100 years ago

The Cunard Company, with which the Anchor Line was associated, had now fixed the second cabin rates for all their vessels to the United States and Canada at £10 per passenger.

Hitherto as much as £14 had been charged for certain cabins in the Lusitania, and for other cabins £13 from London and £12 10s from Liverpool.

For smaller vessels lower rates had been charged. Thus the lowest rate for the Cameronia was £8 10s.

The current decision, therefore, meant that many of the rates had been reduced, and some of those for the smallest ships had been advanced to the common level.

The White Star, Dominion, and American Lines had also intimated to their agents that they had reduced their second cabin rates to £10.

The Cunard Company in Liverpool declined to make any statement as to the reason for the step, and the White Star officials in reply to inquiry stated they had had to consider their position because of the action of Cunard.

It was understood that the passenger traffic across the Atlantic had fallen off very considerably during the previous few months.


50 years ago

Miss Mary McPherson, well-known York dancer, and four 25 years principal of the McPherson School of Dancing, had died in Leeds Infirmary after a short illness.

At the end of September Miss McPherson, who lived at The Crescent, York, went into semi-retirement, but kept on some private pupils.

Miss McPherson used to organise dances at the Assembly Rooms and amateur dancing competitions at Terry's and the De Grey Rooms.

She was a Fellow of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing in Ballroom, Old-time and Latin-American.


25 years ago

New safety standards to protect us from potentially lethal furniture were just coming into force.

British consumers were guaranteed the safest new upholstered furniture in the world under new legislation introduced on March 1st.

Ten years of work by the furniture industry and its suppliers had developed new technology, materials and methods to reduce the chance of a sofa being set alight by dropped cigarettes or matches.

For the previous 10 years, all upholstery covers had had to be resistant to cigarettes. And a new foam was developed to be highly resistant to catching fire, giving people in a house more time to escape and less risk of being overcome by fumes.

From this month, all upholstery covers had to be able to resist catching fire from a burning match or its equivalent. New furniture would be forced to meet the strict standards.