NEWS IN BRIEF

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 164, 9 April 1934, Page 10

NEWS IN BRIEF

Clothing for Needy The Smith Family Is to conduct * clothes drive this week, commencing today, and concluding ou Saturday next. Assistance in the collect ion of clothes is being given by the employees of tlie Wellington Gas Company and the Municipal Milk Department. The need is urgent enough now, but as the winter advances there will be a very real demand by many deserving people for assistance in the way of clothes to see them through the coming six mouths. The Smith Family requests that citizens who arc able to do so will make up parcels of clothes, footwear, bedding, etc., and ring up 42-322, when they will be collected. Found Dead in Bed. A single man, aged about 50, named William Fulton, a visitor to Wellington from Blenheim, was found dead in his bod at the New Commercial Hotel on Saturday morning. An inquest will be held at 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday. Motor-cycle Strikes Dog. Thrown off his motor-cycle on Saturday evening through striking a dog near the Miramar Fire Station, Andrew Waddell, labourer, living at Weka Street, Miramar, was later admitted to .the hospital suffering from concussion. He was taken there by the Free Anibulance. Child Receives Scalds. A two-year-old child, Richard Martin, who lives with his parents at 53A Hutt Road, Lower Hutt, received severe scalds on his body, legs, and left arm, and shock, when he fell into a bucket of hot water, just drawn from the copper, on Saturday afternoon. He was taken to the hospital by. the Free Ambulance. His condition last evening was reported as being satisfactory. Knocked Down by Motor-car. At about 6 o'clock last evening, A. H. Williams, of 2 Waipapa Terrace, Hataitai, a company secretary, was knocked down by a motor-car while crossing the road near the Takapau bridge, just on tlie city side of Tawa Flat. After receiving attention from Dr. Aitken, he was taken to Hill Street Private Hospital by the Free Ambulance, suffering from a fracture to his left leg. Union Company’s Diamond Jubilee. When the Union Company celebrates its diamond jubilee next year, it hopes Sir James Mills, K.G.M.G., chairman of directors? will be in New Zealand for the event, according to a statement made by Mr. N. S. Falla, joint general manager of the company, speaking at a Marine Engineers’ Institute function on Saturday night.

Road Improvement. On the eastern side of the harbour at Lowry Bay a further improvement iu the main road is being effected. Between the paved track and the edge of the sea-wall there has always been a space of about three feet of macadam. This Is now being concreted over, so that stones from the roadway will no longer be thrown across the bitumen when the sea is rough at high water.

Champion Betty Sold. The champion Rona-Jellicoe class centreboard yacht, Betty, winner of tlie Sanders Cup three times for Canterbury and once for Wellington, has been solei by Mr. W. I-I. Wagstaff, a vice--president of the Evans Bay Yacht and Motor-boat Club, to Mr. A. Hall, of Dunedin. Mr. Wagstaff has owned Betty since 1930. and she has always been a very successful competitor in races in Wellington. She will go south this week.

Ocean Highways. “There is a great fascination about the sea and those that follow it as a career. Great oceans which divide the nations have, through the ingenuity of engineers, been made just highways to bring the nations together again.” said Mr. C. J. B. Norwood, deputy-chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board, speaking to the toast of Mr. James Smith, retiring superintending engineer of the Union Company, at a social gathering tendered by the New Zealand institute of Marine and Power Engineers to Mr. Smith on Saturday night.

Rumbling Hills. “The almost continuous loud rumblings in the hills and earth tremors experienced in the Collingwood (Nelson) district are really alarming until you become used to them,” said a Wanganui gold prospector who has just returned from there on a brief visit to his family. These tremors have not ( been so frequent since the hist severe earthquake, but previously they could be felt day and night, at short intervals, while the noise like loud thunder from the high hills was at times almost terrifying.

“Home” and “God’s Own Country.” Mr. James Smith, retiring superintending engineer of the Union Company, will leave shortly for England on a special commission for Hie company. Speaking at a social gathering in Mr. Smith’s honour, tendered by tlie Marine Engineers’ Institute on Saturday night, Mr. J. Rankine said he hoped Mr. Smith would come back again. "Too many of our able men go Home and stay there. From the point of view of the engineer or the navvy, from any point of view, New Zealand is a line little country. Let’s hope you will come back to God's own country.” Mr. Rankine announced that he himself was going to England for a trip soon, but would not stay long.

“Putting Out Smoke.” According to tales told -by Mr. P. Mackenzie, chairman of the Wellington branch, New Zealand- Institute of Marine and Power Engineers, which honoured Mr. James Smith, retiring superintending engineer of tlie Union Company, on Saturday night, one of Mr. Smith’s hobbies on Sunday has been to sit and watch the ships coming into Wellington Harbour to see how much smoke they were carrying. Mr. Mackenzie, ou behalf of tlie institute, presented Mr. Smith with a pair of field glasses, and assured him that as he passed over the seven seas on his trip to England lie would find that other ships put out more smoke than the Union Company’s vessels.

Slow or Slowly? , t Requesting that the adverb “slowly should lie used and not fhe adjective “slow,” the town clerk of Dunedin conveyed Io the Otago Motor Club the City Council’s permission to _ erectwarning signs on Anznc Highway (slates tjje "Otago Daily Times”). While not unwilling to comply with the council's request, one or two members remarked on the City Council’s own signs outside Um hospital in King Street, which read “Drive slow." while in Cumberland Street the sign read “Drive slowly." Which was correct? Nobody seemed prepared to commit himself on a question of the correct usage <>f the King’s English, and it was’" decided to refer the matter to the Cily Council, pointing out its use of the adjective and asking It to Intimate to the club which word it considered the correct one.