‘Disgraceful scenes’ of Sunday drunkenness
The year 1879 saw Waikato courts busy. Pious times judged drinking anything beyond sacramental wine on the Sabbath a most reprehensible crime. Having been instrumental in the granting of a liquor licence to James Devlin, Te Awamutu magistrate H.W. Northcroft felt personally compromised by charges brought against the publican for selling four guests alcoholic beverages on a Sunday.
In Northcroft’s estimation, a second hotel in Te Awamutu was for the public good; in the opinion of his fellow commissioners, and the puritanical elements of the town, it led to “frequent cases of drunkenness on Sundays”.
Henry Lewis, owner of Te Awamutu’s other tavern, came before the bench on a similar charge but appealed his conviction.
George Mantello, pleaded guilty to being drunk on Sunday and to using “insulting language” to his arresting officer.
Mantello was additionally convicted of being a vagrant.
In nearby Kihikihi the alliteratively named William Williams and namesake William Burton, also men of no fixed abode, indulged in a bout of public fisticuffs whilst under the influence. Williams claimed to have no recollection of how the fight started or what it was about.
Burton offered to enlighten him and the court, requesting five minutes for the telling of the tale.
Sadly, Northcroft denied him the pleasure, fining each of the pugilists a pound.
The same Sunday saw another notorious Te Awamutuan “pest”, John Lucas, aka “Navvy Jack”, convicted for being drunk on the Sabbath. Although he pleaded not guilty, evidence suggested Lucas was so incapacitated that he had to be carried into a stable.
A despairing Northcroft concluded “that there was a great deal of drunkenness on Sunday carried on in all towns in the Waikato and that he was determined to put a stop to such disgraceful scenes”.
It is possible the magistrate had equally in mind the case of Thomas Simpson, another who put elbow bending before bible thumping,
in February of the same year. Simpson’s achievement was unique in that his bender ended on a Sunday afternoon in a paddock adjacent to the Hamilton court house. Seldom had crime and conviction enjoyed such convenient proximity.