The policeman, much to their disappointment, were not allowed to test the contents of the barrel. It now appears that just before the New Year orders were issued that the "dangerous prisoner'' should be returned to the source from which it came, as its presence at the police station was not conducive to "good order''. Accordingly the brewery was communicated with, and a dray dispatched to take the barrel. On its journey through the city, however, the offending barrel disappeared, and it is officially described as "lost in transit''. A rumour is current that the barrel rolled into another police station, where it received a warm welcome.
Child slavery
Sir, will you kindly tell me is there no law to compel parents or guardians to keep a child at school after she has passed her fourteenth birthday? A very pitiful case is in my mind at present. An old woman, who was nearing the "allotted span'', adopted an illegitimate baby. She was well paid for doing so. The child is now 14, and the old woman is sending her out to service. The poor child has had a very poor chance at school, and has never got into the Sixth Standard. Her relatives have intervened on her behalf, but they are told by the old woman, "I have adopted her legally, and I can do as I please.'' Through the scarcity of domestic help, women in need of servants are only too eager to snap up a poor, unfortunate child, especially when they know she will be completely at their mercy. There are many such cases in which illegitimate children are the unfortunate victims, and I hope that by the publication of this letter you will arouse public feeling in the matter.-I am. etc. Save the Children. [The attendance of a child at school is not compulsory after the age of 14 years. - Ed. ODT]
Maintaining standards
The London Daily News quotes the following from Searchlight, a view that is, one should imagine, very general. Lieutenant C. M'Cartley says: "In his travels the soldier from New Zealand has seen many countries, and the more he has seen of these the more he has realised how his own country - in the justice of its laws, the virility of its men, the virtue of its women, the prosperous condition of its working classes, and the grandeur of its scenery - far excels them all. He has been disgusted at the vices of foreign people, amazed at the conditions in which large numbers of his fellow-men live, and surprised at the laxity of morals prevailing among all classes in even highly civilised countries. And in his pride of his native land, will he not fight to keep it free from the vices and deplorable conditions which exist elsewhere? He has been willing to die for his country; will he not be willing to live purely for her?''
Busy Port Molyneux
Although the holiday season is well advanced, and the weather continues unsettled, Port Molyneux is so well favoured as a holiday seaside resort that practically ever house and crib is full. Many additional houses have been erected since last summer, but the demand for accommodation has increased so largely that "no room'' is frequently heard. - ODT, 15.1.1919.
