LONDON LIFE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 10, 3 September 1931, Page 4

LONDON LIFE

iPOST-CARb FIENDS AN OLD CUSTOM THAT DIES HARD. ' LUXURY IN THE AIR. (Special to the "Post" by Geoffrey Tebbutt-) ' LONDON, July 15.. "We arrived safely and the weatheris fairly good." ■ I wonder how many thousands of times these identical words, and how j manyjiundreds of thousands of words of similar weight, are written on the backs of post-cards in these islands in July and August? The average i Englishman, and even more so, the ! average Englishwoman, cahnot bear ; to undertake a holiday without sending anxious relatives and indifferent office associates the news that the journey to Brighton, Ramsgate, or Umpleerink-by- Sea has'been accomplished without injury or danger, and that the weather, upon arrival is so-and-so. The farther the post-card fiend gets from home the more insistent is his determination that his friends shall know he has achieved Boulagne in safety or made Ostend without shipwreck. One would think buccaneers still infested the Channel, or that it was no uncommon thing for the bodies of boatloads of day excursionists to Calais (without passport), to be washed up in hundreds on the beach. In an office of my acquaintance, the manager, the assistant manager, and the eashier this morning received identical post-cards announcing a safe arrival and the state of the weather — from the office boy, who had ventured to Portmouth.

London on Holidays. The London summer season having reached its climax in the Eton and Harrow match at Lord's, we shall soon be at the stage when the writers of Society gossip declare that everybody who matters is out of town. This season's encounter between the two famous schools — the 101st— was, i as usual, won by Eton, and, as usual, it was made the excuse for a charming parade of fashion by the sons and daughters of the aristocracy- Fortunately, nobody ' (except the ardent • partisans of the schools) pretends that the cricket matters much, even though it occupies many columns in the most serious of our newspapersWith great respect to Eton and Harrow, I must say that I relished the commen upon the match by the cricket writer of a less learned newspaper, who, after saying that it was all very well in its way, and that there were certain useful batsmen and bow-ers on each side, added:' "And now let us turn to some real crcket," and promptly went on to discuss the county championship. I am sorry if either past or present scholars of Eton and Harrow were pained by ; these blunt remarks ; but I am sure ! that they reflect the attitude of a good many of those millions who were at neither Eton nor Harrow, but who like to see the relative merits of schoolboy and first-class cricket in their true perspective. This month and next, therefore, England will be on holidays. The greater part of it, with wives, children, bowler hats, umbrellas, raincoats, goloshes, reserves . of woollen underwear, will go at the same ti'me to the seaside town it visited last year and the one before that, exchange notes on boarding-houses with equal-ly-qualified experts of the same leng-

thy exp.erience, write post-cards to its friends to say how it enjoyed itself j(or how bad the weather was), and return to save 'up for next year's holiday. The lesser part of England will be wondering just how sporting the sporting birds are going to he this autumn, whether they will be plentiful and sufficiently high-spirited to fly up and be killed in a suitably dashing manner. Stretches of fishing water will he leased, wealthy Americans will pay good prices for sporting estates, the ladies of the land will be photographed looking charming and at the same time bringing down a brace of birds with one shot. . . . Things don't change much. "High Spots" and Swift Travel. The Handley Page biplane "Hannibal,,J just put into service on the | London-Paris run, was a revelation to j those privileged to be aboard on her ; — or his — first "official" flight on this route- "Hannibal" took off straight from the tarmac, leaving the ground after an astonishingly short run, and again the expert passengers were impressed when, as the machine crossed the edge of the aerodrome," the altimeter showed'no less than 500 feet. Quickiy the giant craft climbed to something more than 7000 feet. Somebody rang for drinks and the steward came through the door, balancing on one hand a tray crammed with glasses, bottles and a soda 'syphon just as if he were in .a London restaurant instead of moving inside a saloon being hurled through the air at a hundred miles an hour nearly two miles above the level of Piccadilly Circus. One passenger left a brimming glass of beer standing on the table for more than ten minutes, another forgot dbout his coffee, brought in a wide cup, for nearly a quarter of an hour; not a drop was spilt. When "Hannibal" arrived back in London that evening the second of the fleet, styled "Hadrian," was resting oustide the hangars. The third is ready for test flights and the remaining five are all in an advanced stage of construction at the^ Handley Page factory. Four of the fleet will be fitted with seating accommodation for 38 passengers and placed in service on the European routes; the othersj including "Hannibal," with space for 18 passengers and lifting a much larger amount of mails and urgent freight, will go out East.