The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 55

HMIMtltMMJf MMtHUi.MMM I VtVi Vt -v ni cj-p oJ mum -mm AiR-corjDitiorjirjG from 03ocg PER WEEK FULLY TAX DEDUCTIBLE IMMEDIATE DELIVERY IDEAL FOR ALL PROFESSIONAL MEN AND SMALL BUSINESS PROPRIETORS FROM THIS Miss Bea Miles, who was one of Sydney's best-known eccentrics, died this week. Her death prompted a flood of sympathetic memories. Among them is one from Donald McLean, education correspondent, who first found her in strange circumstances when he was principal of Darlinghurst School. This is his story. Bea Miles on a cold night the cleaners kept a classroom firs burning for her.

Z-4" TO THIS 'jX' i i -T 4 4' poverty and not my will consents." On the previous night I had seen May Hollinworth's Metropolitan Theatre Company perform "Romeo and Juliet" and those lines of. the apothecary had stuck in my memory. I was able to retort: "1 pay thy poverty and not thy will." That staggered Bea. "Good Lord she "Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons 'in stones arid good old Will in a schoolmaster." She shook herself free of her bedclothes and stood up, dressed for the day, As we walked together towards the street we stopped to watch a Greek boy, a Latvian, a Yugoslav and an Australian who were painting in a map they had outlined on the school wall. Sanctuary I WENT to Darlinghurst School as principal at the beginning of the school but it was not until the cold weather came, in early June, that I became aware that the school had a ghost.

One day as I was taking a final look around the classrooms to see that no fires had been left burning, I found one room warm as toast with a log fire crackling in the grate. It was a timber "portable" room dry as tinder so I went looking for a bucket of water. But when I asked the cleaner to lend me her bucket she demurred. "Why do you want 'To throw water on that fire in the portable. It's too dangerous to leave it burning like that over-night" "But I just lit that for Bea," she said.

"She won't like it if you put it out." "Who's "Don't you know Bea Miles? She always sleeps here on cold nights. In the summer she sleeps in that basement under the girls school but it's too cold now. She's a bit of a nuisance really; sometimes she won't get out of bed i uniu me kius cume uhu uisiuiu her. Quiet digni "Not that she minds kids," the cleaner added. "Really she's very fond of them.

But the people round here say that she studied too hard at the university and it made her a bit you know." Perhaps, I thought, that explained why the children of Darlo Secondary School seemed to be suspicious of -study. But they did um tn like Rea. I never heard any of the sometimes rather rough-arid-ready boys cheek her or jeer; at her. I don't think she would have taken much notice if they had. Bea was a lady with a certain quiet dignity that never deserted her, even when she was trying to slip unnoticed into a taxi ot hop- 1 nouce since snc uieu iuai people have called her a hippy; but I don't think she would have liked the appelation.

She never, swore and I never heard of her drinking alcohol as for drugs, they didn't seem to be part of her scene or any Australian scene in the 1950s. Many people will remember how used to wander in the City with a notice hung around her neck offering to recite lines from Shakespeare, for a consideration. I used to pay for a one-woman recital every time I met her but she- valued Shakespeare so highly that for a florin one got only i IN ONE DAY -A I 639 0118 452 2695 Phone No. EXAMINE THE RENTACOOL BENEFIT PLAN Comfort for you and your customer Ideal working conditions for you and your staff Cooling in summer, heating in winter Dehumidifying for easy breathing XX Guaranteed free 24 hour service for. the whole of the rental periods Rental payments fully tax deductible.

By DONALD Mclean about five or six lines and for two florins the performance only lasted a couple of minutes. She could quote Shakespearean lines at appropriate times, and on one of these occasions she and I became friends (of a sortshe did not accept friendship from many people). On one sunny morning as I reached my study, Mrs Brine, the school cleaner, came to report that Bea was still in her bed under the girls' school and a teacher had complained that she was making some of the pupils anxious. I went along to the nook beneath the stairs and peered in. There she was on the floor propped up in "bed" with a sugar bag of luggage supporting Jier.

7 She was covered with some dirty rugs, her brown hair stuck out in wisps from the elastic of her eye-shade and she eyed me with the drowsy look of a lady who was not inclined to leave her humble, bed to please a mere schoolmaster. "Miss Miles," I ventured. "I have had complaints about your use of- this school as -a doss house." She looked at me with a humorous hauteur and answered with more drama than usual: "If I am A Traduced, by ignorant tongues, which neither know' My faculties of person, yet will be The chronicle of my doing, let me say 'Tis but the fate of place and the rough brake That virtue must go through." That set me back a bit, but I had to persuade her to go, so I tried bribery. Holding up two florins I said: "Here, go for a ride in a taxi." Bea was comfortable but she could not resist a taxi. As she took the money she said: "My "You see, Miss Miles," I explained, "we have 19 or 20 different nationalities' among the pupils in this school.

They or their parents have come from Europe since World War II; so we are painting a world map on which we'll mark, for the benefit of Australian kids, the countries they've come from." She was quiet fox a while while she looked at the handsome youngsters who were busy at their task. Then she burst out: "How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is, brave new world That has such people in it." We were better friends" after that though she still charged me her top price for recitals. A few methylated spirits drinkers began to use the school basement as their dormitory, so Bea deserted us. She was too much of a lady to mix with such low company. I heard afterwards that the charitable Father Hope tolerated her, and she found a sanctuary in the basement of Christ Church St Laurence.

We missed her at Darlo, but I was happy when I heard she had been taken into the care of the Little Sisters of the Poor. TH MAN FROM RENTACOOL 41 23955 Monday or post coupon below. TO RENTACOOL LTD, P.O. Bos 701, Chatswood, N.5.W. 2067 Nam Addrtss Typt of business 7 THE SUN-HERALD, DECEMBER 9, 1973.