LOCAL AND GENERAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 March 1940, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Health Benefits. Booklets giving detailed particulars respectively of the hospital benefits and the maternity benefits available under the Social Security Act have been issued by the Government. Copies of these booklets may be obtained at the local office of the Social Security Department. Maori Youth Killed.

! Fatal injuries were received by Jim Randall, a Maori, aged 16, when he was knocked from his cycle by a motorcar on the road outside the Hastings Hospital at 5 p.m. yesterday. Randall was cycling from Fernhill to Hastings when a car overtook him. A collision occurred and the cyclist was thrown heavily. He was taken to the hospital, but had evidently died soon after the impact. Centennial Occasion. Today is a double centennial occasion, for on March 7 one hundred years ago the New Zealand Company’s chartered ships Adelaide and Glenbervie (after which Adelaide Road and Glenbervie Terrace, Wellington, were named) dropped anchor off the Petone beach. The vessels brought a substantial addition to the population of the two-months-old settlement, the descendants of whom live in many parts of the Dominion today.

Compassionate Grant. The Government has made a compassionate grant of £2OOO, plus the value of the launch, to Mrs F. J. Brassell, widow of the owner and master of the Dolphin, the fishing launch which was sunk in Lyttelton harbour on October 12, when a shell fired as a warning struck the launch, states this week's issue of the official organ of the Labour Party. Injured by a flying piece of metal. Mi- Brassell was drowned when the boat sank.

Delegates Go For A Drive. Last night delegates to the Municipal Association conference, their wives and friends, were taken on a drive round the bays as the guests of the Wellington City Council. The party totalled 175. After the drive the visitors were taken to the Exhibition for supper. At the conference during the afternoon the secretary, Mr A. E. Hurley, called for a show of hands to indicate how many would make the trip. Those who were taking their wives were asked to put up both hands. As an afterthough Mr Hurley added, “Wives or some other lady." Feat In Transportation. A feat never before equalled has been accomplished in transporting by lorry 1206 lambs from Otupae station, 75 miles from Hastings, over tlie Kuripapanga Road, ranked as one of the worst in New Zealand. Nine trucks were engaged on the job. and it is a credit to the skill of the transport drivers that they succeeded in bringing such a big line over such a treacherous road without loss. In parts tlie road is not eight. feel, wide and (here are bonds where tlie sheep trucks have to bad; io manoeuvre their way roiiiid. The road runs along a ridge of a inomitain with a sheer drop on both sides of several thousand feet from the station to the foot of "Gentle Annie." a distance of 20 miles.

Accidentally Gassed. Accidental coal gas poisoning after a fall across a gas tube during a seizure is believed to have caused the death on February 22 of James Smith. Lawrence Street, Napier. A neighbour Richard Blundell, at an inquest yesterday morning before Mr J. Miller. S.M.. said lie smelt gas in tlie next-door house and opened the door. He saw Smith's feet just inside the back door. Dr J. J. Foley. Napier Hospital superintendent. said Smith had fallen across a gas tube, thereby disconnecting it from the jet. Death had followed from coal gas poisoning. An examination of the brain showed an exceptionally large brain tumour, which would explain tlie frequent seizures to which hi' had been subject. The coroner returned a verdict in accordance with this evidence.