Just another day at the courthouse
Palmerston North was a respectable town by 1921, but it still had its dark side - such as the man fined five shillings for riding his bike at night without a light.
Back in the 1890s, so the story goes, Constable William Manning was approached by a workman with a problem.
‘‘There’s a drunken woman who keeps on annoying me,’’ he said.
The policeman and the workman set off together to where the man had been working near the old, small post office building on The Square in Palmerston North.
What they found there, according to the late police historian Ray
Carter, and incorporated into
Mervyn Dykes’ 2014 book Scoundrels and Scallywags, was ‘‘a great big woman, drunk as a skunk.’’
Since she proved uncooperative, the two men bundled her into the workman’s wheelbarrow and trundled her to the police station where she could sleep off her binge.
But by 1921, such public decadencewas rare: Palmerston North had become a respectable town. Its residents lived neighbourly, churchgoing lives.
On Saturday, May 7, a reunion of Boer War veterans was advertised, to take place that coming week at 9 Ranfurly St, while the Showgrounds buildings and both grandstands had been repainted ready for the eagerly-anticipated winter Show.
However, Palmerston north still had its share of shady characters doing what they shouldn’t.
Sometimes they provided a bit of comic relief for both police and readers of the local newspapers, the Standard, the Manawatu¯ Daily
Times and Foxton’s Manawatu¯ Herald. The Herald of May 7, 1921, reported: ‘Recently, two youths who were driving a lightless vehicle across a bridge in Ashburton were bailed up by a pseudo-traffic inspector on horseback who proceeded to take their names. The masquerader, however, declared he would let the delinquents off for a payment of 10 shillings, and five shillings for his hire of the horse to pursue them [as he had seen the lads leave the stables and had to hire the horse].
‘‘Themoney was paid over – and now the father of the two youths is busy on the lookout for the so-called inspector to square accounts.’’
On the same day, in news from Christchurch, the Herald recounted what it called a ‘‘serio-comedy of quite conventional movie style’’.
This unfolded before Mr V. G. Day, SM, in the Christchurch juvenile court.
‘‘The dramatis personae consisted of two boys, two aged 11 and one aged 15. The three waylaid a lad laden with a basket of groceries and, while two held their victim’s hands, the third went through the groceries and extracted such articles as appealed to the desire of the robbers. The crowning outrage was the destroying of the basket. The offenders were prohibited from attending amusements for 12 months.’’
Then there were the traffic offenders.
On May 9, Charles Turner of Palmerston North, was fined £1 and two shillings costs for failing to drive as near as practicable on the left side of the road. Herbert Knowles was fined five shillings and two shillings costs for riding a bicycle at nightwithout a light, and Victor E. Hudson was outed for riding his bike on the footpath, and fined five shillings.
The same day, several others were named and fined for traffic infractions: nine men and awoman for having their cars or bicycles ‘‘insufficiently lighted’’, one man for leaving his car unattended formore than 10 minutes and a large fine of 10 shillings and seven shillings costs to Frederick Sykes, who had left his horse and vehicle unattended in
Rangitı¯kei St. Men could be ‘‘had up’’ as it was termed, for failing to attend drill parades as required by the Defence Act. Three such men were fined £2, with seven shillings costs.
Failing to provide maintenance for children was also frowned upon, although it was a fairly common theme in the courtroom. On May 9, one man’s arrears amounted to whatwas a hefty sum in 1921 – £127.15.8d.
When a landlord was charged with using indecent language to his tenants, amother and her small daughter, ‘‘Mr Ongley submitted that the language used was not indecent, but it might be insulting’’.
But the Manawatu¯ Times reporter wrote: ‘‘His Worship held there was enough evidence that the language was in fact indecent.’’
The cases from this one daywent on and on. The theft of an overcoat, the breaking of a window, discharging firearms from a railway carriage, rent arrears, false pretences, alleged receipt of stolen goods, alleged breaking and entering and divorce petitions.
On Thursdaymay 5, the ‘‘intoxicated’’ Bert Charles Bergersen finished his steak and onions inmain St’s Premier Cafe, then according to the Manawatu¯
Times, ‘‘dashed the plate to the floor. The proprietor remonstrated with him and ordered him out, but Bergersenwouldn’t budge, and promptly broke a glass panel in the door. The proprietor ... then called his wife over tomake an appeal.
‘‘She was met, however, with a tornado of abusive and obscene language ... The arrival of a police constable restored peace to the establishment and removed Bergersen to the lock-up.’’
He appeared in court on Friday, vowing he couldn’t remember a thing and that the whiskeys he’d drunk ‘‘must have gone to his head’’. Senior Sergeant Fraser pointed out that he’d been convicted before for illegally supplying liquor in Ormondville. Bergersen ended up paying for the broken glass and parting with a £5 fine.
And the law-abiding readers could fold up the newspaper and give thanks for their uncomplicated lives.
On Thursday May 5, 1921 the ‘‘intoxicated’’ Bert Charles Bergersen finished his steak and onions in Main St’s Premier Cafe, then ‘‘dashed the plate to the floor.’’ Manawatu¯ Times report