ITEMS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 84, 3 January 1929, Page 10

ITEMS IN BRIEF

FROM FAR AND NEAR British Revenue. —The London “Financial Times,” analysing the three-quar-ter’s revenue, expresses the opinion that Mr. Churchill will have a comfortable, if unspectacular, surplus. The prospects justify a small remission in taxation. — Aus. Press Assn. Fall from Train into River.—A Press Association telegram from Whangaroi states that Jock Dempster (45), an employee at the Portland Cement Works, fell from a railway carriage platform when the train was passing over the Topuni bridge on Tuesday, and was drowned. Nobody saw the actual cause of the accident, though some observed the victim falling into the water.

New Year Revels in London. —An Australian Press Association message from London states it is generally agreed that the New Year revels broke all records. Every hotel, restaurant, cabaret and night club was crammed. From ten to twelve thousand people drifted in the direction of St. Paul’s, where there was the same old singing and dancing, a goodnatured crowd stretching from Ludgate Circus to Cheapside.

Elderly Woman Missing.—Hundreds of searchers are combing the mountainous country in the vicinity of Macksville for traces of the seventy-years-old Mrs. Bloomfield, who disappeared from her daughter’s home on Christmas Day (states a Press Association message from Sydney). Little hope is held out of finding her alive.

Bad Liquor in New York.—Dr. Charles Norris, Chief Medical Exaihiner of New York City, reported that bad liquor, or its effects, caused 1565 deaths in New York in 1928, which is 256 more than in 1927. Dr. Norris said: “While only 138 deaths from alcoholism are recorded for 1928, there has been a marked increase in homicides, motor accidents, and accidental deaths from falls. Most of these were directly traceable to poison in alcohol.” Aus. Press Assn.

Fatality With Shotgun.—An Auckland Press Association message states that lan Morris Desmond Grey, aged six, was killed at Mount Rex, near Helensville, on Monday. A companion named Douglas Graham, aged 13, fired a shotgun at a rabbit. Grey was in the line of fire and was killed instantly.