Days of future past
Temperatures have been soaring of late. There can be no mistaking the effects of global warming.
Ninety years ago it was also a hot summer. Conditions in Auckland were sweltering. Two residents elected to take extreme action.
Back in 1929 a gentleman of 56 was considered old, if only by the wisecracking scribes of theNew Zealand
When one Edwin Lloyd decided that clothes were sans requirements the paper had no qualms about what our delicate 21st century sensitivities would undoubtedly label ‘‘body shaming’’.
‘‘Wearing nothing but a worried look’’, Lloyd paraded around the verandah of his Newmarket abode. A policeman duly arrived, ‘‘ . . . to tell Edwin that although flappers may discard their stockings before joining the big parade in Queen Street in the afternoon, men of 56 years of age may not stage a Garden of Eden scene on their own in full view of their neighbours’’.
Lloyd’s defence was flimsy. In court he later suggested that ‘‘perhaps’’ he had ‘‘been walking in his sleep’’. Unfortunately, the testimony of those who lived on adjacent properties proved more compelling. Lloyd’s habit of ‘‘drinking heavily’’ had been ‘‘a nuisance in the district’’ for some time.
Seaman Henry Jones, the second nudist, courted an audience. Disrobing on the Auckland wharf – throwing his ‘‘clothing to the four winds’’ – Jones then dove into the harbour. A powerful swimmer, he targeted various ferry boats.
As a large crowd gathered on the waterfront, police hired a launch and began high seas pursuit.
Jones proved both elusive and foul mouthed. One member of the constabulary observed that ‘‘he was swimming around among the ferry boats and the marvel is that he was not killed, but evidently it is impossible to drown him’’.
Attempts to forcibly remove Jones from the water resulted in a tirade of swearing and abuse.
Whilst Lloyd received a suspended sentence, Jones was convicted and fined four pounds, plus court costs. The Truth wryly concluded that ‘‘the treatment meted out to those two members of the No More Clothes League is hardly encouraging for the overheated city dweller who may have thought of such methods of keeping cool’’.