To the Editor of the Nelson Evening Mail,

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 150, 25 June 1872, Page 2

To the Editor of the Nelson Evening Mail,

Sir, — It is now nearly fonr years since I torik charge of the Nelson street-lamps, and I think the .■ have ntver be. n so often broken and damaged as they have been of late, it is no unusual thing to find three glasses shot through at one shot, clever marksmen these, but -t don't pay me. A r.medy might soon t;e <ound in a cat-o'-nine-tails if we could only find out the sharpshooters, but there lays tbe difficulty to get evidence. Boys don't like to tell, arid grown-up people will not It is too bad al ogetber. It has cost me quite a pound during the present month for repairs done: why can't the«e horrid catapults be put down ? Will you kindly reprint the enclosed scrap from the Illustrated Times, it will show how lampsmashers are treated in the Old Country. — " A Costly " Lark." — At Hammersmith, on Tuesday, George Burlton, a respectably-dressed young man, was placed in the dock charged with wilfully breaking a public lamp in King-street West, Hammersmith, while in the company of a friend, at one o'clock in the morning. The prisoner said he threw his stick at his friend and it broke the ! amp. He called .Richard Tomlinson, who said that he did not know whether the prisoner threw tbe stick at him or the lamp, as he was in front of Mm. The evidence produced by the police proved that the prisoner broke the lamp with his stick wilfully. James Jones, foreman of lamplighters to the Brentford Gas Company, estimated the damage at 2s. He said that the smashing of street limps had again commenced. The practice ceased for a time after the last conviction at this court. During the last three months seventy panes of glass had been broken in the various lamps. Mr. Ingham inquired the total value of the seventy panes. The witness said £4 10s. Mr. Ingham then ordered the prisoner to pay 2s , the amount of the damage to the la mp, and a fine of J. 4 10s., and. in default, to be imprisoned for two months with hard labor." I am, &c, Lamplighter.