IS IT PUNISHABLE?

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 3 July 1919, Page 3

IS IT PUNISHABLE?

Assuming that the person or persons unknown, to adopt the police formula, who set the bonfire alight the other Sunday night is, or are, caught, what will he, or they, be charged with V — incendiarism, or wilful destruction of public property ? How W. S. Gilbert, of comic opera fame, would have revelled in the situation ! And if the culprit were fortunate enough to secure consel gifted with a sense of i humour I can quite understand what a lot of fun he would doubtless contrive to extract from the case. And what an opportunity he would have for a sarcastic " dig " at the Peace Celebrations Committee who are actually proposing not only to squander another £100 on this ridiculous bonfire, but to expend several more hundreds in street illuminations at a time when coal is in such short supply that the express trains between the capitals have ceased to run ! By the way, Mr Hudson, Mayor of Mt, Eden, appears to be convinced that the first bonfire was lit, not by larrikins, but by proGermans. Perhaps he is right— but if not, and larrikins really were resprnsible for the " outrage " how they must be enjoying the joke !