THE DOG BECKHAM.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 72, 27 March 1877, Page 3

THE DOG BECKHAM.

A correspondent to a Victorian paper relates an anecdote relating to the late Resident Magistrate of Auckland, Captain Beckham, who died last year:—" I remember a dog in Auckland that nearly sent Captain Beckham mad. There was a certain butcher whose shop was in Queenstreet, through which thoroughfare, it was necessary that the Captain should pass every morning on his way to his office. Well, this butcher was a bully aud fighting man, and was constantly before, the R.M. In revenge for the severe punishments which the beak inflicted upon him, named Beckham—to lie in the middle of the street at the particular time at which the Police Magistrate passed up to his duties; then, just as the man Beckham approached, this butcher would stand in front of his shop, and blaspheme at the dog Beckham. 4 Now, you dog, Beckham, what are you doing there, lying in the street yer? Come in you old cuss; come in, you old cuss; come in, you old loafer, until I polish your wicked ribs. A dog! you ain't half a dog; you'er only an imitation; and so he went on. The poor magistrate, who had to submit to this sort of thing every day, at last caused a path to be cut down Barrack Hill, in order to avoid the nuisance. He had the consolation afterwards, however, of committing his tormentor for trial for murder, and the further consolation of knowing that he was well and skilfully hanged."