NEW YORK’S LATEST.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18443, 29 March 1922, Page 5

NEW YORK’S LATEST.

SURPRISE SPRUNG ON CITIZENS PUBLIC SMOKING BY WOMEN PROHIBITED. Received March 28, 9.50 p.m. NEW YORK, March 27. New York awoke this morning to find a new surprise awaiting it. The Board of Aidermen had passed and the Mayor signed, an ordinance, of which there is no record in official Hansard, prohibiting women smoking in public places. Women themselves can in no manner be punished if they violate the. ordinance, but the proprietor or the manager of the place where she smokes is subject to a fine of from five to twenty-five dollars or ten days’ gaol, or fine and gaol both. Newspapers made an attempt to communicate with various aidermen. Many of them declared that they had never heard of the ordinance. Finally, one aiderman admitted authorship. He said he and his wife had been shocked to see women smoking in restaurants. The police, upon going on duty, were all ordered to strictly enforce the ordinance. New York’s Latin quarter, called “Greenwich Village,’’ is raising a violent protest. Artist leaders are communicating their views to the newspapers, which give the ordinance great display.