DEATH OF PARENTS

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 36

DEATH OF PARENTS

£llOO DAMAGES AWARDED SEQUEL TO MOTOR ACCIDENT. WELLINGTON, May 27. The motor fatality which occurred n Ngahauranga Gorge in April of last year, when Norman Webb Cook, aged 50, a grocer, of Johnsonville, and his wife, Violet Amelia Cook, aged 40, lost their lives in a collision with a motor car driven by Alfred Edward Storey, company manager, of Wellington, led to claims from Storey totalling £4OOC for damages on behalf of the two children being heard in the Supreme Court today before Mr Justice MacGregor, whi awarded £llOO. His Honor said he was satisfied that the children had suffered pecuniary injury by the death of their parents and also that they had derived some pecuniary benefit from the death of the father. After making all due allowances he. had decided to award £75!) for the death of the father and £350 for the death of the mother—£lloo in all—to be equally divided between the children. Costs would be as on a claim for £llOO.

A. marked increase in both inquiries and business in the last few days is commented on by the manager of Cook’s Tourist Agency in Christchurch (reports the Sun). People were already booking quite well, and paying deposits, for trips •to England, the Continent, and America and Canada, to be taken from next February onwards, and there was also a good volume of inquiry for various tours next year, many of which were likely ultimately to become bookings. “ I have been surprised, because I was expecting business to slump,” the manager remarked. The actual • complete business for this month will be at least equal to that of May last year, though at the beginning of the month there was nothing doing at all. Between now and Christmas, of course, there will be a constant flow of people taking trips from New Zealand to England, usually business visits, or to see relatives.”