he ran for two years, and which never failed him. he says, until on August Bank Holiday, 1912, he nearly met with disaster. “ I was on the scratch mark with the Blue Bird, and was confident of success, as she was running better than' ever. All went well at first, but just before entering the finishing straight, when I was about to pass the car that was then lying third, my

off front tyre burst. I knew that if I could only keep going the race was mine, and instead of being sensible and slowing down immediately, I kept my foot hard down on the accelerator pedal. By this time the car was beginning to skid violently. Still I kept on, and in the tussle she caught the cement kerb which runs the length of the straight. Instantly the car leapt into the air, and, at the same time, the offside front wheel was torn off, pieces of it flying in all directions. The rim, in fact, narrowly missed one of the attendants who was standing on the inside of the railings. “It seemed ages before the rear wheel hit the same spot; almost an eternity. When this did happen, however, the offside rear wheel immediately collapsed, and we went hurtling down the straight on two wheels, at a speed of over 100 miles an hour. It was only bv a miracle that the car was prevented from overturning, but we eventually managed to pull up on an even keel, just outside the paddock, having travelled the entire length of the straight on two wheels. What is more, I finished fourth. I realised at once how amazingly luck}’- we had been, and that is why I have kept to the same name ever since.” g? 3® jpOOT and mouth disease restrictions in Berkshire have prevented the King from exhibiting several head of cattle entered for this week’s Birmingham Fat Stock Show, says London “ Truth ” of December 5, and at Smithfield Show his Majesty will not be able to show eight head of cattle—Herefords, Shorthorns and cross-breeds—which had been entered from his Windsor farm. His Majesty is, however, sending Red Poll and Highland cattle from Sandringham, together with Southdown sheep and Berkshire pigs, and he has also entered exhibits in the carcass competitions. The Prince of Wales is sending cattle from his farm at Stoke Climsland, Cornwall. At the first of the big fat-stock shows, at Norwich, the King received a first prize for a steer in the Red Poll class among other prizes. Two of the four Royal exhibits in the Edinburgh Show are from his Majesty’s Deeside farm at Abergeldie Mains, while the other two have been sent from Sandringham.

DAME RACHAEL CROWDY, who is endeavouring to raise funds to help the White Russians in Manchukuo, two-thirds of whom, she says, are living on the verge of starvation, retired from the League of Nations Secretariat in 1931. Before she left she was doing, as Chief of the Social Questions and Opium Traffic Section at a salary just a third of that paid to directors, work which had later to be divided between two directors. At her retirement, “ Time and Tide” said: “The whole business is a queer commentary on the clause in the Covenant referring to equality of opportunity for men and women.” Dame Rachael left the League under a rule that all senior members of the Secretariat should be employed on a seven years’ contract renewable at the discretion of the Secretary-General. © 9 © 3X R CHARLES CHAUVEL. the Australian film producer, has received an invitation from Oueen Marau. of Tahiti, to return to her island and make a picture dealing with its colourful history and the lives of her subjects. Queen Marau will co-operate in the production, and invite the entire native population to assist Mr Chauvel as much as possible. Mr Chauvel was given a cordial reception by the Queen a little more than two years ago, when he was in Tahiti, to obtain exterior scenes for “In the Wake of the Bounty.” She was impressed with the beautiful photography. Mr Chauvel has just completed the £3OOO picture “ Heritage,” for Expeditionary Films. Ltd., and after it has been given its premiere, he hopes to arrange to take a production unit to Tahiti. © 9 CIXTY YEARS AGO (from the “Star” of January 22, 1875) : Auckland, January 22. —Ohinemuri will be opened very shortly. Many miners are prospecting there. The alluvial prospects are meagre. Quartz reefs abound, and prospects there are very good. The nativs are prospecting. An exodus from the Thames is expected. Immigration. A portion of the immigrants per the ship Lady Jocelyn may b; engaged at the Immigration Depot. Adding ton, to-morrow. The Immigration Officer states that a number of the passengers by the ship will be sent to the country depots.