General News

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25996, 27 December 1949, Page 4

General News

Christmas Day of 17 Hours To have the first seven hours snipped.off their Christmas Day after an abbreviated Christmas Eve was the experience of passengers on the British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines D.C. 6, which arrived at Whenuapai soon after 5 p.m. on Sunday. However, Christmas dinner was served on board with the traditional turkey and pudding while the aircraft was flying nigh in the air between Fiji and Auckland. The interior of the machine was decorated for the occasion. When midnight was passed on the flight from Honolulu to Fiji, passengers entered Christmas Eve by world time standards. However, they slept through most of it, for shortly after 7 a.m. the aircraft crossed the international date line and it was Christmas Day.—(P.A.) Four Vehicles Damaged A succession of accidents in which four vehicles were damaged followed a collision between a car driven by Mr C. A. Stratford, of Temuka. and a truck driven by Mr A. M. Jones, of-. Timaru, near Cassidy’s garage, Evan’s street, Timaru, at 11.40 p.m. on Friday. Both vehicles were damaged, the' truck coming to rest on the crown of the road with the lights off. A crowd had gathered round the truck when another car. driven by Mr J. G. Leckie, of Pleasant Point, ran into the stationary truck. It bounced off the truck, went, through the crowd without hitting anyone, went over the footpath intc Lukey’s lane where it struck a parked car, and crashed through a fence, finally hitting a house. The cars owned by Messrs Leckie and Stratford were too badly damaged to be driven away. None of the drivers* or spectators was injured. Record Tasman Crossing The record for a flight across the Tasman by a civil aircraft was lowered by four minutes on Saturday when a British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines D.C. 6 flew from Mascot aerodrome, Sydney, to overhead at Whenuapai in 4hrs 6min. The aircraft, the Adventure, was flying under charter to Tasman Empire Airways and carried 33 passengers. It was commanded by Captain Bruce Dicksen. The extent to which the aircraft was assisted by the wind in its fast crossing is shown by the time of shrs 40min which the Adventure took on the return flight to Sydney on the same day.—(P.A.) Sumner Tram Derailed The regular tram service to Sumner was interrupted for more than three hours yesterday after a one-man tram with two trailers had been derailed at the Redcliffs end of the causeway. The tram, which had left the square for Sumner at 11.45 a.m., came to rest straddling the two sets of rails on the loop at the end of the causeway, after the front wheels had taken the righthand rails and the rear ones the lefthand. The trailers were not derailed. Workmen found the task of restoring the tram to the rails difficult, in the soft ground, with little room to work in, and it was not until about 3.30 p.m. that the tram was back on the rails. In the meantime buses were used to take passengers from Mount Pleasant to Sumner. The normal through service was restored about 4 o’clock. St. Mark’s Church Bell Opawa residents were surprised to hear the St. Mark’s church bell, Opawa, ringing for all services on Christmas Day. After the recent fire, which destroyed the church, the bell was found to have a number of cracks in the metal, but after welding the bell was found to have as good a tone as before the fire. Parish members put the bell into position on Saturday morning with a block and tackle. Tree at Masthead A Christmas tree festooned with coloured lights was hoisted to the masthead of the Port Line’s motor-ship Port Lyttelton at Prince’s Wharf, Auckland. In accordance with the crew’s annual custom, the tree will remain at the masthead for 12 days.