GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1975, 10 May 1919, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS ITEMS.

FIRE CHIEFS £720 PENSION. Commander S. Sladen, R.N., chief officer of the London Fire Brigade, has resigned after nearly 20 years’ service. The General Purposes Committee of the London Comity Council recommend that the council should mark its sense of the unparalleled conditions of the last few years by granting him on retirement a pension of £720 a year, the amount which would he payable were he to retire after 25 years’ service' on a medical certificate. STORNOWAY DISASTER. Inquiry into the loss of the'navy leave boat, lolairc, off Stornoway on New Year’s Day, when 205 lives were lost, has now ended. It has . been found by the jury that the officer in charge did not exercise suf- . ficient prudence in approaching the harbour; that a look-out was not on duty;,that there were not sufficient life-bells, boats, and rafts; and that no orders were given by the officers with a view to saving life; further, that there-was loss of lime between llio signals of distress and the arrival of the life-saving apparatus. GIRLS IN REVOLT. Much amusement has been caused by the story of the adventure of some girls who were in a sort of house of correction in Paris. They revolted, and after breaking various articles of furniture, rushed into the grounds surrounding the building. The housekeeper* saved the situation. American soldiers, who were camped near by, were asked to surround the chateau. Armed with fire-hose, they made a circle outside which the girls could not pass. Some of them were drenched, am! all were reduced to submission. They surrendered, and returned crestfallen to their rooms. BABIES BURNED IN A HOME. A line of £5 was imposed at Derby upon Sybil Walker, superintendent of a home for the babies of unmarried mothers, for not taking reasonable precautions against (ire. II was alleged that thirteen babies were left asleep in a room in which there was an unguarded fire, and I bat two of them were fatally humid. That an electric wire fused, causing the fire, was the defence. MADMAN WITH A POKER. A retired sailor, living on a pension at Hocking, Braintree, Essex, jumped out of bed at (i o'clock in the morning,'and ran up and down (he street in ids shirt, smashing the windows of shops and houses with. a poker and shouting that he wanted to Jet light into the world. He broke 3(10 windows and knocked a man down. When overpowered he was found to be insane, and was taken to the asylum. A CHEERFUL FACTORY. Lord Chetwyml, at the Royal Institute .of Public Health recently, made some remarkable revelations as to (he results of medical care in his own factory during the war. He said he employed about 03,000 people, of whom 3,000 were women. Two doctors, a dentist, and four trained nurses were fully employed in allending to them, with the result that compensation claims fell from £I,OOO a week to £5 a week. Physical discomfort was relieved straight away, and production went up in quality as well as quantity. Provision of proper meals for Iho women abolished fainlittg fits, which had been fifty or sixty it day; and a bund ill meal times kept everybody cheerful. VILLAGES FOR THE WOUNDED. A new village, one of tlie by-pro-ducts of the war, is abotO to arise in Hampshire. It is the first of the villages which the Ministry of Pensions intends to build for the medical treatment and 1 mining of disabled men, When (he village has been completed (here will be accommodation for a thousand people, who will receive simultaneous treatment and. training to til them for various forms of work, as far as their disabilities will permit. Later on it is planned to establish these villages in a number of different centres, and it is hoped that ‘ they may go a long way towards solving one of the most serious af-ter-war problems.