If you do not like them dancing you must find something else that is going to be a substitute for it. If every other girl is dancing today and you don’t want them to do it, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to send them home and tell them to sew? That is all right, but all the girls they are working with are dancing, and it is very hard for them. Clean, wholesome, healthy dancing I advocate and allowed my girls to do it with no bad consequences. But if this thing is wrong you must find a substitute and find it quickly." These vigorous sentiments, a little daring considering the company in which they were uttered, met with restrained but quite definite applause.
The cost of living
The Government Statistician reports in the Monthly Abstract of Statistics that the index number for the three food groups as at September 15 was 1549, an increase of 19 points as compared with that for the previous month, and an increase of 44.77 per cent, as compared with that for July, 1914. Decreases in a number of minor items were responsible for a fall of 9 points in the groceries group. A considerable decrease in the price of eggs in all towns was the main cause of a fall of 19 points in the dairy products group. The index number for the meat group rose 82 points.
Armistice Day arrangements
The Dunedin Presbytery decided at its meeting yesterday to co-operate in the arrangements for the suitable observance of Armistice Day, which will fall on a Sunday this year (November 11). In order that the customary two minutes’ silence may be observed at 11am, the morning services in the churches within the bounds of the Presbytery will be commenced at 10.45, a quarter of an hour earlier than usual.
Fire in a fowlhouse
The City Fire Brigade received a call at 10:24 last night to a poultry farm at 13 Malvern street, where an outbreak of fire had occurred in a fowlhouse. The brigade was quickly on the scene and extinguished the blaze before any serious damage was done. Twenty chickens, which were in the building, were suffocated by the heat. The fowlhouse, which was owned by Mrs Thomson, was not insured.This is the third outbreak that has taken place under similar circumstances since October 25.
A policeman’s lot
A policeman is not often allowed the privilege of serving himself with a summons but, on the wild West Coast, it has been done. John Rogers, in addition to controlling the police station at Brunner, is something of a farmer. Two of his sheep had been found straying on the railway line, a heinous offence, for which he had to answer in the court. Having served himself with a blue paper, he blithely stepped into the dock and answered to the charge. “Is that the whole of the flock?" asked Mr W.S. Meldrum, S.M., of the smiling offender. The magistrate lost his accustomed gravity, the clerk of the court his usual dignity, and the six policemen, who happened to be in attendance, were unable to control themselves. The irresistible cheer germ attacked everyone. A fine of 5s ended the proceedings.
— ODT, 7.11.1923
