WANGANUI JOTTINGS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1708, 27 March 1913, Page 3

WANGANUI JOTTINGS.

(By Telegraph.—Special Correspondent.) >. Wanganui, llarck 2G. The promoters of the Saturday halfholiday movement are working' very hard to sccure a change from Thursday. Seven hundred names were required on the petition asking for a poll, bat, as it is, over 1300 have signed, and several lists have still to come in. The movement is also lwing pushed strongly in other,towns up and down the coast. . Householders in the town and suburbs are very uneasy' over a series of petty burglaries which have been going on for some time. Gonville and Wanganui Kast residents in particular have suffered, but not the -slightest trace of tlie thief_ has been found. 'A boy was seen hurriedly leaving a house which'had been ransacked, but he left no clue behind. There is, however, evidently more than one individual at work. The failure of tlie police in the matter moves the "Herald' to say; "This housebreaking and these pettythefts, together with other matters, such, for instance, as the great increase in street betting which is carried on m tho most glaring and open way, indicate the need for strengthening the local police force. Either it is under-staffed .or its members-do not exorcise thq vigilance and activity which -the public have a right to expect from tho preservers of . law and order. The latter should be men of activity and intelligence, and with a degree of initiative, and it is regrettable the public should have occasion to feel great uneasiness over'these matters."