KILLED OR INJURED

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20694, 3 January 1939, Page 7

KILLED OR INJURED

i ACCIDENTS IN AUSTRALIA HEAVY TOLL DURING HOLIDAYS FATALITIES ON THE ROADS (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) SYDNEY, Jan. 2 The New Year holidays again took heavy toll of life and limb in New South Wales. Six persons were killed and several others were so seriously injured that there is little hope of their recovery. There were many road accidents in the State during the week-end and more than 40 people were injured in Sydney alone. According to the police there we' e scores of road accidents in which nany motorists escaped with a shaking or minor cuts. The most serious accident occurred when a truck turned four somersaults on Bellevue Hill. As the result two women and a man are dead and a second man is in a critical condition. A message from Brisbane states that two young men and two young women, members of a camping party of 20 on Stradbroke Island, were drowned. After welcoming the New Year in they climbed down a treacherous cliff to "acert-ain the cause of a phosphorescent glow in the sea and apparently were swept off the rocks. The New Year was (ushered in at Sydney in warm but threatening weather. There were the customary parties and a few bonfires, but the streets generaHy were quiet.

“THE GLOVES ARE OFF” FLOUTERS OF TRAFFIC LAWS STERN MEASURES CONTEMPLATED (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Jan. 3, 1 p.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 3 Since Christmas Eve 50 persons have been killed in New South Wales, 25 of them in road accidents. Last year’s total for the same period was 30 deaths, of which 15 occurred on roads. In Victoria 59 persons lost their lives since Christmas Eve, and nearly 100 have been injured. Drowning accounted for 21 deaths and road accidents for 18. The Minister of Transport in New South Wales stated that motorists who wilfully flout the traffic laws will be give no quarter during 1939. “These people have been given a fair chance. Now the gloves are off and we will see what sterner measures will do,' 1 he said. 113 DEATHS IN AMERICA MANY MOTOR ACCIDENTS DENTIST'S STRANGE SUICIDE (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) NEW YORK, Jan. 1 One hundred and thirteen Americans were killed during the New Year celebrations, the majority of them in motor-car accidents. The proprietor's wife and three children and one guest were burned when Are broke out during a party in a hotel at Rumford, Maine. The building was destroyed. A miner ran amok and died from the effects of black damp when he was trapped in a corridor through fire breaking out in the shaft of a mine at Clinton, Indiana. Eighteen men were saved after 12 hours by rescuers who advanced behind a wall of pure air forced in under pressure. A dentist, Henry Steil, provided a very strange suicide. He entered a New York hotel filled with revellers, sat down, propped up his watch and waited until 1938 ticked away, then fired a bullet through his heart on ihe stroke of midnight. . Policemen snatched to safety a man I who had climbed out on to the coping of a skyscraper. “Free For All” Fight* Several people died in “free for all” fights, one of whom was 80 years old. Men and women participated. One hundred and forty-two people were sent to hospital in New York alone, suffering from the effects of alcohol, and 40 men and three 'of the women are in a serious condition. The biggest robbery was a 100,000 dollars haul from a New York antique dealer. The articles stolen included Marie Antoinette’s watch, a miniature depicting George Washington’s mother, valued at 50,000 dollars. Jewellery given to Jenny Lind by P. T. Baruum is also missing.