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Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 74, 25 September 1917, Page 8

John Williamson, described as a ■wellknown 'lighthouse," was charged in the Magistrate's Court to-day wMi theft of 8s 6d, the property of ChaiUled M'Cauley, a returned soldier, and also with selling liquor to M'Cauley without a license. He pleaded guilty U> both charges. Inspector Marsack stated thsx Williamson sold a bottle of whisky to M'Cauley, who later asked the "lighthouse" to procuro him another bottle. Williamson was given the 8s 6d and decamped. When taxed by M'Cauley he denied all knowledge of the affair, and the matter was placed in the hands of the police. "Theee are the men," said the Inspector, "who are making our soldiers drunk about the streets far more than the licensed victuallers." Mr. S. E. M'Carthy, S.M., sentenced Williamson to three months' imprisonment with haTd labour on each charge, the« terms'to bb cumulative.

Many boys do wilful.damage to public property without realising- the fact, and occasionally the strong arm of the law ia necessary to act as a check. A case exemplifying this came before the Juvenile Court to-day, when two lad 3, aged 15 and 17 years respectively/were called upon to answer a charge of wilfully damaging a hedge at Wakefiekl Park. They admitted doing the damage, but contended that it was not wil. flnl. The boys were ' skylarking," and damaged the hedge by running through it. several times and -• breaking the branches. Mr. S. E. M'Carthy, S.M., said that wilful damago, did not necessarily mean that an axe was used. In- the. case under notice there was no. doubt that the act was a wilful one. His Worship agreed to adjourn the case indefinitely provided the boys made good the damage.

Following a disturbance in Jejss? street last evening two men and a wonn&u appeared before Mr. S. E. M'Carthy, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court to-day, to answer various charges. The evidence for the prosecution was to ths effect that Const-able Scarry had arrested Marie Marguerite Smith, when the husband, Albert Sydney Smith, a returned soldier, interfered and struck the constable a blow on the eye. A crowd gathered and a riot was narrowly averted. For using obscene language the two defendants mentioned were each sentenced to six months' imprisonment, while on a charge of assaulting the constable, the.'male defendant was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon. Henry Sheeborne, who obstructed the constable, was also convicted and' ordered to come up for sentence when called upon. The female defendant created a scene before she could be removed from the Court.

■In reference to the suggestion that a blind soldier should be appointed to the position of a masseur at the Wellington Hospital, Mrs. A. Creighton Hale, of The Terrace, writes to The Post as follows :—"I have the pleasure to announce that I was the first in England to. teach the blind massage, with the greatest possible success, and. my book (the Art of Massage) in the Braillie type is now in the hand 6of Mr. Clutha Mackenzie, at St. Dunstan's, Regents Park. London, for the use of blind New Zealand soldiers who wish to take up massage as a profession. I shall be pleased to give any information required on scientific and thoroughly-taught ma-ssage. My name is well known to the medical profeesion throughout New Zcaknd."

Mr. A. h. Steel Maitiar.<l, ?,:"..'■?., Usee--Sectetary io' the Colonies, addressing 3, National Service demonstration at Portsmouth, said that i"b was a iongvvae irom London to T^pperary, bat it was a deuced iighb further from Bagdad to BerH».. 7> 7s must not read ntare into our successes thin they were worth.