25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 2, 1975

PATIENTS needing urgent treatment are being turned away from our hospitals, some of which have been brought to a total standstill. Now that consultants are to cover emergencies only, it may be said that crisis point has been reached. The next step is all-out industrial action, and the virtual collapse of the Health Service. The Secretary of State for Social Services, Mrs Barbara Castle, has shown herself unwilling to make a few commonsense concessions to a new contract with doctors. The doctors are preparing to fight to the finish. The sick and suffering lie inbetween. Mr Wilson is now the only one who can resolve the situation, if only he will start acting like a Prime Minister.

THE second and largest phase of a major private housing development at Blackrod was approved by the local town council last night. It involves a total of more than 400 homes on a 30-acre site south of Manchester Road, and will increase Blackrod's population of 5,229 by about 33 per cent.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 2, 1950

ONE of the most congested parts of the town centre, particularly on Saturday mornings when the shopping crowds are greater than usual, is the junction of Deansgate and Bridge-st. Today, as every Saturday, police assistance was required to direct the vehicular traffic and help shoppers across the road. Round about noon, so densely packed were the people, and so large was the volume of pedestrians wanting to cross both Deansgate and Bridge-st., that even compliance with the traffic lights did not solve all the problems. Difficulty must surely be experienced by bus drivers who have to steer their large vehicles through the narrow lanes left by pedestrians milling about outside the two large stores. Perhaps a solution would be for the Halliwell and Dunscar bound buses to travel up Knowsley-st. instead of down Bridge-st.

SIX hundred extra helpers will be employed at post offices in the Bolton area for the Christmas period. About 350 of them will be University students from local secondary and grammar schools. To lift the burden off the regular post offices, a temporary office will be open at Mawdsley-st. Congregational School to deal particularly with parcels.

125 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News, December 2, 1875

THE purchase of the Suez Canal by Britain has naturally excited a great amount of attention both in this country and on the Continent. General comments on the transaction have been favourable and friendly. The remarks of the German Press are somewhat invidious, and the neutralisation of the Canal is suggested. A Vienna paper quotes a letter from a statesman in London who says Englishmen forget that Egypt is of the same importance to other Powers as Constantinople, and that Europe could no more allow the English to obtain mastery over Egypt than the Russians to occupy Constantinople.