Mr Quin said there had been an increase of 100 per cent in food and wages and other expenses, and they felt that the time had come when the maintenance charge should be increased in proportion with the outlay. That, of course, was not a matter for the local committee, except that they desired respectfully to submit to the board’s consideration that 5s a day was too low a maintenance charge.
The chairman of the board, Mr W. E. S. Knight, said that the matter had been informally discussed at times by members of the board. The proposed increase did not affect persons who were not in a position to pay anything at all for maintenance; neither did it affect those who were able to pay only a part of the charges.
The increase affected only the person who was in a position to pay the maximum fee. If a person was really in a position to pay an extra 1s a day he thought himself that the board might consider raising the maintenance fees for treatment in their institutions. He did not see that anyone could complain about that.
Drunkenness in Wellington
Wellington is getting an unenviable notoriety for drunkenness, and the number of men under the influence of liquor seen in the streets just after closing time will undoubtedly go a long way towards increasing the prohibition vote at the next election.
It is a common saying nowadays that if prohibition is carried at the next election it will be carried by the votes of the moderate men, who are beginning to despair of reform in the trade.
One of the city trains was recently held up for 40 minutes owing to trouble caused be men who were the worse for liquor. The City Solicitor stated that this particular tram, which left the Post Office square for Aro street just after 6 p.m., usually collected a number of persons who left the public houses about 6 o’clock.
During the week a special relief tram was run on this line to cope with the extra traffic at that hour, but on Saturday night there was no relief tram. The conductor proceeded to move the people off the centre platform. The tram was packed, and many of the passengers were under the influence of liquor.
The conductor was unable to clear the platform owing to the peculiar temper of several of the passengers. The tram had been held up for 40 minutes, when Inspector Svenson and Constable Walsh came on the scene.
NZ soldiers’ memorial
London: A ceremony unique and touching took place at the Torquay Cemetery on Sunday, in the presence of a large number of spectators and wives of New Zealand soldiers who are now awaiting transport to their homes, when the officers and men of the New Zealand Discharge Depot at St.
Mary-church attended the dedication of a handsome memorial erected to perpetuate the memory of six of their comrades who died whilst on service, and whose remains rest at Torquay.
The memorial takes the form of a Latin cross standing about 9ft high in Portland stone. It is on a moulded base, and the kerbing, with angle blocks, encloses ground measuring 20ft by 7ft, which contains the graves of the six men to whom the memorial is erected.
— ODT, 11.3.1920.
COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
