Verdict on derailment
The report of the Board of Inquiry into the Ongarue railway disaster was delivered yesterday. Replying to the question, The board finds it was due to the train colliding with several large boulders forming part of a slip in the cutting near Ongarue. The occurrence was accidental and could not have been prevented by the exercise of ordinary human precautions. There were good grounds for the belief that the fall was taking place at a time when the train was passing, as a boulder knocked the handle of the smokedoor. The heavy rainfall in May and June brought about the saturated and unstable condition of the cutting. The board is satisfied that there was no neglect of duty on the part of any employee, directly or indirectly. Although the train was equipped with the standard quantity of tools a greater number should be carried for use in an emergency. A greater number of lights could have been used with and would have been required had darkness continued. The engine and the other carriages forming the train were found to be properly equipped, and all precautions had been taken prior to the accident. "We are of the opinion that it is possible materially to strengthen the cars to make them better able to resist the shock of a collision or telescoping which may occur an a derailment, and we recommend that, the Railway Department should prepare de signs of a stronger type of car to ran on fast mail trains; also that the department consider the economic possibility of building the bodies of carriages of steel, and the advantages that may be secured thereby."
Bobs not welcome in Army
A quaint controversy has arisen in the Salvation Army owing to Captain Mildred Olsen, of New York, being summoned before Commander Evangeline Booth because of her "bobbed" golden hair. It is now announced that General Bramwell Booth frowns on the practice of "bobbing" hair for Salvation Army lasses in England. Though no formal ban is imposed it is regarded as unsuitable in connection with the army bonnet and it is considered that it does not harmonise with the recognised simplicity of Salvation Army dress. Many hospitals also object to nurses "bobbing" their hair and have notified probationers that they must let their locks grow as soon as possible. The nurses retort that "bobbing" is thoroughly hygienic.
YWCA office bearer thanked
The appreciation of the fellow-board members of Mrs W.J. Bardsley, lately president of the board of the Young Women’s Christian Association, was expressed to her last night at the annual meeting of the association by Miss Ferguson. Mrs Bardsley had given ungrudgingly and unstintedly of her time and her strength to the work of the association. They desired her to accept a silver eggstand as a token of their esteem. — ODT, 31.8.1923
Compiled by Peter Dowden
