British rival for Zeppelin

A revolution in air travel, by which airships in the future will travel more safely and faster, is foreshadowed in an authoritative statement regarding the new 5,000,000 cubic feet airship which is being constructed by the Guarantee Company for the Imperial airship route. The airships can be moored to floating bases. The crew and passengers will be accommodated in the body of the craft instead of in outside cars, thus enabling a very material increase in speed and a considerable increase in flight range. It will be possible to fly from England to Bagdad in two days, to Colombo in four, Fremantle in six and a-half, and Auckland in nine days. It was announced in November last that preliminary construction work was being commenced on two mammoth airships. They will have a capacity twice that of the Zeppelin ZR3.

Width of highway debated

A meeting was held under the auspices of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce yesterday afternoon to discuss the decision of the City Council to restrict the width of the highway to Logan Park to 75 feet. There were present Messrs J.B. Waters (in the chair), D. Phillips, J.H. Stewart, A. Ibbotson, and H.O. Campbell (Chamber of Commerce), Messrs S. B. Macdonald (chairman of the Expansion League) and W. B. Steel (secretary), and Mr H. Brasch (Amenities Society). 

Mr Macdonald said that right from the outset his league had interested itself in the construction of the highway. The first suggestion was to put in a 99ft highway from Anzac square to the Exhibition site. It would cost the city £1,000,000 and the council had been persuaded that if it had gone to the ratepayers with a proposal to borrow this sum they would have promptly turned it down. 

The council had then made a proposal that it should be 75 feet in width. This was to cost £80,000. The proposal to borrow this was put before the ratepayers, and they approved of it by a handsome majority. After the poll had been taken, however, his league was not satisfied that the city was doing the right thing, and his executive had appointed its secretary and himself to interview the City Council with a view to persuading it to extend the area to 99 feet, whether it was included in the width at the present time or not. 

The City Council could reserve the difference in width until it was required, and could plant it with trees.

Fatal pea-rifle mishap

A distressing fatality occurred at Deborah Bay yesterday, when a boy named Joseph Hugh Ledgerwood, aged 14 years, was fatally shot with a pea rifle. Particulars are meagre, but according to the report supplied to the Hospital authorities it seems that the unfortunate lad and his brother, aged 18, were playing with the rifle, when it exploded, the bullet lodging in the boy’s stomach. The lad was brought to the city by the fishing launch Waitaki. The St John Ambulance was in attendance when the launch arrived at 2.30pm; the lad was admitted to the Hospital without delay. He was then in a very serious condition, and an operation was immediately performed. It was found that the bullet had penetrated a vital spot, and despite the skill and care of the surgeon the operation was not successful, the lad expiring in the operating theatre at 7.20 last evening. — ODT, 27.2.1925

Compiled by Peter Dowden