Sarcophagus of value

Cairo, January 3: Eight men were required to carry the golden coffin and royal mask of Tutankhamen, which was brought here from Luxor, and is now in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo.

The procession was escorted by seven armed guards and accompanied by Mr Howard Carter and Mr Lucas. The intrinsic gold value of the coffin, lid and mask, which are made of pure gold and weigh 7cwt, is estimated at £40,000.

— Reuters

Railed off

On the grounds that Waitati, Evansdale, and Purakanui are not stations from which dwellers travel daily to Dunedin to earn their livelihood, the Minister of Railways (the Hon J.G. Coates) has refused to accede to the request of 600 residents that the stations should be reinstated in the suburban railway fares area.

The Minister replied that suburban fares were originally introduced to encourage the city dweller to live in the areas adjacent to the city, and to provide a cheap means of transport to and from the city. To warrant this reduction in fares the traffic from and to the suburban areas must be of such proportion as to compensate the department for the reduction in fares, and past experience has shown that so far as Purakaunui, Waitati and Evansdale are concerned, such is not the case. The passenger traffic between these stations and Dunedin has at no period been sufficient to warrant the concession of suburban fares and, when the tariff was being reviewed, it was decided that there was no justification for retaining these stations.

Pitt of dispair

When the City Corporation buses first ran to Maori Hill the time-table was somewhat irregular and it was, no doubt, this fact that prompted a student during the merry capping period to write the following words on the wall of the North Dunedin branch of the Bank of New Zealand where the buses start on their up-hill journey: "Time Table: Motor Buses. Start Anytime. Arrive Sometime."

Boy raises alarm

Smoke issuing from the windows of Langley and Son’s china warehouse in Maclaggan street attracted the attention of a small boy playing in the right-of-way next to the building and he gave the alarm to the City Fire Brigade. On arrival the brigade, under Superintendent A.G. Napier, found that the fire had obtained a strong hold in a corner of the packing room, where a large quantity of straw was the apparent seat of the fire. The fire there was soon under control.

The stock in the packing room was landed recently, and considerable damage was done. On the first floor a quantity of china was broken when the brigadesmen had to force their way through the door and windows against which the china had been stored. It was a creditable save, for it appeared as if the fire had been burning for some time. The boy’s promptitude in giving the alarm averted a big fire.

— ODT, 5.1.1926