NEWS OF THE DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27059, 19 April 1949, Page 4

NEWS OF THE DAY

Helped the Police How a man celebrating his birthday stopped a car and asked the driver to take him to a certain address for beer was told in the Magistrate’s Court, Masterton, when Thomas Brook Lee was fined £2O for selling liquor without a licence. The car. which was stopped by Timothy McMullen, was driven by a constable, with another officer as a passenger. They obliged McMullen after marking and recording the number of the £1 note with which he bought six bottles for the constable in addition to his own purchase. The note later was recovered from Lee, who admitted the offence. The police stated that Lee was fined £lB on a similar charge in May last year. Imposing the fine, the magistrate said he could only take into account Lee’s age of 72 as a mitigating eircumstnce.

Good Detective Work

A man and his wife from Oamaru who were visiting Christchurch last week were staying at a private hotel. On Saturday morning the woman discovered that their room had been ransacked and that a fur coat valued at £IOO, besides other articles, had been stolen. The matter was reported to the police, and by the evening detectives had recovered the fur coat and arrested a man. Public Service Staffs

Out of a total public service ,staff of 28,700, a total of 24.700 is now enrolled in the Public Service Association, states the Public Service Journal. In the six months to March, 1949, the rate of recruitment was speeded ..p, and 1400 new members were registered. The journal gives a list of new members in each centre, showing that in a Dominion total of 2588 for the year, 1014 were, registered in Wellington.

Hope for Motorists An approach had been made to the Minister of Supply, Mr Nordmeyer. about the possibility of ending petrol rationing, said the president of the North Island Motor Union, Mr W. H. Brown, of Palmerston North, during a recent visit to Auckland. Mr Brown said the Minister had replied that, owing to the arrangements with the British Government about the use of dollars, this would not be possible at the moment. The Minister had, however, written to the British Government about it, and was just as keen as the union to see the rationing abolished. Rare Poker Hands

Routine or straight flushes are rare hands in poker, and generally spell trouble for the other players; but a Christchurch woman, sitting m on a poker game at a home in Riccarton drew two of them in unusual circumstances within a short time of each other. For the first she held fouc. cards and bought the three of clubs to the centre of a routine flush, making her hand ace, two, three, four, five. Three-quarters of an hour later she again bought for a routine flush with four cards. This time she bought the eight of diamonds to give her a jack-high flush in diamonds. Pakatoa Island For Sale

Pakatoa Island, one of the smallest but most attractive islands of the eastern Hauraki Gulf, is to be sold at auction. For 40 years it was used by the Salvation Army as the site of an inebriates’ home, but since 1943 it has provided a re.st and recreation centre for old people. Pakatoa was bought by the Salvation Army in 1907. For two years it served as an inebriates’ home for men. but when a larger establishment was established for this purpose on the adjoining Rotoroa Island, women inebriates were sent to Pakatoa. In 1943 it was decided that the home was no longer needed* Railway Station Refreshments

Members of the Christchurch branch of the National Council of Women at th'eir latest meeting expressed disappointment with the reply received from the Minister of Railways, Mr Semple, to the remit from the Dominion conference of the council asking that light refreshments be served on trolleys at railway stations to relieve the congestion in railway refreshment rooms. The Minister replied that the system of serving food on trolleys had been tried, but was so little used that he could not see his way to reintroduce it. Many members said they had never seen refreshments served by the Railways Department on trolleys, but one recalled that she had seen a trolley used once years ago. It was decided to ask the Dominion Executive to reopen the matter with the Minister.