DOMINION NEWS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19919, 15 August 1927, Page 6

DOMINION NEWS

FIRE AT ELTHAM RESIDENCE DESTROYED. (Per Press Association.) ELTHAM, Aug. 13. A fire at a quarter to six this morning in Railway Street, gutted the fiveroomed residence of William Mumby. The fire was discovered in a back room. Mumby and his wife and child escaped. The brigade made a good save, but little of the furniture and effects were, saved. The insurances on the house were £7OO in the State, and on the furniture £l5O in the South British. FELL IN STREET OLD MAN’S DEATH. ASHBURTON, Aug. 13. John O’Shea, of Ashburton Forks, shipped when crossing a water channel in Burnett Street yesterday afternoon, striking his head against the bumper of a car standing alongside. He was admitted to hospital in an unconscious condition and. died last evening. O’Shea, who was 80 years of age, was one of the oldest inhabitants of the Forks district. He leaves a widow, who has been invalided for many years, one son, and two daughters. THEFT OF COAT MIDDLE-AGED MAN CHARGED CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 13. Albert Cox, a middle-aged man, was charged this morning with the theft of a coat valued at £5, the property of the Mayor, the Rev. J. K. Archer, from the City Council Chambers. ,He was remanded till Tuesday. THE MANTELL ILIBRARY A VALUABLE GIFT. WELLINGTON, Aug. 13. Though not yet available for inspection or consultation, the Mantell Library collection of books and manuscripts, recently presented to the Turnbull Library, is now so far arranged that the value of the gift is becoming apparent, being comparable to tho Grey collection in Auckland. Mr W. B. D. Mantell appears to have been in personal touch with most of the literary men of the Victorian era. There are autographed copies of Byron's early works, letters by Shelley, Mrs Browning, Carlyle, Lord E. Bulwcr Lytton, Charles Darwin, Richard Owen, Charles Lyell, and others. A fifth folio of Shakespeare is among the treasures, also several quarto volumes of Ben Jonson’s plays, the early edition of some of the works of Spenser and Bideon. Mr Mantell was well-known to scientists in Britain, America and on the Continent, and his friendship involved great correspondence, the thousands of letters including those from Lyell, Darwin, Owen, Tyndall, IDeshayes, Sowerby, de Labeche, and Dana. The books include autograph copies of the first editions of many of the scientific works of the day.