HOMELAND HAPPENINGS

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 November 1935, Page 5

HOMELAND HAPPENINGS

ROAD VICTIMS, i [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS] RUGBY, .November 7. The accident figures for Britain for the week ending November 2, were 157 killed and 4,594 injured, compared with 178 killed and 4,230 injured’ in the corresponding week of 1934. COMMERCIAL MOTORS. The commercial motoi* transport exhibition opened at Olympia to-day. The visitors include a large attendance of foreign buyers. The exhibits range from large coaches and lorries to small delivery tricycles, and include fire engines, ambulances, and dustcarts. Diesel engines are in the ascendancy, and electric vehicles also compete with petrol engines. Threewheel tractors, which can be automatically coupled to detachable trailers, are a prominent feature, offering a degree of manoeuvrability, rivalling any horse-drawn vehicle. One firm shows a street-sweeper collector which looks like being as efficient on the roads as a carpet sweeper in the home. There are several fine examples of modern ambulance construction. Light vans ,are shown by a. largo number of makers, and the special needs of. every conceivable trade and its delivery ‘requirements, are provided for. Crowds show particular interest in the various “stripped chassis” exhibits, showing details of transmission, for. example, of a big rail car priced at £5OOO and driven by 230 horsepower Diesel engines. t ‘NAVY CONTRACTS. The cruiser contracts in the 1935 programme are completed with the allocation of an order for machinery for a third cruiser to Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company;; a Clyde firm which already has in hand, the hull and machinery of H.M.S. Glasgow, of the 1934 programme, and two destroyers. The additional contract is estimated to be worth about half a- million pounds. The sixth nhval vessel to be launched on the Clyde this year, the destroyer Gipsy, took the water from Fairfields’ yard, to-day. H.M.S. Garland, a sister-ship, was launched by the same firm over a week ago. Both vessels are of 1,400 tons displacement..

YOUNG COMPOSER. Considerable interest is aroused in musical circles- by the performance in the programme of- the 8.8. C. Queen’s Hall concert) of the First Symphony by a young composer,, of- growing reputation; William Walton, Who is still under 30. The performance, which was conducted by Sir. Hamilton Harty, was very welli received; by music critics in. tile Pressi They praise the completed work, the first three movements of which xvere performed last year, as full of invention with passages of ’great beauty. LOUD-SPEAKERS. A development of modern electioneering, which has grown with each campaign of recent years, is the use of amplifying relaying equipment. Loud-speakers are installed at every big meeting, and xvhere the principal speakers are of national reputation, the speeches may be relayed to neighbouring halls. Loud-speakers are also in demand for open air gatherings, and wireless vans are in use. _ The. coincidence of the general election campaign with Armistice Day ceremonies, is straining to the utmost, the resources of firms providing apparatus of this kind.