" BLACK MARIA" UP-TO-DATE.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 15 May 1919, Page 3

" BLACK MARIA" UP-TO-DATE.

The old black, box-like, horsedrawn vehicle which has conveyed so many prisoners from the police-station to Court, and from the Court to the goal, has disappeared, and its place has been taken by a spick-and-span motor-vehicle, not black, but French-grey in hue, so that "black Maria" is now a misnomer as applied to the new departure. Will the latter be known as the '" grey Maria "V — I wonder. And it would also be Interesting to know whether the passengers (some of them pretty regular ones !) will , approve of the new method of locomation. The grey Maria carries two ambulance stretchers, which will doubtless come in very handy in the event of an overturn or any little mishap of that kind. Mention of the new vehicle recalls a story told of the old one. The latter had just taken up its load of passengers,. on one occasion, after they had left the Police Court, when one of them — a lady —in the act of entering the van said, addressing the driver, in a mincing "' .society" voice, " home, John !"