FAMILY DESTITUTE

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20950, 1 November 1939, Page 10

FAMILY DESTITUTE

ASSISTANCE FOR AUTHOR GOVERNMENT HELP URGED Prompt action on a report that William Hatfield, the well-known Australian author, and his wife and two children were destitute in Western Australia has been taken by the secretary of the Federal Council of the Australian Natives’ Association (Mr J. Parker), says a Melbourne message. A report from Perth stated that the Hatfields had been given notice to quit their house near Perth. For weeks, what money had come in had been used to buy milk and fruit and bones for soup for the babies, while the mother and father had lived on bread and dripping. Mr Parker said that he had wired to the general secretary of the A.N.A. at Perth, and on receipt of his reply he intended immediately to approach the Commonwealth Government. This case again emphasised the need for due recognition being given to Australian literature by the Commonwealth Government, said Mr Parker. THE “LOST” FLYER ACROSS THE ATLANTIC FLEW BY MISTAKE Douglas Corrigan, who flew the Atlantic “by mistake” in an old single-engined plane, explaining his arrival in Ireland, said that he had left New York intending to fly to California, but had watched the wrong end of the compass when lost in the clouds. The result was that he flew east instead of west and made a flight across the Atlantic which provided the papers with a fleeting sensation. In “That’s My Story,” published by Robert Hale, he still sticks to the tale of following the wrong end of the compass by mistake. That episode, however, occupies but a few pages of the book, the rest of which is devoted to a bald narrative of his life and adventures in flying. Internal evidence would suggest that the flying ofJ, the Atlantic “by mistake” would be* an impossibility for one who had had so much experience in the air. “That’s My Story” was obviously hastily compiled to sell while the memory of the exploit was still green, but in spite of its crudeness it is interesting and has been lavishly il- - lustrated with photographs. Corrigan, it would appear, might have made a fortune out of his flight had he accepted some of the numerous offers made him by publicity merchants, but he turned them all down.