DOG license dodgers kept Bromsgrove magistrates busy at the town's police court this week. Several of the eight who had been summonsed were labourers or smallholders who pleaded poverty, saying times were hard and what little cash they had could be put to better use. Magistrates told one offender, Arthur Sands, that if he was too poor to buy a license, he was too poor to own a dog.

THE Guardians at Bromsgrove's workhouse had agreed tenders for supplies for the coming year. Mr Smart would supply milk at 8d (3.5p) per gallon and Mr Bott large coffins 8/6 (42.5p) each, small 4/6 (22.5p). Mr Eades would supply four pound loaves for 4d (1.5p) apeice and Mr Carrington would shave and cut the paupers' hair for 3/6 (17.5p) per week.

THE main structure of the new county mental asylum at Barnsley Hall, in Bromsgrove, was now complete and all roofs were in place. The isolation hospital and chapel however, were still under construction. A tender for £6,455 for the entire electric light system for the hospital had been submitted by a Northamptonshire firm.

POLICE were keeping a sharp look out for the practical joker who had sounded the new electric fire alarm in Church Street, Bromsgrove, twice during the early hours of two mornings last week. The new system, which was set to come into use officially next week, would summon firefighters when the station was not manned. The first time several of the wires still had not been connected and only the team captain heeded the call. The Messenger observed that if the full crew had turned out and the horses to pull the engine obtained the service would have been put to a considerable and unnecessary expense.