More About Bottles

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 9, 23 December 1947, Page 5

More About Bottles

Serions Danger To Young Children “I wish you’d give them another sally up about these bottles,” said an Ohope resident to a Beacon representative yesterday. “They are a serious danger to young children. It will be recalled that not long ago the Medical Superintendent at the District Hospital, Dr Dawson, expressed the same opinion when discussing a series of accidents to young children caused through broken glass. Then it was that the Beacon took the responsibility of pointing out to the thoughtless that carelessness with empty bottles could have serious consequences, not so much to themselves as to other people’s children.

This newspaper is not concerned at the moment with the quantity of liquor anyone likes to take. The law covers that angle of the thing. But, if people must drink in cars, on roads, in parks and on beaches, it seems neither unreasonable nor “wowserish” to ask them to be careful where they throw the “dead marines.” One bottle on the open beach may not be dangerous. Two can be lethal.

All that is necessary is for a small child to smash one against the other and gash an artery with one of the pieces. It has happened; not here, fortunately. But it could happen here. However, it need not if the drinking public will play the game like sportsmen and stow the empties where they cannot hurt any one. The man who broached the subject again yesterday is a responsible citizen and no idle alarmist. He said there were far too many bottles lying around Ohope lately—on the beach, on footways used by barefooted children, even tossed in private gateways. He said he would be the last to want to deny any one a drop of ale, but he has young children about whose safety he has every right to be concerned.