CHRISTCHURCH NEWS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 19156, 12 April 1932, Page 2

CHRISTCHURCH NEWS

T N AND ABOUT THE CITY. CHRISTCHURCH, April 11. Treating Fairy Rings: Fairy rings, which do so much to disfigure the lawns of the Botanical Gardens, are now receiving treatment by unemployed workers in the gardens. Many of the lawns were poisoned last year and the bare circles are being chipped and top-dressed with good clean soil so that the lawns next year should have a clean and even appearance. Cannot Buy School Books. “Many parents have been quite unable to find money for the purchase of school books,” said a city headmaster to a reporter to-day. “One can’t force people to buy books for their children and, although it makes the teacher’s job harder, we have to manage as best we can. Luckily there are often a number of second-hand books at the school which we distribute among the poorer children.” Reducing City Rates: The assertion that if the Christchurch City Council is able to make a further reduction of 12i per cent, in the general rate this year, on top of the 12J per cent, cut that was made last year, it will be doing very well indeed, is made by Councillor J. McCoombs, M.P., chairman of the Finance Committee of the City Council, in a statement to-day, in which he amplifies the comments he made on Saturday regarding the 25 per cent, cut in rates that has been mentioned as a possibility by Councillor J. W. Beanland, chairman of the Works Committee. Young Girl’s Folly. Supported by an officer of the Salvation Army, a 19-year-old girl, Molly McGuire, of Ireland, living at Springfield Road, pleaded guilty before Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court to-day, to a charge of attempting to commit suicide on March 29 by drinking disinfectant, and was ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within 12 months, with the proviso that she remain in the Salvation Army Home. Senior-Sergeant J. Fox said that accused was a single woman, and on March 12 last she rented a room in St. Albans. She frequently stayed out at nights, coming home early in the mornings. On two or three occasions she had been spoken to about her conduct, and the day before the offence was committed, her brother told her what he thought about her before some other people. This, and the fact that she had no employment, preyed on her mind, and she drank disinfectant in an endeavour to commit suicide. The landlady heard a noise from accused’s room and found her in a state of collapse, but she had since recovered. Raid on Chinese Quarters; Having gained an entrance, Constable Bell found himself in a dark' passageway, at the end of which was a heavy door, very heavily barred, in the raid on Chinese quarters last night. A glance showed him that it would be impossible for him to force his way through it, so he signalled for assistance from the other members of the party. Admittance was demanded, but the only reply to come from the other side of the door was much commotion and the rattling of tins. Unable to get through the door, the police resorted to an iron bar. and with this ripped a large hole in the wall of the passage. They then found themselves in a room in which were three of the accused. Much opium-smoking paraphernalia had been thrown on a fire, and the place reeked with opium smdke. An examination of the place showed that there were only two bunks in it, and the police discovered a clever device by which the doors could be controlled from this room. The pulling of a string opened one door and closed the other in the same movement, and the pulling of another string caused a heavy beam to drop into place and bar one of the doors. The windows were barricaded with wire staples, iron bars and wire netting, and one of the accused admitted that all this had been done to prevent the police from making an entn> ; - —-