NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 May 1929, Page 6

NEWS AND NOTES.

WAGGING TONGUES. A letter read at an inquest at Richmond Surrey) suggested that a gill had committed suicide in order to stop “wagging tongues.” The subject of the inquiry, Florence Ivy Alackay (19), °1 Parkshot, Richmond, was found dead at het - home with her head in a gas oven. In a letter to her mother she wrote: “Dear Mum—Please forgive me for the terrible tiling 1 am about to do, hut tilings which and a few of her boy friends have said about me make me feel I am not fit to mix with respectable people. So I am going to put a stop to wagging tongues, and hope it will do them good. There was never a happier girl than myself before this business.” A verdict of suicide while temporarily insane was returned. SAILORS’ CURIOS. The railway Tavern in the West India Dock Road, familiarly known to seamen the world over as “Charlie Brown’s,” possesses a unique museum of curios taken there by sailors during forty years past. There are gods and goddesses in jade and porcelain and wood; wonderful ivory caskets, armour, rugs, weapons of war, statuettes, and dozens of vases, some of great rarity and beauty.. There is also a very fine reproduction of one of Michael Angelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes hanging in the saloon bar; but the gem of the collection, preserved in an upstairs room, is an inlaid Florentine cabinet, believed t 0 be unique. The visitors’ book contains the autographs of royal and other distinguished personages whose names are household words both in England and America. BATHING DRESS ban. A munition that women may only wear regulation bathing costumes of r dark colour has been carried by Ilford Corporation Parks Committee. This put a ban on two-piece bathing costumes hitherto worn by some women when swimming in the Valentines Park swimming pool. The question of the two-piece costume was much debated last summer, hut despite the criticism it. popular with women. The objection to it is chiefly on account of tne material, which becomes transparent when the bathers have been in the water, whilst the tendency for the two pieces to become detached has caused some municipal authorities to Iran what they deem to he an improper dress. EXTRAVAGANCE PROTEST. What lie described as “extreme extravagance” at the workhouse was the subject of a complaint by Mr *l. Shields, chairman of the Sharlow (Derbyshire) Board of Guardians at their meeting. Air Shields declared that the place might ho the residence J of a millionaire, judging hv the evidence of high living. In a tour of inspection he had seen large quantities of legs of mutton, oranges, beer, stout brandy and the best butter. Some of the inmates were allowed two bottles of beer a day. He saw only two men at work, one of whom was a imbecile; all the rest were sitting around great tires. Mr R. Conoastor. vice-chairman denied that bottles of beer or legs of mutton were served out to the ablebodied inmates. The butter was for the use of the officers. The hoard agreed that inquiry should ho made.