News in Brief

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 25 July 1934, Page 6

News in Brief

Almost Incredible. Incredible as it may seem, 38,090 articles were posted in New South Wales during the year ended June 30, 1933, without an address, and, what is still more incredible, 471 of these articles contained money. But probably the most inexplicable of all is that valuables to the amount of £60,374 were found in postal articles sent to the dead letter office as undeliverable. These evidences of the carelessness and absentmindedness of the public are contained in the snnual report of the PostmasterGeneral’s Department., recently tabled at Canberra. Cow Strikes a Car. The menace alike to motor traffic and to stock of cattle grazing on the roads at night was forcefully exemplified at Ohau, near Levin, on a recent evening, when a car driven' by the Rev Father Riordan, of Otaki, who was returning from a meeting at Levin, was involved in a head-on collision with a cow, which suddenly stepped into the centre of the highway from the shadows obscuring the side of the road. The animal received fatal injuries, and the impact broke the cowl of the car’s radiator, smashed one of the headlamps and damaged the other. Except for a severe shaking, the occupants of the car escaped injury. Chinese Friendliness. “ During the last few years there has been the most evident friendship between the Chinese people and the British,” said the Rev G. H. M’Neur, speaking in St David’s Presbyterian Church at Auckland. Mr M’Neur is the pioneer of the Presbyterian Mission in Canton, where he has been working for the past 33 years. “ During all the years we have been in China, ’ he said, “ we have never lived and worked in such an atmosphere of friendliness as during the past four or five years, and I think that is typical of what is taking place in most parts of China. So we are faced with a widely opened door, and there has never before been such an opportunity in the history of the Church.” A Door From the Sky. An aluminium door which had fallen from an aeroplane crashed on to the roof of a house at Epsom, England, recently. The door dislodged some tiles and then fell into the street, where it narrowly missed two motor-cars. No one was hurt. The door bore no identification marks, and the machine from which it fell has not been traced. At the time there was no sign of an aeroplane overhead, and it is thought that the door must have glided for a considerable time. A visitor said that when she saw the flashing object twisting earthward she thought it was a kite. “ After it had crashed,” she said, “ I examined it, and came to the conclusion that it had been wrenched off. It weighed about six pounds.” * “ Galloping Jack.” A veteran soldier of the Empire, Briga-dier-General J. R. Royston, C.M.G., D. 5.0., of South Africa, will visit Melbourne for the Centenary. The Australian soldiers knew him in Palestine as “ Galloping Jack.’ An invitation was sent to him by the Bth Light Ilorse (A.1.F.) Regimental Association. and he has replied that he will arrive on October 5 by the Ceramic. BrigadierGeneral Royston commanded the 3rd Australian Light Ilorse Brigade in Palestine in 1918. Although aged nearly sixty when he fought at Romani (Sinai Peninsula), he was noted for his disregard of danger and for his endurance. He had earlier become famous as a leader of men against the Boers. lie served in the South African campaigns of IS7B-9 and 1899-1902.