HEAVY HOLIDAY TOLL OF LIFE AND LIMB

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 1, 3 January 1939, Page 7

HEAVY HOLIDAY TOLL OF LIFE AND LIMB

ACCIDENTS IN AUSTRALIA SIX PEOPLE LOSE LIVES FORTY INJURED IN SYDNEY ALONE [By Telegraph—Presa Association —Copyright) Received Jan. 2, 6.30 p.m. • SYDNEY, Jan. 2. The New Year holidays again took a heavy toll of life and limb. Six persons were killed and several others so seriously injured that there is little hope of recovery. In road accidents in New South Wales during the week-end more than 40 were injured in Sydney alone. According to the police there were scores of road smashes in which many motorists escaped with a shaking, or minor cuts. The most serious accident occurred when a utility truck somersaulted four times on Bellevue Hill, as the result of which two women and a man are dead and a second man is in a critical condition. A Brisbane message says that two young women, members .of a camping party of 20 on Stradbroke Island', were drowned. After welcoming the New Year they climbed down a treacherous cliff to ascertain the cause of a phosphorescent glow in the sea and were apparently swept off the tocks. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN KILLED DEATH ROLL IN U.S.A. VIOLENCE AND ROBBERY Received Jan. 2, 10.30 p.m. NEW YORK, Jan. 1. One hundred and thirteen Americans were killed during New Year celebrations, the majority through car accidents. A hotel proprietor’s wife, three children, and one guest were burned when a fire broke out during a party at Rumford (Maine). The hotel building was destroyed. Fire in a Mine A miner ran amuck and died from black damp when trapped in a corridor through a fire breaking out in the shaft of a mine at Clinton (Indiana). Eighteen were saved after 12 hours. Their rescuers advanced behind a wall of pure air forced in under pressure. The Strangest Suicide A dentist, Henry Steil, provided the strangest suicide. He entered a New York hotel filled with revellers, sat down and propped up his watch. He waited until 1938 had ticked away and fired a buliet through his heart on the stroke of midnight. Police snatched to safety a man who climbed out on the coping of a skyscraper. Several died in free-for-all fights, in one of which 80 men and women participated. In New York alone 142 were admitted to hospital suffering from alcoholism, 40 men and three women in a serious condition. A Big Robbery The biggest robbery was 100,000 dollars haul from a New York antique dealer, who lost Marie Antoinette’s watch and a miniature of George Washington’s mother valued at 50,000 dollars. Jewellery given to Jenny Lind by P. T. Barnum is also missing. Theme of New York’s Celebration The birth of the World's fair this year was them theme of New York’s New Year's observance. A total of 15,000,000 dollars was spent in noisy celebration at night clubs and hotels, which, despite the cover-charge of 15 dollars, sold out. Police numbering 1300 on foot and 128 mounted police sought to maintain order in a jammed Times’ Square and Broadway, and 165 detectives were assigned to escort to their home bejewelled debutantes, iest they might be attacked by thugs. ARMING FOR PEACE THE POLICY OF AUSTRALIA NO AGGRESSION THOUGHT OF Received Dec. 31, 5.30 p.m. SYDNEY, Dec. 31. Mr. J. A. Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia, in a New Year message, said that Australia had assumed a great re-armament programme but efforts are directed to peace and the country’s own defence. “We have no thought of aggression to anybody,” he said. "We want our neighbours in the Pacific to understand us and we want to understand them. This is the basis of our national policy.” The New Year was ushered in in Sydney in warm, threatening weather. There were customary parties and a few bonfires, but the streets were generally quiet.