LOITERING IN DEVON STREET.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 183, 9 January 1912, Page 2

LOITERING IN DEVON STREET.

To the Editor. . Sir,—l noticed in Saturday's issue of the Daily News that a man was before the Court on,a charge of lowering on footpath. I think' it is l - high, time that something was done in, this matter, as you cannot go into town any day of the week but you find a, lot of people loitering on tbe footpath. Every time a person goes past the principal hotels he meets a crowd of loitering men, whose language about their respective luck is not always in the best taste for the general public to overhear. If the police would tell these people to move on they would do a huge amount of good. Then before the big drapery establishirients one will often meet two! or three women with perambulators blocking the traffic. Such a state of affairs as this would not be allowed in any of the big centres. Then again "you will find the Maoris sitting about in front of business premises on the main street. If the Maoris must have their social talk—and I'm sure I would not try to do them out of it — there is the esplanade, where they could go, and there is better seating accommodation there than the footpaths; and they could talk away to their hearts' content without people passing remarks about them. I can't make out how the business people do not complain about it, but I think what a friend told me must be perfectly true, that the people up here are such a happy-go-lucky sort that nothing seems to trouble them. I think it is high time that such a deplorable state of affairs was put an «nd to,, and I am pleased to note that Constable Egan has started the New Year in the best possible manner. So wishing him a happy New Year,—l am, etc., NEW ARRIVAL. Bell Block, 7/1/12.