Excursion bus hits pig: 33 hurt in crash
THIRTY-three people were injured, eight of them seriously, when a bus taking 53 excursionists from Atkinson Airport to the Corentyne struck a pig and turned turtle on the roadside at Now-or-Never, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara on  Sunday afternoon.

Eight of the seriously injured were admitted to the New Amsterdam Hospital, but two others who were admitted to the Georgetown Hospital have since been discharged.
Reports are that the big bus, driven by Leon Lashley of Tarlogie, Corentyne, Berbice, was taking 53 people to the Corentyne after an excursion run to Atkinson when, as it approached the Now-or-Never village, 29 miles from Georgetown, the driver was said to have seen a pig crossing the road. He swerved hard to avoid a collision and the bus raced off the road and turned turtle in a nearby pasture.
Up to yesterday, police were still investigating the accident. (Guyana Graphic October 8th 1968)

Man who dragged cat until it died
AN Essequibo man who is alleged to have brutally killed a cat by dragging it at the end of a rope behind his bicycle, because it had eaten his dinner of curried fish, was yesterday told by Magistrate Hector Patterson: “You have committed a very wicked act, for which you can be fined $250 with an alternative of six months’ imprisonment, or both.”
However, David Nedd of Henrietta, Essequibo Coast, was fined $7.50 with an alternative of one month’s imprisonment after pleading to a charge of cruelty to animals.
The prosecutor said that, before going to work, Nedd prepared some curried fish for dinner; but on returning home, he found that the cat had eaten his dinner. Nedd became very angry at the cat, and tied a rope around its neck. He then rode his bicycle for over 300 yards, dragging the cat behind him until it died. (Guyana Graphic October 4th 1968)

FARMER WAS ‘DENIED HIS MARITAL RIGHTS’
A young married woman refused to grant her husband his “marital rights”, Chief Justice H.B.S. Bollers was told in the High Court yesterday; and her husband, Chitnarine Ali, a rice farmer, was granted a decree nisi on the grounds of malicious desertion.
The couple, the Chief Justice was told, had been married in 1980, and shortly after the marriage, the wife, Indrani, called Sheila, insisted that her husband should get a house of his own and stop living at his father’s.
After he had done so, however, she told him that she wanted him to transfer the ownership of the house to her, and said that he must give her all the money he was working for.
When he refused, she denied him his “marital rights”.
In July 1965, she left the home and went to live with her parents at Port Mourant, Berbice.
She left her three children with her husband’s father at Bush Lot, stating: “I did not come with any children, and I am not taking any.”
After listening to further evidence, the Chief Justice dissolved the marriage on the grounds of malicious desertion. (Guyana Graphic October 17th 1968)

Sudden death strikes at two teenaged friends
TWO teenaged friends full of life and plans for the future died within 24 hours of each other during the past week, casting a shadow over their two homes and triggering a spate of rumours about the city.
Happy little Patricia La Rose, a 16-year-old student of the East Ruimveldt Government Secondary School, was the first to die on Saturday, just when she appeared to be rallying from what was said to be an attack of jaundice.
On Sunday morning, her friend Louis Legall, who would have been 17 on November 29th and in his first job at the Guyana Marketing Corporation, died in the ward below that in which his friend had lain. Louis, of First Street, Alberttown, Georgetown, who had been in the hospital for four days, was suffering from pneumonia.
When the two popular teenagers were buried on separate days during the week, hundreds of curious people flocked the funeral parlour, and from them grew the touching story that when Louis was told of Patricia’s death, he immediately lapsed into a coma and died two hours later.
But the youth’s grief–stricken mother, Irma Legall, yesterday scotched this story and declared that whatever was the cause of Louis’ death, it certainly was not the death of his friend.
She disclosed that, before her son fell ill, he had frequently visited the girl in hospital.
And as he himself later lay in hospital, teenaged friends of the two would visit Patricia and visit Louis to inform him of how she was doing.
The boy’s mother said: “The girl died on Saturday morning. Of course Louis heard about it. He was very sad, but he seemed to know she was going to die. On Saturday afternoon, when I visited him, he said he was feeling better and that had been his best day.”
The boy, she said, also ate, and spoke with relatives and nurses and with his priest on Saturday morning.
“Up to about twenty minutes before his death, he had been speaking with my aunt,” the mother recalled.
It was a great shock to her, the priest and the doctor who had been treating Louis earlier in this week when the news arrived that he had died.
Her son, she said, was like any other teenager — full of life — with friends, both boys and girls, who visited his home; but she insisted he had no girl friends. The boy’s mother said: “It’s nonsense to say that he died of a broken heart because of the girl’s death. Where do people get such stories?” the mother asked. (Guyana Graphic November 17th 1968)

Fined for giving false information to police
A young man who made a false report to the police, and caused them to detain a man pending the laying of two criminal charges, was yesterday fined $100 with an alternative of two months’ imprisonment by Magistrate Rudolph Harper.
Durpat Goland pleaded guilty to a charge of giving false information to a peace officer.
The magistrate, in scolding Goland about the wicked act he had committed, told him: “Your inaccurate report caused the police to detain a man, who could have been placed on serious charges hadn’t the police been alert in their investigations.”
The court was told that Goland stopped a policeman last Sunday night in Lombard Street and told him that one Lloyd James had assaulted him and stolen his bicycle. James was later contacted, and detained at a police station pending investigations into the allegations made against him.
He, however, denied the allegations, and the police proceeded to question Goland about the circumstances that led to the reported incident.
Goland then admitted that he had made a false report against James, who was then released and Goland was charged. (Guyana Graphic October 6, 1970)

Essequibo schoolteacher is Miss Deepavali ’68
PRETTY Essequibo school teacher Pamela Lord was crowned Miss Deepavali 1968 before a crowd of thousands at the Guyana Indian Cricket Club Ground on Saturday night.
Miss Lord, who will get  among other prizes a holiday trip to Trinidad and Barbados, won the coveted title from a field of twelve contestants from the three counties, and was crowned by last year’s winner, Gaitree Singh.
She will also get a box of gold jewellery from L. Seepersaud Maraj and Sons, and a cash prize of $50 from the Bank of Baroda.
Runner-up was Miss Lolita Sahoye, and third was Miss Esther Bissoo. They will each receive a radio.
The crowning of Miss Deepavali was the main event at the annual three-day fair sponsored by the Maha Sabha, which ended last night.
Officials said the Fair was a tremendous success, despite a short blackout which occurred between 8.30 and 9 o’clock Saturday night. (Guyana Graphic October 21, 1968)

(Clifford Stanley can be reached to discuss any of the foregoing articles at cliffantony@gmail.com or cell phone # 657-2043)