CHRISTCHURCH.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3061, 6 December 1878, Page 2

CHRISTCHURCH.

Thursday

When passing sentence upon Hayman for indecency this morning, the magistrate said that the sentence would have been very much heavier but for the gcod character that had been given him, and that if after the expiration of the sentence he was again found guilty of such an abominable offence he would be punished with the utmost rigour of the law. The magistrate added that there was not a shadow of a doubt he had committed many other offences of a similar character, of which they had no evidence. Prisoner is a married man with several children. A correspondent in to-night's paper sets the late case of indecency to the unrestricted

license of photography, of magazines, and of entertainments. Speaking of two entertainments at the theatre, the same correspondent says the Word of God distinctly forbids a man to wear a woman's clothes, and yet it was not only done, but our youth go night after night to entertainments, concerning which Mr Hoskins so publicly said that the legitimate drama was expelled to make room for " little tights " and a soupcan of the cancan.

Another petition is being got up asking the city to take into their boundaries a considerable portion of the Avon and Heathcote districts.

At the first annual meeting of the Railway Employees Library this evening, it was stated that nearly £250 had been spent in books, &c, during the past year. It was resolved to apply to the commissioner for a better building than that which is now used for the library. The Minister of Public Works and Commissioner of fiailways are expected here from Dunedin, Oamaru, and Timaru by special train this evening. Great dissatisfaction is being shown by the various school committees at there being no allowance this year for prizes.