MRS J. CUMMINGS BACK IN N.Z.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 143, 30 March 1948, Page 6

MRS J. CUMMINGS BACK IN N.Z.

HURT IN ACCIDEENT LAST SEPTEMBER (P.A.) AUCKLAND, March 29. Seriously injured in a motor accident in Australia nearly seven months ago, Mrs J. Cummings, wife of the Commissioner of Police, arrived at Auckland from Sydney to-night in the motor-ship Port Jackson. She was transferred in the stream in a stretcher which was lowered to a launch by the ship’s gear. She had been in the Wr agar aft a Hospial since the accident, and after spending a night with her daughter, Mrs Charles C. Crosby, of Epsom, she will leave by train for her home in Wellington tomorrow. Sister Kathleen Phillips, who has. nursed Mrs Cummings throughout her stay in hospital, accompanied her on the voyage from Sydney. Although Mrs Cummings is making an excellent recovery from her injuries, it was not possible for her to walk down the gangway to the launch, which took other passengers from the anchorage in the stream to the shore. Soon after the ship arrived in harbour a launch, with two St. John Ambulance men aboard, drew alongside, and preparations for the transfer of Mrs Cummings began. She was securely strapped in a stretcher and carried on to the upper deck. Other passengers gathered round to say good-bye, and Mrs Cummings smilingly waved to them as the stretcher was connected by wire ropes to the ship’s lifting gear. One of the .ambulance officers stood astride the stretcher to steady it as it was raised elowly above the deck and slowly swung out over the water 50 feet below. The stretcher was gently lowered, and within seconds the passengers, who were watching tensely over the ship’s rail, saw the patient carefully placed in the launch. A few minutes later Mrs Cummings was carried from the launch to an ambulance which was waiting at the wharf. Mrs Cummings * and her husband were injured when a Victorian police car in which they were returning to Sydney after visiting Melbourne collided with a large truck at Chiltern, 18 miles north-east of Melbourne, on September 2. Mr Cummings received head bruises and neck injuries, and was in hospital for some weeks. Mrs Cummings received serious head injuries, and for some time was on the dangerously ill list. Mrs Cummings had been attending a police commissioners’ conference in Brisbane.