HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18188, 22 June 1927, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. Shipping a Ship. A fourteen-foot long model of th® 14,000-ton Blue Star liner Avelona, weighing over a ton, and costing nearlv £2OOO, has been shipped from London to Buenos Aires for exhibition. The model, which has been built by a large firm of engineers on Clydebank, is an ex ®ct replica in miniature—even to th® ship’s compass—of the Avelona, which is now being fitted out on the Clyde for her maiden voyage to South America. The model took six months to make. k 30s 6Jd in th® £. All classes of Merthyr Tydfil (WalesV ratepayers—private residents, traders, i and representatives of the big siapl® works—are alarmed by the possibility of a rate amounting to 30s 6id in th® £ for next 3'ear. Already the district; and poor rate has soared to 27s 2d, and although some of the estimated, expenditure has been cut down, th® Corporation have come to the conclusion that unless a loan of £27,000 is sanctioned by the Ministry of Health tha increase of 3s 4Jd wifi be inevitable. At a joint conference of local Chamber® of Trade, a deputation was appointed to go to the next Corporation meeting with a request that the new rate should be fixed at a figure within the ratepayers’ ability to pay. Famous Express Held Up For an Hour. Nearly 600 people travelling to London on April 26 on the Cornish Riviera express were delayed for just over an hour by the failure of the engine at Kentbury, near Newbury. After the engine had been detached a message was telephoned to Newbury, and within half an hour the train was proceeding on its journey. While the train was stationary a railway official had a narrow escape from being run down by a train going westwards. He was standing in the middle of the track with his back to the on-coming train, and was warned of his danger b\' the shouts of passengers at the windows of th® disabled train in time to jump to safety, k a Relic of Immortal Epic at Gallipoli. A modest little man sat in the front pew at the memorial service to the 29th Division (Gallipoli) at Holy Trinity Church, Eltham, London, on April 25. No one suspected that he was a war hero. lie bore the name of F. C. Smith, and he brought with him a fish basket in which was the bell of the old steamship River Clyde. This he put at th® foot of the altar in the little chapel at St. Agnes, where the official memorial to the 29th Division has been erected. During the historic landing at Gallipoli J Mr F. C. Smith was Coxswain Smith. I and he stood courageously at the wheel of the River Clyde when she forced a landing on the beach on April 25, 1915, with 4000 troops aboard, all volunteer* from H.M.S. Hussar, under Captain Unwin, V.C. There she lay for fiv® weeks under fire. The old brass bell used to strike the time. Mr Smith has been offered as much as £750 for this old bell, but he resolutely declines ta part with it. He is no longer a sailor, but a steward of the British Legion Club at Erith. After the bell had been inspected by the congregation he put it back in his fish basket and took it home again, a silent relic of one of th# most hazardous feats of the war.