LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 763, 21 July 1916, Page 11

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Superintendent of Polire ml v'imps that In- has received a letter froia a laih in Tasmania, regarding tier son. Thomas Alfred Biffin, whom she ln*i j hoard from in Christchurch in Poceni lit-r, 1914. He is L'it years of age about oft Sin tall, ami dark in romplexion. !Anyone who knows anything of Hiftia lis requested to eoniniunieate with the i polire. "This man lias been drinking ve.-y heavily," said the sub inspector, when iCeorgp Percy Stirling, who bore evident ! traces of prolonged over-indulgence, appeared before the .Magistrate's Court to I day fin a charge of drunkenness and a breach of a prohibition order. One pro--1 vious conviction of drunkenness had I been recorded against him within the 'last six months. The Magistrate declared the acensed an habitual inebriate, 'and committed him to Roto Roa for two ! years. Owing to the Lincoln College ; Club linding it necessary to withdraw from the competitions, the ; senior game, 'Varsity v. Lincoln J college, set down to be played I at Lancaster Park to-morrow, has been | cancelled. The competitions will be ■continued at Lancaster Park to-mor-row, when the following matches are set down to be played:—Marists v. High School Old Boys, Christchurch v. i Albion. The former game will be | played on the Oval, and a capital exihiljition of Rugby should result. Christ- > church will meet Albion on the South ground. The respectable neighbourhood of Papanui Road is, singularly enough, proving a lucrative hunting ground for the petty thief, and numerous complaints have recently been forthcoming from irate housewives touching the depredations of light-fingered prowlers. It is not safe, it seems, to leave anything outside the security of lock and key, either indoors or out-of-doors. During one lady's absence a considerable sum of money was abstracted from a little bag which was left in the supposedly safe confines of a room, while a 501b bag of flour mysteriously disappeared from a doorstep in the same locality in an incredibly' short space of time. The moral is: Don't leave things about, even if you do live in Papanui Road.

In the House of Representatives on Wednesday Mr P. C. Webb (Grey) asked the Postmaster-General whether he was aware that the Post and Telegraph Association, acting in conjunction with the Public Service Association, was taking the Public Service Commissioner into the Supreme Court on 2S causes of action, and whether he was aware that the 28 points in dispute had been caused unnecessarily by the Public Service Mr Webb also asked the Postmaster-General if he would endeavour to induce the Public Service Commissioner to administer the Act in a broad manner and to avoid litigation and waste of public money by Court actions. The Right Hon. Sir Joseph Ward replied that he had ascertained from the Public Service Commissioner that several questions concerning the interpretation of the Public Service Act and Regulations, with a number of consequential questions, had been asked. The matter being sub judice it would not be proper to refer to them at present.