FALSE ALARM FOR LIFEBOAT

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28472, 30 December 1957, Page 5

FALSE ALARM FOR LIFEBOAT

Quick Muster Of Crew The Sumner lifeboat was alerted by a false alarm about 7 p.m. yesterday. The siren on the Sumner Town Hall sounded and there was a quick muster of the crew at the Shag Rock boatshed. The boat did ndt put out and as soon as it was known there was no emergency the crew dispersed and went home. Cars quickly congested the nearby highway and at one stage nearly 300 vehicles were bunched up. Bus services to Sumner from Christchurch were delayed. The siren was set off by a switch at the Sumner Band Rotunda which was housed in a box with a glass door. When the box was later inspected, it was found that the door was broken and the hinges were rusty. It obviously had been like this for some time, a police spokesman said. The penalty for tampering with the box and switch was £5.

It was possible that ohildren playing on the rotunda had set the alarm off, he said. Normally, all alerts for the lifeboat were handled by the Sumner police and the switch at the rotunda had not been used to signal an emergency.

Bodies of Earthquake Victims.— The bodies of 1932 persons killed by the recent Persian earthquakes have been recovered from 165 shattered villages, according to the Governor of Kermanshah in Western Persia. The Governor was reporting to the Shah who flew to Western Persia to visit the stricken areas.—Teheran, December 29. ,