THE high cost of equipping a young female inmate at Bromsgrove workhouse in readiness for her transfer to live in a home for epileptics was raised by the institution's governing Guardians. Mr Brazier considered £5/7/0 (£5.35p) too dear. He complained spending 2/6 (12.5p) on such luxuries as a sponge when they could be bought for 1/- (5p) and a brush at 3d (1p) was "extravagance." The matron was ordered to watch such expenditure in future, especially the cost of sponges.

THE problems of speeding motorists was discussed by Bromsgrove Urban District Council, which had put its weight behind a national campaign aimed at maintaining the present speed limit. It called for drivers to be licensed and for vehicles to carry some form of identification. Councillor Newman declared manufacturers should be prohibited from making cars capable of travelling at more than 15mph.

WILLIAM Hodgkiss, a labourer from Little Catshill, was put on the Black List by magistrates at Bromsgrove Police Court after he had been convicted of drunkenness three times in as many weeks. The magistrates said fines, which he had failed to pay, were no deterrent and sentenced him to a month's hard labour at Worcester Jail.

THE scarlet fever epidemic, which had recently raged in Bromsgrove, appeared to be on the wane, the town's medical officer Dr Kidd noted in his monthly report. During June, only four cases were notified against 15 in May. Last month there had been 28 births and 16 deaths. Of these, six had been as a result of senile decay, two from heart disease, three due to kidney problems and two from tuberculosis.

LAST Friday, 100 navvies, engaged in building the new Barnsley Hall Asylum in Bromsgrove, went on strike for more pay. They wanted a halfpenny an hour rise to take the rate up to 5d (2p) an hour. The strike had been deliberately called at a time when there was plenty of casual work on the land. However, it may have backfired as bosses had been inundated with replies to adverts for replacement staff.