News in Brief.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20425, 2 October 1934, Page 6

News in Brief.

A J/illage Melodrama. A hungry artist, the village butcher, and the village blacksmith were the chief characters in a case presented to the Stratford Police Court this week, when the artist was charged with conducting an unauthorised lottery. The case arose from the activities of the artist at Midhirst, where he found himself hungry and unable to sell any of his artistic endeavours, says the “ Stratford Evening Post.” lie decided that while the residents of Midhirst might not be keen to pay cash for his drawings they would probably contribute a small sum towards a raffle with a drawing of a full-rigged sailing vessel as the first prize. He organised the raffle well and arranged for the drawing to take place in the butcher's shop. This was carried out, with the addition (according to the police statement) of the village blacksmith acting as master of ceremonies. The man was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence within twelve months if called upon to do so. As a warning to those who participated in the raffle the prizes were confiscated by the Court. A Record Flight. An improvement of 35 minutes in the record time for a flight from Auckland to Wellington was made on Sunday by FlightLieutenant G. B. Bolt, pilot-engineer of the Wellington Aero Club, in the club’s Waco cabin biplane. With three passengers, Flight-Lieutenant Bolt left Mangere Aerodrome at 8.15 o’clock and landed at Rongotai, after a non-stop flight, at 10.30 am., having spent 2hr 15min on the trip. The previous record, 2hr 50min, was established almost exactly two rears ago (on September 27, 1932 > by Flight-Lieutenant D. M. Allan in the Auckland Aero Club’s Puss Moth. The conditions for Sunday’s flight were good and, for most of the way, there v.as a light tail wind which freshened near Wellington. The Waco was chartered for the. trip by Mr T. Younie, who had land.