SYDNEY SCENE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 196, 21 August 1939, Page 5

SYDNEY SCENE.

MUSICIAN'S ROMANCE. TO MARRY A BARONESS. FIRST MET AT A DANCE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 12. A Mosman young man, Osric B. Fyfe, 25, who won his way'with a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, London, will be married next month to Baroness van der Heyde, 21-year-old heiress of "The Grange," Sherborne, Dorsetshire. Their engagement is the result of a romance at first forbidden by the Baroness' mother, who has now relented and consented to the marriage. Mr. Fyfe met the Baroness two years ago at a dance. They danced all night together while the heiress' mother watched from a corner of the room with a disapproving eye. She thought her daughter, descendant of an unbrokeri German line for several centuries, too good for an unknown Australian. Naturally, however, Mrs. Fyfe will not agree that her son is not good enough for the other woman's daughter, whoever she may be. Mayor's Attack on B.H.P. The Mayor of Newcastle, Alderman Jenner, showed considerable temerity when in Newcastle, which practically depends for its, existence on the 8.H.P., he attacked that big concern while speaking at a reception to a missionary from Japan. The company recently disclosed a new record net profit of approximately £1.400,000. Alderman Jenner contended that the huge profits it had been making for the last few years should not all have gone to the shareholders. He said there were three

courses in Industry: Capital, represented by the shareholders; brains, the executive; and brawn, the workers. It was not fair that one section should reap all the profits; they should be divided into three parts. He suggested that the company should be run on cooperative lines. "It must come later," he declared. ' Girl Used as Decoy. A red-headed girl of 17 said in Central Police Court this week that two men had used her as a decoy for assault and robbery. An electrician said he was following the girl on to an allotment at Surry Hills when two men who seemed to be carrying revolvers came up to him. One of them said, "What are you doing with my wife? Tut up your hands. I've a good mind to shoot you." The girl disappeared, and the electrician was knocked unconscious with the butt of a revolver, with the result that he was in hospital for five days. The police alleged that two other men had been similarly decoyed to the place and attacked. Two men were committed for trial on a charge of assault and robbery. Weighing Machines Disappear. A manufacturer of weighing machines has dismissed 10 of his staff because shopkeepers, fearing that the machines will be stolen, are refusing to hire them. Although these heavy machines cannot be removed without using a truck, in the last fortnight 15 of them, valued at more than £1000, have been stolen. They are usually abandoned after thev have been, forced, so that -the thieves can collect the pennies inside them. In one theft at Bondi the thieVes actually dug a machine out of the concrete in which it was embedded and then tried to hire a taxi to take it away with them. Family Saved From Gas. A Bondi family of three had a remarkable escape from being asphyxiated by deteriorated gas pipes. At 2.30 a.m. the daughter awoke and, finding the smell of gas in her room unbearable, made up a bed in the lounge. She woke again at 6 a.m., feeling worse, staggered into her parents' room and after calling out, "Dad," fell unconscious. The father woke up, saw his daughter on the floor, threw open the window and then himself collapsed. A little later the daughter recovered con-,

sciousness, dragged her father into the kitchen by his legs, and was going back for her mother when she swooned again and in falling struck her head on the stove. She and her father lay unconscious together for nearly an hour. Then the father recovered and staggering on to the verandah called for help. Aid arrived just in time. A doctor stated that if the mother had been in the bedroom another two minutes she would have died. Drive For New Industry. The Associated Chambers of Manufacture, with the support of the wealth Government, have launched a drive for new industries. They aim to replace imported products valued at £50,000,000 a year, and have prepared a 300-page book giving full particulars of the opportunities for manufacturers in Australia. They have a representative now in the United States on the same business. The book lists 12,000 products which could be manufactured in Australia, and gives details of 30 principal opportunities for industrial expansion affecting imports now valued r-t £30,000,000. Among the products are: Adding and computing machines, cameras, cotton piece goods, drups, chemicals and fertilisers, cash registers, hand tools, machine tools, motor engiuss, chassis cycles, electrical machinery, pottery and china, rayon yarn cloth. Round the World—U.S.A. The announcement that Imperial Airways have been forced by lack of aircraft to restrict outward passeiyrer bookings has created a very bad effect in Sydney, an effect which has not been removed by the allegation of the former Federal Minister for Civil Aviation (Mr. Thorby) that it is the result of overloading with mails, and only goes to show how right he was to maintain a surcharge on outward mails from Australia. This is regarded--as just a special piece of pleading by Mr. Thorby, and is not accepted as a reasonable justification for Imperial Airways being caught out so badly. At the time of writing it seems probable that the Dutch airline may < secure permission from the Commonwealth to fill the gap. It shows how i little Imperial Airways' difficulty was < suspected that only recently the Dutch < company decided to cut out one of their 1 bi-weekly services to Australia because ] their subsidy had been cut in Holland, ii