NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 June 1929, Page 5

NEWS AND NOTES.

SUED BY THE POLICE. A ’lost-and-foimd” advertisement led to an unusual action in the King’s Bench iDivision. DetectiveSergeant Joseph Smith, of Finchley, N.W., on the instructions of the Commissioner of Police, claimed as a common informer a penalty of £SO from Airs Mary Ruth Stevens, of Otklands Road, Cricklewood, N.W. This was in respect of an advertisement which Mrs Stevens inserted in a newspaper for the return of a Jost. attache case, and in which she stated, “No questions ff returned.” Mr Springman, for Detective-Sergeant Smith, said that Mrs Stevens used these words in spite of a warning from tho police, whom she notified of the loss of her attache case. The action was brought because of her defiant attitude. Mr Justice MacKinnon said that Mrs Stevens had done something which entitled any person to sue her for £SO. There was no defence to the action, and there would be . judgment for DetectiveSergeant Smith for £SO and costs. PSYCHIC IRRITATION. Describing an examination of a girl of twenty, who had been suffering from dermatitis contracted through French polishing, Dr W. D. O’Donnell, who is in charge of the skin department in London Hospital, stated, at Shoreditch County Court, that she was “affected and dramatic.” He claimed that she was no longer suffering from dermatitis, but bad injured herself by scratching. “Irritation is often of a psychic origin,” be explained. “She realises that she will have to work and will lose the pity of her friends when she gets better, and, lieTiTg an impressionable girl, she scratches.” Concerning the examination, witness remarked : “As she talked to me she cast her eves upwards. Throughout the interview she held her right hand in the air and waved it continuously. She wept while T talked to her.”