MAGISTRATE & MUFFIN BELL

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 December 1934, Page 13

MAGISTRATE & MUFFIN BELL

LIKES OLD STREET CRIES. Whether the familiar sound of the muffin bell should be suppressed in London was discussed recently by Mr Barrington Ward, K.C., the Westminter magistrate. Before him was William Fisher, summoned under the Metropolitan Police Act of 1839, for “using a noisy instrument for the purpose of selling.” A police constable said that defendant was selling muffins, and complaints had been made of the annoyance caused by his bell. The Magistrate: You are not going to try and stop the muffin bell, are you? It‘is one of the most familiar sounds I have heard in London for forty-five years. I thought this was one of the cries of London. (Reading the section of the Act): This takes us back to a very pleasant picture. “Every person except the guards and postmen belonging to Her Majesty’s Post Office in the performance of their duty, who shall blow any horn, or use any other noisy instrument for the purpose of calling persons together, or for the purpose of hawking, selling, distributing, or collecting any article whatsoever, or for obtaining money or alms.” (To the defendant): “You are obviously not appreciated in the ‘B’ police division. Try the ‘A.’ Don’t ring your bell when there is a policeman about. If you come here again you may be before a magistrate who has not the same views on old street cries as I have. I will let you go with a caution this time.”